Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyYour business can get attention on Facebook! Here are great ways to get attention in a time of almost non-existent organic reach.Facebook has been decreasing organic (free) ways for businesses to connect with people for several years. Last year it reached the point that no one could avoid noticing the dramatic decrease in organic reach.Every business needs to be on Facebook. The platform has more than 2 billion monthly active users. With the right strategies, you can still maintain and increase your organic reach.

Understand What Works

Facebook previously used signals like the number of people who reacted, commented, or shared a post to determine where that post appeared in the News Feed.Now these are ranking factors:

• Posts from friends and family over public content
• Posts that will create interactions between users.

The days of chronological feeds and easily attained organic reach are gone.

Engage or Be Invisible

Engagement still plays a major part in Facebook news feed position. This metric must now be the focal point that businesses must tailor their Facebook strategies to meet. Businesses that increase their levels of engagement will earn exposure.Here are six strategies to engage on Facebook.

• Add video. Video content drives higher engagement and interaction in comparison to all other content types. Video can be recorded or live. You can use Facebook Live to promote upcoming events, capture behind the scenes moments, convey authenticity, and humanize your brand.
• Ask questions. Write your content in a way that encourages answers/comments. Ask stimulating questions. Make sure your content and the accompanying question are unique and compelling.
• Activate employees and influencers. Get as many people talking about you as possible. Everyone has friends and family they influence.Help them by creating content calendars and thanking them when they shares.
• Avoid links. Facebook's goal is to keep users on Facebook. Rather, focus on posting content with interesting visuals or multimedia.
• Use Facebook audience optimization. Target your posts to people who will be interested. Log in to your Facebook Page and click on settings in the top right-hand corner of your dashboard screen. Select ‘General’ settings on the left-hand table and click ‘Edit’ to the right of the ‘Audience Optimization for Posts’ option. Select the checkbox to allow you to select a preferred audience and hit save changes. When you compose a new post, you will have the option of filtering your audience. While it may feel counterintuitive, reaching out to a smaller but targeted audience can be a smarter decision compared to posting to your largest audience possible.
• Create a Facebook group. When managed correctly, a Business Group can create a micro-community of highly engaged users who are both advocates for, and potential customers of, your business. A Facebook Group fits Facebook’s meaningful engagement vision, as they are typically formed around shared interests and create natural discussions.