Everyone and their granny knows by now that the organic reach on Facebook has drastically reduced for businesses. But what does that actually mean in muggle terms? When you post something on your Facebook page ‘organically’ i.e. without paying for adverts or boosting, the amount of people that see it is very low. If you have 100 likes, you’re lucky to get an average reach of 6 people. Shocking!
Why?
Our Lord and Saviour Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook cares so much for their users that they will only display content in Newsfeeds that is of interest to the user. So if you’ve engaged with a page in the past, likes or comments, you are more inclined to see that page’s posts in your Newsfeed. What this means for business pages is we have to get that engagement increased first, or pay for it.
How?
Businesses need to reverse engineer the Facebook Algorithm and tricking it into thinking your page is popular. And the best way to do this at the beginning is by running a competition. Not just any competition however. You need to run a Lead Generating Competition using a specific keyword and a linked ChatBot.
So no, not your usual Like and Share.
Here are the key elements of any good competition and why you include them:
- You need to get the scrollers attention so use large letters and emojis. You have about 4 seconds to get someones attention before they scroll down to another post.
- Give the prize information straightaway. People are lazy. We want information fast. Don’t make them read a paragraph about your business before seeing what they could win. Tell them immediately.
- Give clear instructions as to how to enter and how and when the winner will be announced.
- Ask for a Like on the post, not the page. The users viewing the post may already like the page. Also page likes are too hard to police in terms of who actually entered the competition. Ask them to Like the post instead. When someone likes your post you get engagement but you can also then further invite them to Like your page if they haven’t already done so.
- Ask for a comment with a keyword. This is where it gets fun. Use a chatbot such as ManyChat to automate your post messages. Use your competition post to gather leads so you can retarget them in the future.
- Ask for a tag. By doing this you’re getting the user to do the work for you. Sharing is great BUT you’re not guaranteed people will see the shared post or act on it. A tag however creates a notification and people are more likely to check their notifications.
- Facebook users are generally not aware that it is against Facebook regulations to ask for any kind of interaction on the platform as part of a competition. However I have yet to see Facebook penalise a page for doing so. But just in case, I will never ask for a Share as part of a competition entry requirement. Instead I’ll say something like ‘P.S. We’d love a Share’. facebook users are now so conditioned to Liking and Sharing competitions that they’ll do it anyway. But by not specifically asking for it you cover your ass. :)
- Always use a great graphic without too much text. You don’t want to overload the users with information but you want to grab their attention so use a high quality branded image, something related to the prize.
- Statistically Facebook users are more inclined to share from 3pm Wednesday onwards. We’re happier towards the end of the week and so we’ll browse Facebook more and share positivity amongst our connections. So post you competition on a Wednesday and only run it for one week.
- Share links to your competition and talk about it on your other platforms. Add a link to your weekly email. Create a Story to share on Facebook and Instagram. Use Canva to create the perfect branded image for your story.
Competitions are a great way of getting that organic reach and engagement up. Make sure then to post a sales post soon after to capitalise on the reach. Don’t let it go to waste.
I have been running competition campaigns for clients for literally years. I have tried and tested a lot of different strategies but the above has always worked the best.
If you need any help with your competition posts you can email me on denise@thesocialmediadepartment.ie
