“Our posts look so good! Why is our reach so low?” 

Your content is shiny, elegant, nothing short of brilliant. If it were on a billboard, people would never stop talking about it. And your business would boom.

There are things you can do that, on the surface, appear harmless. But Facebook, mainly their algorithm, does not appreciate these things occurring. Especially over and over and over again. Remember, Facebook does not work like a billboard or a print-ad. It is a social platform.

We have analyzed thousands of posts with the sole goal of growing businesses. The four points below are the typical points we see businesses doing on their Facebook posts that we notice limit their reach.

1) Placing a link to another website in your post.

Remember, Facebook wants people to stay on their site. If you are intentionally taking them somewhere else, the Algorithm dings you and will show you to fewer people.

There are some workarounds to this, but overall do not use your posts to send people away from Facebook.

2) Using a manipulated photo.

People have a hard time with this one. They take a photo of something and go and put their logo in the corner and then want to post it. But when Facebook analyzes the photo, they are looking for anything in that photo that looks like the photo is not natural or that it has been manipulated.

We see companies trying to highlight a product, and they go through and stage the photo with a white background and make the product look superb! But Facebook doesn’t like it. Why? Because it’s unauthentic. Why else would you need a white background? It’s because you are trying to sell something. The photo has essentially been manipulated before the camera button has ever been pressed.

Photo manipulation doesn’t have to happen after the photo has been taken, it can happen before.

3) Using words that call people to action.

“Come on down to our store today!”

“Go check out the website!”

“Check your email for updates.”

“Sign up for our newsletter.”

We know that these are harmless, but Facebook doesn’t. Ever since they were called to the floor of the Senate to answer for Facebook allowing outside entities to sway elections, they have placed emphasis on making sure this doesn’t happen. And how would they know you aren’t an outside entity?

There are times you can use these call-to-actions, but you have to have a strategy in place that uses these very sparingly.

4) Excessive use of hashtags.

When we see a post that has 15 hashtags, we understand what people are trying to do. They are trying to make sure that if anyone searches for something, they can be found by the person searching and looking to connect. It used to work really well.

But now, Facebook believes it is a form of manipulation. You are trying to throw lots of lures into the pond to hopefully catch more fish. But remember, you are the fish, not the fisherman. The more you try to fish, the less Facebook will allow you to reach. Your attempt to try to reach more people actually backfires.

Plus, when people see your post and 90 percent of your words are hashtags, they don’t care to interact. They just keep scrolling.

The algorithm is built to predict how your post will perform.

It will reward you if you follow what it wants.

Talk soon,

Aaron & Kelsie

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