Tim_Bosch_White_Paper_2014 - Copy

How to Reclaim Your Reach
in the Facebook News Feed
by Tim Bosch

Introduction
When one hears the words “social media,” Facebook is among the first networks that comes to mind. As the world’s
largest network with over 1.3 billion active users, Facebook outshines the competition.
How to Reclaim Your Reach in the Facebook News Feed
But something else sets Facebook apart from other social networks - the complex manner in which content reaches a
user. Twitter and Instagram, for instance, showcase content chronologically. An organic post from a brand will hold the
same value as content from personal accounts. With Facebook, this is far from true.
Over the past year, algorithm changes along with competitive factors have led many pages to see a sharp decline in
organic reach. This whitepaper explores a primary social media marketing concern:
How can a brand maximize its Facebook
presence, considering the most recent changes
to the News Feed?
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http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/facebook-grows-beyond-social-media-advertising-into-its-own-category/
Facebook by the numbers1
:
1.3 billion active global users
per month dwarfs any channel in recorded history.
(Facebook)
11% of desktop web time
is spent on Facebook, making it the largest in the
world. (Comscore)
Facebook was 10% of all
referral traffic
to major publishers. (Shareaholic)
Facebook is the number 2
video website
online. (Comscore)
1 in 5 minutes on a mobile device
is spent on the Facebook app.

How The Facebook News Feed Algorithm Works
Facebook’s News Feed algorithm is designed (and constantly being updated) to best curate the colossal amount of
content from your friends and the organizations you connect with. Every change to the News Feed algorithm will be
to make an enhanced experience for Facebook’s most important customer, the user.
When Facebook was in its infancy, it told us there were three variables that order News Feed content—affinity,
weight, and time decay. Now, according to Facebook, there are over 100,000 variables in play that prioritize the News
Feed. This makes the News Feed impossible to “game.” However, here are five variables that clearly play a huge role
in organic post reach:
Timing
While the News Feed isn’t entirely chronological, timing plays a huge factor. Consider the first hour key.
Post when your fans are likely to see and engage with your content in order to give it longer life in the
News Feed.
Total Number of “Super-Fans”
If you have users who are consistently engaging with your posts, you will always reach them organically.
These people are why your organic reach will never be zero. This group of “super-fans” is important. If you
have a post that fails to get them to engage, you can be sure the algorithm takes note.
1
Velocity of Engagement
It’s no secret that positive engagement and reach are directly related. When a post gets a lot of
engagement right away, you will be rewarded with a lift in reach.2
3

Negative Feedback
When a user hides or reports a post, that tells the News Feed to display less of that content in the future.
Type of Post
There could be some people who have never clicked on a link, commented on a text post, or even watched
a video on Facebook. These people are going to be tough to reach organically with these types of posts.
Every day, the News Feed is capable of showing a user an
average of 1,500 potential stories, but the network only prioritizes
about 300 of these posts. Therefore, it’s essential that marketers
know which posting tactics will keep a brand in users’ feeds.
4
5
How The Facebook News Feed Algorithm Works

Text Updates Devalued in the News Feed
Previously, text updates reached a higher number of people than other formats. Those days are over. Marketers
abused this tactic by creating unengaging text-based statuses. Typically these posts weren’t stimulating to the user
the way a photo or video often is. Most of the time marketers used text updates with a link in attempt to garner
link clicks from the high reach of the post. For example, marketers have been so concerned with reach that they
have posted links within text-based statuses like this….
Instead of as an actual link post like this…
Facebook has responded to this by devaluing text updates, encouraging marketers to post links more appropriately.
It’s a perfect example of how Facebook is constantly improving its algorithm to weed out spam-like, non-engaging
content.

Facebook opened the News Feed to advertisers in late 2012. Along with unlocking Facebook’s lucrative mobile user base,
the News Feed ended up getting, on average, 44 times a better click through rate than on the sidebar. The Facebook News
Feed has since become the darling of digital advertising. Recently, Facebook pulled ahead of Google in U.S. digital display
revenues. As any experienced Facebook marketer will tell you, the Facebook News Feed is very effective at driving user
action.
Facebook has matured into a paid channel, and should be treated as such. If you haven’t been using Facebook advertising,
you’ve been missing out on the most exciting targeting opportunity since search. Want to drive new customers? How
about excluding all of your customers (via email) and then retargeting non-customer webpage visitors who like your
competitors Facebook pages? The possibility to target users at every level of the marketing funnel exists on Facebook—
but you have to pay.
News Feed Advertising

