We reported back at the start of last year that Facebook was planning on changing the way its news feed worked. The plan was that as a user, you would see less posts from businesses and promotion and more posts from your friends and family - posts that would be immediately more interesting to the user and designed to bring people together. However it seems that this change has become a symptom of an even larger, sweeping change in the digital marketing industry - organic reach on social media posts is in decline.Organic reach simply means the amount of people that see your post without you paying to boost the post - so the people that see it ‘naturally’, when it’s shared between friends and family and its reach grows. However, as less and less people are seeing these posts, it’s natural to see a decline - but don’t panic. The digital marketing industry is changing, as it often does, and businesses can adapt to the change to ensure their posts don’t get left behind.
Crafting Tailored Content

What really matters here is content and the quality of it - not necessarily the quantity. People want content that engages them and engagement is key. It’s important to share content relevant to your audience - give them something they will want to interact with. This also acts as a learning process for your business to get to know your audience better. If you use the insights you gain - for instance, what your audience engages best with and on what platform - you can begin to craft content that your audience will love and keep them coming back for more.
It’s also important to remain open to helping other businesses - marketing isn’t necessarily a solo venture, and many other businesses within your industry will also be trying to find their footing. After all, ‘social media is about being social’. Sharing relevant content that isn’t your own helps you establish links within the industry and also helps you be noticed by a wider audience. Providing real value in the posts that you share helps to turn you into an industry expert and leader within your community.
Move Away from Organic to Paid

At Digity, we’ve talked before about the benefits of putting money behind your social media posts - and that’s because it works. You can use boosted social media ads to really widen your reach and engage with an even larger audience.Using paid advertising on Facebook for instance allows you to directly control the audience you target using a criteria. The ability to be able to inject your message into the precise community you’re targeting can be an invaluable tool for expanding your message and being heard by the people who will find your content most valuable. You’re able to create an advertising programme that not only reaches the people you want it to, but can also be viewed on mobile anytime and anywhere by potential customers and clients on the go.This tip works in tandem with an interesting point brought up by Hootsuite. Social media has allowed people from all over the world to congregate and discuss the things they love, even down to the most minute detail. Using paid advertisements allows you to get your name in front of those people, no matter how few, that are most likely to secure you conversions.
Use the Tools You’re Given

Social media platforms change all the time. We’ve reached a stage where, at least for now, the landscape of social media seems to have found something of a constant. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are absolutely the platforms of choice for millions of people and it looks like it’ll stay that way for the time being. However the platforms themselves are evolving almost constantly.Facebook has recently begun incorporating stories into the service, an idea borrowed from Instagram, that allows you to post an image with text that stays for a short amount of time before disappearing (something which seems like it was borrowed in turn from the now mostly gone SnapChat). These stories are only growing in popularity and offer businesses a fantastic way to communicate with their audience in an efficient and fast manner. Not only that, but they also allow you to bypass the news feed entirely.Live video and streaming are also exploding in popularity and relevance. Facebook Live is an invaluable tool used by a lot of businesses to talk directly to customers, while YouTube is bigger than ever before. For a generation of children, YouTube is TV.
Organic reach may be dying, but that’s a result of social media channels attempting to connect on a more personal level with the people that use them. They’re afraid that business pages and company pages are too impersonal - so change that perspective. Utilise stories and paid advertising to inject into the communities that matter to you. To see how we can help bring your social media up to speed, get in touch with our experienced team on 01189 100 012.