Facebook Warns Organic Reach for Pages Will Decline

In the past couple of weeks you may have noticed that your Facebook posts are not getting quite the same amount of attention that they used to get. This isn’t your imagination – Facebook recently announced that the reach of organic posts (those posts that are not paid for) will steadily decline.

In a blog post earlier this month, Facebook explained the need for higher quality content:

“Competition for each News Feed story is increasing. Because the content in News Feed is always changing, and we’re seeing more people sharing more content, Pages will likely see changes in distribution. For many Pages, this includes a decline in organic reach. We expect this trend to continue as the competition for each story remains strong and we focus on quality.”

While Facebook emphasises the quality of posts, the reality is that businesses need to start paying up if they want their posts, regardless of the content, to be seen in their fans’ newsfeeds.

“Page owners should continue using the most effective strategy to reach the right people: a combination of engaging Page posts and advertising to promote your message more broadly.”

What we recommend to our clients is a two-fold strategy. First, be sure to allocate a portion of your social media campaign budget towards promoted posts in order to effectively reach fans. And second, consider sharing your content on other social media platforms (such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube) in addition to Facebook, to avoid putting all your eggs into one social media basket.