Have you seen a drop in engagement on your Facebook posts with photos? You have the perfect picture, the perfect caption and you have studied your analytics for the right time to post the photo. As you wait and watch for the likes and engagement to come rolling in, you realize that your fans just aren’t seeing the photo! You need to head back to the drawing board and I’ll tell you why.
Last year, Facebook changed their algorithm that determines how many people see your post. Facebook stated that they did this to de-clutter the amount of posts you see on your smartphone or tablet. You have the analytics of WHEN your fans are online, but now you have to take into consideration how your fans are logging onto Facebook. Everyone knows the acronym K-I-S-S (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and as great as your photo looks, sometimes all your fans need is a quick one or two sentence post.
What’s more important, engagement or reach? The obvious answer is both, but can you have engagement with reach and vice versa? It’s the chicken versus the egg conundrum.
I recommend testing the “text-only” theory by creating a few statuses that that give out advice or a tip on something your business specializes in. Remember to keep it text only! This will give you the “reach” you need to attract other people and showcase your expertise. Remember to post at the same time of day you normally would to get an accurate comparison. Be creative and remember to add a call to action.
I recently tested the text-only theory on a few pages that I manage and the results were mixed. I asked a simple one-sentence question and it did receive more views then a recent post with a picture did, but engagement was minimal. The post received a few likes but no one answered the question. I’m calling it a minor success because I did reach more people in the end. As you can see though, just because I had a bigger reach did not translate into better engagement.
We all know that a great photo is easily shareable, but what about a great text post over a mediocre photo? No matter what, quality and originality will always win. Regardless of what you post, as long as it’s good content, it will prevail. Have you noticed a similar trend in your posts? Tell me all about it in the comments section or on Twitter, @Cbyron11.
