As Facebook Organic Exposure is shrinking, what can a Small Business Do?

Future of  Facebook promotion and marketing 

What so many small business entrepreneurs experience every time Facebook implements an update to its timeline are slow reductions in the organic reach a page has. Compared to years ago when a small business page could reach well above 50 percent of their followers, today that number has sunk to under 7 percent. That makes it nearly impossible to get the word out!

More than ever before, it’s extremely difficult for a brand to keep up with their fans and to find new followers in a market that is increasingly dominated by paid advertising. For small businesses, the only thing to do in response to these changes in Facebook Timeline is to get better at branding and promotions, and be smarter with where they put their advertising dollar.

First things first, most small business pages on Facebook are not fully filled out or optimized. This means a lack of contact information, confusing or non-existent CTAs, and unclear marketing all contributes to a lack of users wanting to click on and subscribe to the page.

So in order to compete, one must first evaluate their Facebook small business page. Identify its weak points and fix them. Be sure to fill in all the information you can, supplying your page with the appropriate apps to ensure that any information a potential follower may come to your page seeking is easily found.

To this point, optimizing your page with regular updates will show that you are plugged in to what’s going on, active, and still in business. Be sure to set up regular postings at least once a week to reach the customers you can reach organically and to keep followers updated on what’s on the mind of your business.

The next thing is something that you may not want to hear. In order to reach out and attract customers on Facebook, paid advertising is a necessity. We know it sucks but it’s something every small business should be doing if they intend to advertise on Facebook. The limitations of organic reach make it near impossible to find new followers and even sometimes to connect with the existing ones. Therefore, moving forward, paid advertising needs to take up some space in your social media marketing campaign.

That said, thankfully, you don’t necessarily need to spend hundreds of dollars from the get-go. Set up the threshold for as little as $1 a day. Measure the results and invest more if you feel the rewards are worth it.

Please do keep in mind that when building a social media paid marketing campaign on Facebook, there are many ways to target audience, including by country. Be sure to do some research into what your audience is and measure the ad response accordingly.

There are a number of other ways to advertise on Facebook beyond the paid marketing channel as well. Consider Facebook Live Video as a means of connecting with followers. Consider partnering with other Facebook pages for special deals or promotions. There are numerous other techniques that can be used to make do with the limited potential of non-paid advertising on Facebook.

For more information on how to advertise on Facebook and how to get past the limited potential of Facebook Timeline, contact a social media marketing company who knows their stuff. Facebook is an amazing platform that, when played right, can help brands win big and reach more followers.