Solving The Organic Reach Challenge: Part 1

No you're not imagining things... there just really aren't a lot of people that are seeing your Facebook posts. It's like every time you click "POST", Facebook is saying "shhhhh". Well, this is all because of declining organic reach. To learn more about what organic reach is, click here. In this post, we'll examine why organic reach is disappearing (and in the second part of this TOP 11 Series List, we'll see how you can improve your organic reach).

1 - TOO MANY POSTS IN THE NEWS FEED
Facebook needs users to have a good experience because user experience translates directly into $$$. A Facebook study found that 1,500 posts appear in the average user's feed daily, with that number approaching 15,000 for very active users. Because Facebook's goal is to show engaging content, all posts are not created equal. As we often say, CONTENT IS KING. The News Feed sorting algorithm, EdgeRank, analyzes over 100,000 indicators, so everyone has to earn their spot in the feed of users.

2 - POOR ENGAGEMENT TORPEDOS YOUR REACH
EdgeRank has tracked the decline of organic reach. 16% in 2012, 10% in 2013, 6% in 2014, and now 2-4% in 2016. Brands that struggle to connect with their audience have been hit the hardest.

3 - LARGER BRANDS HAVE LOWEST REACH
Many brands still maintain a reach of 4% (even better in some instances), but for pages with 500k+ likes, 2% organic reach is the norm. Some Facebook sources have even unofficially advised some managers to expect that reach to approach 0%.

4 - PAY TO PLAY
Advertising is Facebook's primary source of revenue, and not surprisingly the rate of organic reach is inversely related to the stock price of the company. Some brands simply haven't made the jump to paying to increase reach, so their reach has suffered.

5 - CONTENT IS KING
Socialbakers analyzed over 4,000 brand pages and nearly 700,000 posts, finding that video is the most effective way to reach audience. In the best circumstances, video's organic reach can approach 8.7%, followed by Links and Text Only posts at 5.3% and 5.8% respectively. At Level 11, we use video for many clients and have seen incredible success from it in terms of ROI. Learn more about that here and here.

6 - RELEVANCE TO YOUR TARGET
A case study for Castrol Motorcycle Oil measured a social media campaign. The first phase relied totally on organic reach for six months. It delivered 5,000 fans, 26,000 social interactions and a reach of 2.7 million. However, only 20% of those fans were located in the US. The next phase incorporated paid reach, and this time added 36,000 new fans, half of which were in the US, while reach hit 14 million. The content was the same - tailored to a specific audience - but the paid reach was focused on North America, which made all the difference.

​To finish this TOP 11 Series List, go HERE to learn about how to increase your organic reach on Facebook!


About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo.  We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization.  Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!