Facebook Reach

What is Reach on Facebook?

Reach is the number of people your posts have reached, plus any likes, comments, or shares. There are three types of reach on Facebook; Organic, Paid, and Total Reach. Organic is the total number of unique people who were shown your post via unpaid distribution. Paid Reach is just as it sounds; the total number of unique people who were shown your post as a result of ads. Finally, Total Reach is the number of unique people who saw your posts regardless of how they discovered it. Furthermore, it is possible to be more than one type of reach. If someone discovers your ad organically, then statistically, they will be included in organic reach, paid reach, and total reach.

Why Is Organic Reach On Facebook Declining?

There are two main reasons:

1. More and more content created and shared each and every day. The process to create and share information is easier than ever thanks to Facebook and social media platform integration. You can now take a picture and simultaneously post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Businesses are learning that in order to succeed and generate more reach they need some kind of online presence. In order to remain competitive, businesses must constantly be posting. Therefore newsfeeds are being flooded with new stories and content. The result is that it's significantly harder to gain decent exposure in the newsfeed today. According to TechCrunch, the total number of page likes by Facebook users grew more than 50 percent last year, meaning that competition for news feed placement is only going to intensify.
2. The second reason is based on how the newsfeed actually works. Instead of simply showing Facebook users all the possible content that is posted, it is designed to show users material that is relevant and related to their own unique interests. Facebook must sift through the 1500+ stories that are posted at any moment, and only display relevant content to each user. The algorithm narrows the number of stories and content down from 1500 to 300 and displays which stories each user will see. It also ranks each piece of content by examining different factors relevant to each Facebook user such as past likes, views, or comments.

Five Ways To Increase Your Organic Reach On Facebook

1. Publish evergreen content- the lifespan of a Facebook post is dependent on many factors, but one of the most important factors is its usefulness. Old posts can still show up in your news feed depending on how users like, comment, or share it
2. Post quality content, but less often- you don't need to post high volume to get awareness and attention. Work smarter by posting quality content, a few times a day
3. Use organic post targeting to serve relevant content- organic post targeting allows you to deliver your content to the audience which is most likely to engage with it. Therefore, Facebook allows you to target your content to very specific groups of users. The eight classes of targeting are gender, relationship, education, age, location, language, interests and post end date
4. post at off-peak hours- your best chance to be noticed is when fewer people are sharing content. Track your competitors and plan accordingly
5. Choose content types that resonate with your audience- does your target market prefer video, text, links, or images. Study them closely and adapt your strategy to best reach them

Facebook is also constantly looking to improve their algorithm so that better, custom tailored, more relevant information is displayed to each user. They want to show higher quality content as well as reduce the amount of news feed spam that companies are posting simply to increase their reach and awareness. If you pay attention to the new updates and changes Facebook is making, you can stay a step ahead of the competition.