This mega article will act as a guide to show you why your posts aren’t showing up to your fans, and how to combat that to get great exposure again. We will focus mainly on Facebook, but these principles apply to all Social Media channels.
We will look at:
There are so many urgent things that pop up during the day. Calls with clients, issues with suppliers, staff changeovers.
As a business owner, these are things that need your immediate attention. So keeping your Social Media up to date is not exactly at the top of your to do list.
It makes sense to jump on every few days, and tell the world about your latest product, or your next event.
But it can be very frustrating when you come back after a few hours to see 1 or 2 likes, and a
tumbleweed.
Sure, the experts always say to keep your Social Media up to date.
But HOW???
And where do you find the time?
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. It’s always the little things that we do without realising, that grow to bite us in the backside down the track.
Let’s look at why we post sporadically, and how it causes our posts to be hidden from our fans.
There are two main reasons every business owner uses Social Media for:
Seems pretty simple, right?
And that’s how most business owners use their Social Media.
They post updates about their products and services, and when they have time, they share updates about themselves.
This is where the problem starts…
… these two goals create a lack of consistency which causes some issues you need to deal with:
Don’t worry… It’s not just you.
There are tens of thousands of businesses owners out there, just like you, facing these challenges. Yes, there are more urgent things that come up every day in running your business, but you know how important Social Media is in gaining exposure, getting leads and
making sales.
Let’s look at a number of challenges that are unique to Social Media that you may not know about.
Like a crowded room, Social Media becomes bigger and bigger everyday and the more people have to say the bigger it gets.So chances that your updates are seen are extremely low when traffic gets high.
To combat the “Crowded Room Syndrome”, Social Media channels are using complex mathematical algorithms (think of them as tiny robots).
These algorithms limit the number of updates that people see.
Facebook’s algorithms are the most advanced at the moment but other Social Media channels will follow suit. And even the channels that don’t have algorithms yet, the principles of the crowded room syndrome still apply, and people are choosing to filter what they see.
Pages organically reach about 16% of their fans on average. This is less for pages that don’t post consistently.” Official Facebook Blog (2012)
Not all of your audience will be logged in on their Social Media channels when you are ready to post something.
Some of your audience may only log in a few times a month. Or they may only be active on weekends.
Only posting occasionally may be convenient for you, but it means less of your fans get to see your updates.
Here are some sobering statistics about the lifespan of a single post on Facebook:
People on Social Media are there to distract themselves, pass the time, catch up with friends, stalk crushes, and just have a laugh.
They don’t want to see ad after ad on their down time. People don’t share advertisements, they share anything that they find entertaining.
Whether they’re using Social Media on their phones or computers, people basically switch off and scroll.. and scroll… and scroll….
So in essence you’re playing a scrolling game with your audience. You have to capture their attention in less than a second.
Not only that, but you have to stay front-of-mind until the next time they scroll past your update.
So how do you fix it? Knowing the challenges is half the battle.
Now that we’ve identified the issues, there are some simple tips and strategies to overcome these issues.
But first, a quick lesson in how those tiny evil robots work.
Knowing how algorithms work is the key to making your content show up to your fans.
Social Media algorithms are immensely complex, and closely guarded secrets, but they run on one basic principle.
The more you interact with something, the more of it you see.
This may seem like common knowledge, but think about it for a minute. It’s not about psychology or the law of attraction.
This is pure. Calculated. Maths. (I know, I just shuddered too)
You may have heard people say that the goal of Social Media isn’t selling, it’s engagement.
Yes that’s true, but why is engagement so important?
It’s not just to sell more.
It’s not just to be front-of-mind.
It’s not just to build trust.
All of these are true, but there is a more important reason to consider.
It all boils down to a simple maths puzzle.
If those robots see that your posts are getting more engagement, they will tag you as more relevant, and they will show more of your posts to more people!
In summary:
Now that we get the basics. We can start working on the solution
Consistency is key!
Posting updates that go out on a regular basis will ensure that more of your fans will see your posts. Especially the ones that only login every now and
again.
Even if you’re using Social Media channel with no algorithms, to capture the attention of the moving targets, you need to be visible by posting regularly.
Be charming!
When posting on Social Media, you need to be interesting for people to notice you, engage with you, and tell their friends about you. If you just post about yourself, nobody will want to hang out with you.
Did you know that Facebook algorithms also measure the popularity of what you post?
This means that sharing links to popular content and reputable websites are more likely to appear to your fans?
[[[image]]]If you can’t beat them, join them.
Well, we recommend you do both!
Another way algorithms control your content is that it shows people the types of media they prefer.
So people that prefer to watch videos, will see more video posts on their timeline. If they click on more links, more links will magically appear in their timeline.
And so on…
We call this the “give them what they want” principle.
So if you only publish images and links to your website, those posts are less likely to appear to your fans who prefer to watch videos.
What this means for you as a business owner is that you need to publish a healthy mix of different types of media to outsmart the robots and reach your different fans.
The most underrated feature of Social Media is visual branding.
Visual Branding is essential to build brand recognition, and make your fans remember you.
Having a consistent visual brand that people learn to trust and to recognize over time is priceless. Use the power of association to your advantage by using your brand colors and logo.
Imagine seeing one of these every day for a week.
After a week, which do you think will have more impact on your fans?
The images on the right may look prettier and more diverse, but they are deceptively watering down your brand over time.
The images on the left may seem tame in comparison to the ones on the right, but they do a few very important things:
Nobody likes paying for things, especially when they used to get it for free.
But paying for advertising is a necessary part of business, and when done well, yields great results.
And here’s the exciting part.
If you get steps 1-4 right, have consistent content and consistent engagement on your Social Media, it creates a compound effect for your ads.
Which means, you can spend less to get higher results out of your ad campaigns.
So now that we know what to do, the to do list becomes quite simple. Post regularly between 1 to 4 times a day
This is what your new schedule looks like
So, the to do list on the last page looks a bit overwhelming, but when we randomise it and put it on a schedule, it becomes quite simple!
Here is an example of what your weekly schedule could look like if you decided to post 3 times a week:
… but time consuming. This adds up to 8+ hours a month.
These are the types of jobs most business owners should be outsourcing. Set and forget.
Check out how we can take care of your updates, research, graphic design and overall branding on Social (www.thesocialminute.com)