Every waking moment, we see brands putting two and two together, trying to devise an infallible Facebook marketing strategy, only to get down in the dumps when they eagerly see their post go live in anticipation, only to be met with scarce engagement or traffic.

You scratch your head in befuddlement, trying to decipher what went wrong, or even worst, what if visitors didn’t really like your brand in the first place. Before you go down that dark rabbit hole, know that even the biggest brands find it a tough nut to crack to nail a perfect organic reach. In fact, According to Marketing Land, Facebook organic reach has fallen by 52% for publishers in 2016 and this trend continues to this day.

Here are the two major culprits for this:

1. In an era of content overload, more content is being published than can ever be accommodated in the newsfeed. With over 30 billion pieces of content published every month on Facebook, even the social media giant is being swept off its feet by the content deluge.
2. In a recent algorithm update, Facebook only shows content that is most relevant to each user, in an attempt to “shift ranking to make News Feed more about connecting with people and less about consuming media in isolation.” Each user’s newsfeed is tailored to only show content catering to a user’s individual interests to optimize user experience and skyrocket engagement.

However, the good news is, you can still get tons of traffic from Facebook if you play your cards right! Digital marketers and digital marketing agencies are forever looking for new ways to get around the rapidly plummeting Facebook organic reach problem.

We confide in you seven potent secrets that can help address this problem.

1. Prioritizing Quality over Quantity

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is better than two doubles.”—Steve Jobs

How many social media posts should you publish on Facebook in a day? A simple answer to this question is that it depends on your industry and target audience. Most publishers will aggressively push social media posts, which would take their daily tally from 15 to 40 posts. With social media automation tools, you can automate and schedule this process as well. Instead of taking this approach, you should put quality over quantity when it comes to social media posts. Post few valuable social media posts and it will deliver a much better result as compared to dozens you publish every day.

2. Jump on the Live Video Bandwagon

With every social network launching its dedicated live streaming service, videos have never served a more vibrant purpose. Facebook is betting big on its live video feature and has signed contracts with more than a hundred video creators. To give you a clear picture of how much the interest in live videos has grown over time, here is a screenshot from Google Trends depicting the rise of Facebook Live.

What’s even great for business is that Facebook live videos have a much higher organic reach as compared to other types of posts on Facebook. If you have gone through your Facebook news feed lately, you might have come across Facebook live videos. Make sure your Facebook users know when you are going to broadcast so they can be sure to stay tuned. However, make sure you jump on the Facebook Live bandwagon when you have a sizable fan base.

3. Write on Trending Topics

What’s trending on social media? Every social media marketer should know the answer to this question before creating content or social media posts. Tools such as Buzzsumo can help you see which content is resonating the most with the audience and is getting a lion’s share of the buzz. You can also write on those topics and get more engagement for your social media posts. For instance, a lot of big brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Adidas cashed in on the Football World Cup in 2014 and received an exponential social media lift, and brands such as Adidas, Hyundai and Vivo scored a goal with audiences at the recent world cup.

4. User-Generated Content

Many brands make the mistake of going overboard with promotions, which can turn the tables on their engagement. Social media users love content that delivers value and shuns content that reeks of self-promotion. Even if you want to promote your brand, you can ask your loyal social media fans to do the talking for you. User-generated content can build your brand’s credibility and authority and you can also use it as a testimonial. Toyota’s “Feeling the street” user-generated content was a splendid example. The brand managed to solicit more than 1.2 million shares, comments and likes with this campaign.

5. Stay Away from Clickbait

Most social media marketers are guilty of the clickbait technique when they are crafting their social media posts. When you use clickbait in your social media posts, you might see a sudden rise in engagement and reach but that does not last very long and ends in a sharp decline. Similarly, if you are blatantly asking your followers to like, comment or share your social media posts, Facebook deems you a sham.

Thankfully, Facebook puts together some guidelines for clickbait best practices that will give your Facebook more exposure. According to clickbait best practices by Facebook, your post headline should be informative and set the right expectations. In addition to this, Facebook advises business page owners to share links with clear headlines. Shoddy tactics such as spreading fake news, including spammy links in your social posts and other bait tactics of the likes, can get you penalized by Facebook, which would result in poor organic reach for your business page on Facebook.

6. Harness the Power of Influencer Marketing

Collaborating with other businesses or influencers on Facebook can deliver mutual benefits to both parties. Brands can get over the decreasing Facebook organic reach issue while influencers can get the monetary benefit as well as an increase in their popularity and more exposure. Businesses can get an opportunity to interact and attract new customers and convert them into paying customers. Brands such as H&M have built a massive fan base on Instagram, thanks to their influencer marketing campaigns with influencers such as fashion blogger Julie Sarinana and model Ela Velden.

7. Take The Visual Route

Our brain processes visual information faster than text and 90% of information transmitted to our brain is visual. Visual content gets more shares, likes, and comments. Use animated GIFs and infographics to present complex concepts in an easy to digest manner. Adding images to your facebook posts makes it more appealing and interesting for your target audience. Harness the power of visuals and get higher engagement and user interaction on Facebook.

Conclusion

The future looks bleak for publishers who are still scouring out for organic reach for their brands on social media as social networks are completely shifting to paid advertising. Fortunately, you can still get the best out of Facebook by implementing some of the techniques mentioned above. to uplift your Facebook organic reach. Make sure you publish posts that are valuable, relevant and evoke the right excitement in your audience. Tinker with different content types such as live videos, infographics, videos and user-generated content to see what works and what does not.

How do you overcome declining Facebook organic reach issues on Facebook? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.