FACEBOOK: THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC LIKES AND HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR REACH!

Last month we were very proud to have reached over 1,000 likes on Facebook, and the important part is that all of them were organic likes, as Manifesto Design has never paid for followers (i.e. bought likes).

Why does this matter? Because whilst having 10,000 likes may well make your business look popular, it is important to remember the ‘social’ in social media. After all, social media is all about engagement, and having a large number of generic and distant followers isn’t what it takes to make your social media work for your business. This is an issue we see a lot of here in Marbella and a question we often get asked is “My business page has 2,000 likes, but our posts are not reaching very many people or receiving interaction, why?”

A Facebook ‘like’ should represent a person showing an interest in your business, product or service, and theoretically be someone who could turn into a potential customer or client. When thinking about your social media business profile, it is important to ask yourself just how many of your current ‘likes’ are organic likes? How many have/will turn into potential customers or clients? And are any of them even interested in what you are saying? If the answer to these questions is NO then your current social media strategy is wasting your time, effort and money, and most definitely needs some help!

The above are all very important factors when it comes to that all-important ‘reach’, which is defined by how many people see your posts in their news feed. You might have noticed that it is becoming more and more difficult to reach a large proportion of your audience with your daily posts? For example, you might have 2,000 likes but that does not necessarily mean that you are reaching all of these followers on a daily basis.

Why is this? Well, one of the main aspects that determine your organic reach is engagement to your posts (comments, likes, loves and shares) on the content that you are posting. If your page has little engagement you will find it harder and harder to reach your Facebook audience, especially if you have a large number of followers on your page. This is because Facebook’s algorithm picks up the lack of response from your followers and penalises pages that have a large fan following with little engagement.

People are far more likely to engage with your brand on social media if they are actually interested in your business and the content that you are sharing, so rather than spending money buying followers it’s important to think about how you can attract followers who actually like you. One way of doing so is to advertise – advertising differs from buying likes in that ‘Facebook adverts’ allow you to target a specific audience via demographic location and interest, allowing you to promote your business to those who have specifically shown an interest in your brand/service/product and who live in your local area for example.

Of course, there are many other ways of gaining organic likes to your page, such as offering competitions, including a link to your page in your company email signature, and adding a Facebook icon to your website and your blog.

Something many people seem to forget is that Facebook can be a very powerful marketing tool when used correctly. It allows you to keep your existing customers and new leads warm in a friendly and informative way; therefore it is essential to the success of your social media marketing strategy that it is implemented correctly.

Organic likes and reach reflects on many factors, including the type of content you post, the time you post it at and how many times you post per day (hint: less is more). If you would like more information or help with your social media marketing strategy, contact us today and one of our social media specialists will be happy to help you!

-Rhea Craib-