How to Get Your Reach Back
Start building a highly qualified audience.
With the drop in organic reach, it’s difficult to justify an ad spend for getting page
likes. Even still, devoting some budget to growing a highly qualified fan-base is
critical if your organic reach is low. Facebook has made it easy for advertisers to
convert your best customers as fans with the arrival of custom audiences. Your
total organic reach is still tied to your potential reach (i.e. your fanbase). Invest in
building a community of real customers and prospects and you will see your reach
start to climb.
Create content that your fans really care about.
Your visibility in the News Feed depends on engagement like never before. Answer the question: What does your
audience care about? One of the best ways to rise above the noise is to post about something topical that doesn’t stray
too far away from your voice (e.g. Opening Day Baseball, The Oscars, St. Patrick’s Day). Use Facebook’s native tools like
Graph Search & Ads Manager to better understand your fans’ interests and behaviors. These posts should encourage
engagement (likes, shares, comments) that will prime your fans for future conversions.
Promote posts to your fan base.
Post promotion:
• Helps a brand receive lower Cost Per Engagement (CPE) for creative efforts.
• Increases a brand’s average organic reach over time. The more fans engage with a post,
the more connected they become to that page.
• Guarantees a post won’t get buried in the News Feed. If a brand has an important event
or a product launch, promotion ensures reach.
Promote

Simply stated: focus on quality content and stop chasing the algorithm.
Facebook’s ultimate goal with the News Feed is to deliver users with the best
content — thus, creating amazing content should always be your first priority.
How to Get Your Reach Back (continued)
Pay attention to negative feedback in Facebook Insights.
One of the biggest changes to the News Feed algorithm is an increase in weight of
negative feedback (found in Facebook Insights). It’s imperative to understand and monitor
it. Pages receiving high levels of Negative Feedback have suffered a significant decrease
in reach. Use the negative feedback to help you determine what type of content doesn’t
resonate with your community, and apply that thinking when you plan future content.
Use Facebook’s new Call-to-Action buttons.
Fact: users are more likely to act when they
are prompted to do so. As a result, advertisers
always make sure that their copy, or image
includes a call-to-action. Facebook’s native
call-to-action button alleviates the stress of
putting these CTAs within the image allowing
greater creative freedom.
Use the right type of creative based on your objectives.
If you want to drive web-traffic, use a link share post. If you have a beautiful share-
worthy photo, share a photo. YouTube links look weak in the News Feed compared to
Facebook video, so upload great (short) videos that your fans will enjoy. Use text-only
posts wisely and sparingly. A highly relevant question is often best served as a text
update. The key is to diversify our content and not rely too heavily on one type of
post.
Focus on video, photos, and link posts.
Reduce text-only posts. Always remember to be brief and visual. Think
“more images more and less words” on social media. For photo posts and
link posts, you should create content that is visually compelling with
copy that’s short and sweet.

Is reach the most important metric?
Facebook convinces you that reach is the most important metric by positioning it as the center of attention in reporting.
Other social networks don’t provide any kind of reach metric. Only Facebook provides that data. Other social networks
provide nothing close to the scope of information Facebook gives back to marketers.
But since marketers have been conditioned by Facebook to pay close attention to their reach, they over-scrutinize it.
There’s no doubt that Facebook organic reach has dropped. However, many brands that have always had high engagement
have seen little difference in organic reach. This is because reach is directly correlated to positive engagement. If you
were a marketer who focused on reach over engagement, you likely invested time in gaming the News Feed for maximum
reach instead of investing that energy in creating beautiful engaging content.
So what’s more important – engagement or reach? The answer is both. However, as the News Feed improves (for the
consumer), organic reach will be a result of how much engagement it receives. Besides reach and general engagement, I
believe it’s time for us to focus on metrics that have stronger ties to business goals (e.g. post shares, link clicks, website
traffic, leads, sales and video views).
Some marketers think it’s time to revolt against Facebook. I stress caution. Look at your numbers. Look well beyond
reach. If you’re not using Facebook ads to support your presence, you need to rethink your approach. Commit to fully
understanding the Facebook ecosystem and what an effective strategy looks like. If you do, you will reap the benefits.
We would love to hear your feedback.
Tweet us @LikeableMedia, post on our Facebook page
(fb.com/likeablemedia), or email marketing@likeable.com.

Likeable Media is an award-winning, global social media marketing firm with a focus
on creating compelling content. Likeable Media has worked with over 200 brands and
is the only agency to win three consecutive WOMMY awards from the Word of Mouth
Marketing Association (WOMMA). In 2013, Likeable Media was named one of the Top 50
Fastest-Growing Women-Owned Businesses by WPO and American Express OPEN and
the 6th “Best Place to Work in New York City” by Crain’s New York Business. For more
information, visit likeable.com.
Tim Bosch is a veteran of Social Media Marketing. Since becoming the Director
of Media Planning at Likeable, Bosch has planned and executed social media
advertising spends for over 75 ad accounts ranging from Fortune 500 clients to
SMBs. Since taking this role, he has increased the return on investment for social
ad spends by 100%. Whether increasing awareness for a new TV show, driving
e-commerce, or generating leads for franchise development, Bosch has a knack
finding an ad solution that will exceed expectations.
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