Posting on Facebook is easy right? You send an update and off it goes into the world of Facebook and your fans will see it, simple as that, right? Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's a whole lot more complicated than that!
Facebook is controlled by a specific code, which dictates who sees what and when. Simply sending a post is not good enough any more. With around 300,000 Facebook updates shared every minute you need to do everything you can to give your post the best possible chance of being seen.
So how do you give your posts the best chance? Here are just a few practical tips to help.
Timing is vital. Posting at the best time of day is key. Facebook gives you great insights into your fans and what they are up to. In your Page insights, simply look under the Posts tab and all the information you need is there, broken down into days and a weekly average. From here you can easily see when most of your fans are online and as such the best time of day to post.
Do not forget to post. Facebook wants you to be social and share information, so the less you post, the lower your reach will become, it’s Facebook’s way of punishing you. But don’t panic, there are lots of options depending on your number of fans. Posting every few days is fine, especially if you only have a few hundred fans. Focus on good quality posts and content you know will get interaction. As your fan numbers grow you can start to post more, but remember not to get over excited and flood news feed! Keep it at a natural level, one or two posts a day between 5 and 7 days a week, and make sure you're posting good quality content.
Do not over post. Over posting on Facebook means one of two things will happen. One, you will flood news feed, annoying your fans and causing them to either stop interacting or unlike your Page all together. Or two, Facebook will limit the amount of posts seen. Facebook wants quality likeable content and if you share something every 5 minutes, there’s a good chance some of those posts will be rubbish, so Facebook restricts the amount of your posts seen by your fans. We recommend a maximum of two posts a day and spacing them out as much as possible. This gives your posts time to grow, be seen and interacted with.
Facebook is a fabulous tool for connecting you to your customers and fantastic for building communities, it takes time and energy to bring the benefits but is well worth it when you get the formula right.
