3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Reach

Social Media Reach Is a Lifeline for Your Business

Let’s face it, we all know we need to reach our target audience in order to see success with social media marketing.  With changes on Facebook making it more difficult for page owners to reach their fans, this can be a real challenge for the masses.  While on Facebook, page owners are still able to post into groups, many are uneasy with the spammy feel of doing so.

Facebook is only one of the many social media platforms that can greatly benefit many business owners.  In this post, I will focus on three platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), that I have seen success in reach and share with you 3 simple things I have done to help me achieve this success.  The best part is that they are so simple, you can do them too!

1. Use Targeted Posts on Your Facebook Business Page

What?  Are you thinking I am talking about paid posts?  No way!  While you will not achieve the same amount of reach using this method as a paid post, it WILL increase your UNPAID reach drastically if you have your targeting on point.

The first thing to do is to click inside your status update box on your business page.  You should see a little bull’s eye below the box to the right of the location and clock.  Don’t see it there?  You may need to adjust your post settings.  To do this click on Settings at the top right corner under the notification globe.  Once you are in Settings, you should be in General (on the left).  Go down to Audience Optimization for Posts, hit edit, and check the box to allow preferred audience selection (see below). Save Changes.

Once you have done this, go back into your page and you should see the bullseye.  If not, refresh your page.

To target your posts, just click on the bull’s eye.  This will bring up a box and allow you to select your audience using interests.  You may either browse the interests or select your own.  If you select your own and type them in, be sure they show in the list at the bottom of verified pages.  Interests are usually Facebook pages that are similar to yours or those your target audience likes.  You may have to play around with the interests to find the ones that work best for your business, but once you have your targeting optimized, you will see a drastic increase in reach on your targeted posts.

Tips for Using Targeted Posts

Don’t use targeted posts on all your posts.  You want to make sure to target branded posts, blog posts, and any promotions.  This should only be 20% of what you are posting on your page.  Don’t use it on quotes, curated posts and anything else that is not specifically your own content.  You want to increase reach on YOUR content ONLY!

Another Note on Post Targeting

When you follow the steps above and target a post, you will see at the bottom of the box the number of people you will potentially reach using the targeted audience you selected.  To explain this better, suppose you have 5000-page likes on your business page.  When you set up a targeted post, your potential reach will decrease to a fraction of that audience. For instance, that same 5000 fan page, may now only have a reach potential of 2000.  THIS IS GOOD!  Here’s why: through targeting, you are finding those fans who are more likely to like, comment and share your posts.  They are the ones who are truly interested in what you have to say.  So, what happens with a targeted post is that the people who will engage with your post will actually see your post.  The engagement creates increased reach.  So now, instead of reaching 50-80 people on your post, you could potentially reach hundreds, or even thousands, depending on the engagement targeting factors as related to that post.  That is so much better than those measly results you were getting before, right?  And this is all unpaid!  While you will never reach the 5000 fans you have on your page, it will increase your reach.  To reach the masses and gain true momentum on your fan page, paid posts are advised on Facebook because they DO work.  However, if that is not in your budget, this is something simple you can do to increase your reach on your Facebook business page.

 2. Hashtags

Hashtags are the best way to be found on both Instagram and Twitter. If you have not been using them, you are missing out on a large market segment you could be reaching.  On Instagram, the way people search topics is by hashtags, so you can increase your following, reach, and engagement by choosing the right hashtags.  On Twitter, hashtags are also important because people search topics using them. If you happen to be talking about something that is trending, then you hit the jackpot that day.  Please do NOT use a trending hashtag if it has nothing to do with your subject matter.  That is the fastest way to get people to UNfollow you and not respect you as a business.  For more on Hashtag use, please see my other blog posts Increase Your Visibility with Hashtags and Hashtag Use Across Social Media Platforms for additional information.

3. Live-Streaming*

Okay, so this one may not seem easy for you.  However, if you truly want to increase your reach, find new potential clients, and move your business to the next level, you will consider live-streaming.  Why? For starters, Periscope has rated the TOP app in 2015.  Periscope.tv is a live-streaming mobile app that makes it easy to keep in touch no matter where you are.

Facebook Live and BeLive, which feeds into Facebook, are newer in the live-streaming realm, but they have just about taken ver Facebook feeds. Facebook Live is easy and convenient because it is built right into the Facebook App and there is no need for an extra app, software or link. Recently (Spring 2017) users received the ability to go Live from their desktops, so it is becoming more versatile as it improves the user experience.  BeLive is a nice addition to using video on Facebook because it allows you to have someone their side by side for a conversation and it gives you the ability to put a title banner and highlight content or links in a banner across the bottom.

All of these live stream platforms give fans the ability to interact live with the broadcaster, further enhancing the experience and allowing your fans to get to know you more intimately.  This GREATLY decreases the amount of time it takes your fans to know, like and trust you. Periscope allows you to post the broadcast to Twitter as you go live, it even just Go Live from your Twitter profile.  Either way, the live video plays live in the Twitter feed now, which allows you to reach even more people because of the video playing live. Facebook works the same way.  The video plays live in the feed and on your page (or in your group). People can sign up for notifications. Facebook has even just added the ability to add another person to your Live video as a contributor.

While there are many live-streaming platforms, these are the ones I have been using and I have increased my Twitter followers by 75% in 5 short months just by adding them into my mix.  Not only have I gained followers on Periscope that are also following me on Twitter, but I have gained new Twitter followers who follow people on those platforms to get notifications and watch the broadcasts online instead of through the app. For Facebook, Live video greatly improves my page reach and visibility.

If you would like a little more insight into Periscope, check out two articles I have written on the app. You can find the articles here: The Problem With Periscope and  7 Important Lessons I Learned About Periscope.  In the second article, I talk a little more about how much Periscope can be beneficial to business owners and why.

My Take

These are just a few simple things you can do to increase your reach on social media.  Of course, there are many other things you can do, also.  You could also pay for ads to really make an impact in your reach. However, since I work with many small business owners on tight budgets, these are things I have tried that have worked for me – and they are FREE.  Why not give them a shot?  Targeting and hashtags may take some trial and error for you to master, and live-streaming is not for everyone, but aren’t they all worth a look if they can increase your reach and help you grow your business?

 I would love to hear about your successes with social media reach.  Have you tried any of these?  Or maybe you tried something different.  Let us know what you have had success in the comments below.

If you would like to schedule some time with me to learn more on how to improve your social media strategy, or would like to talk to me about managing your social media for you so you have more time to do what YOU love, schedule a call so we can chat about how we may be able to work together.

Much success to you!