The organic reach of Facebook’s business pages has been tweaked so much that the organic reach is way down, as low as 2 percent for some of the largest brands. That statistic is very scary for small to medium-sized businesses that rely on using Facebook as a free means to market their business and connect with their clients or customers.

2. ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM:
Reaching Your Followers In Spite of it All
By: Stephanie Jones
Stephanie is our social media manager. Queen of
all things social - she keeps our clients in touch
with their fans, followers and connections. Armed
with a good amount of research, she pins, tweets
and Facebook’s her way into the hearts of their
target market.
2

3. CONTENTS ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
3
Introduction /4
Know Your Algorithm /5
Are People Actually Leaving Facebook? /11
My Business Isn’t on Facebook. Is it even worth it? /17
Keeping It Spicy: Tips for Making the Most of Your Organic Reach /22
Conclusion /28

4. 4
Introduction
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
The organic reach of Facebook’s business pages has been tweaked so much
that the organic reach is way down, as low as 2 percent for some of the largest
brands. That statistic is very scary for small to medium-sized businesses that
rely on using Facebook as a free means to market their business and connect
with their clients or customers. While Facebook’s algorithm seems to favor
paid ads, not all who use the social network to market can afford to pay for
those ads.
It is more than likely that at some point a business will have to pay for
Facebook ads. Many small and medium sized businesses are still reaching a
large amount of their followers. Why? They are consistent, reliable and
engaging. Facebook can be rather unlovable. We have some tips that may just
turn your glasses into rose-colored ones again.

5. CHAPTER ONE
KNOW YOUR
ALGORITHM

6. 6
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Before we dive into just HOW you can better
reach your followers – those followers you so
rightly earned and have spent time on – we
need to first explain why your organic reach
may be dwindling. Allow us to introduce you
to EdgeRank, an algorithm created by
Facebook that controls what users see in
their news feeds from their friends and the
brands they follow.
In the most simple of terms, EdgeRank was
designed to find good content and make sure
it is seen. In the words of EdgeRank.net,
“EdgeRank is like a credit rating: it's invisible,
it's important, it's unique to each user, and no
one other than Facebook knows exactly how
it works.”
“No one other
than Facebook
knows exactly
how it works.”

7. 7
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
During its 2010 F8 Conference, Facebook revealed 3 parts that make up the
algorithm:
This is the closeness of
the relationship between
the user and the source of
the content
What type of action
was taken on the
content
The newness of the
content
All of these factors play a role in what your followers are seeing from your
business.

8. 8
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Armed with a solid
understanding of the
algorithm tucked in
your back pocket,
let’s discuss how this
is playing a major role
in how businesses
are marketing on
Facebook.

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
At the end of 2013,
Facebook started
making tweaks to its
algorithm to favor high-quality
content over
images such as memes.
By February, brands
who once had a high
organic reach to their
followers were now
down to reaching just 2
to 6 percent of their
followers.

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
The declining rate is not only an issue for well-established brands, but is really
hitting newer businesses hard. Newer brands don’t get to start at the glorious
16 percent organic reach. Rather there is heavy competition with other brands
to get liked and get seen.
You can probably see now why some brands are falling out of love with the
social media giant. And brands are actually breaking up with the network.
That’s right! One even wrote a break up letter to Facebook. So, let’s talk
about why people are saying their goodbyes.

11. CHAPTER TWO
ARE PEOPLE
ACTUALLY LEAVING
FACEBOOK?

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Thinking about breaking up with
Facebook? You’re not alone. As
mentioned before, many brands with
over 500,000 fans are the ones
seeing the biggest drop in their
organic reach. These brands are
getting angry. Not only has their
organic reach dropped drastically in a
short amount of time, but they are
also being asked to pay in order to
reach their fans. That doesn’t jibe
well with some.
“…many brands with
over 500,000 fans are
the ones seeing the
biggest drop in their
organic reach.”

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Take Eat24 for example.
The food delivery site
decided they were fed
up with their reach
being so low and they
absolutely refused to
pay to reach the fans
that they had already
managed to get on their
own accord. So they
wrote a letter. And it
goes a little something
like this…
Hey. It’s Eat24. Look, we
need to talk. This isn’t easy
to say since we’ve been
together so long, but we
need to break up. We’d
love to say “It’s not you, it’s
us” but it’s totally you. Not
to be rude, but you aren’t
the smart, funny social
network we fell in love with
several years back. You’ve
changed. A lot.

14. 14
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Rainn Wilson from The Office left Facebook, too, along with a bunch of other
brands that were fed up with their declining reach. Beyond losing engagement
with their fans, brands are leaving Facebook because…
They refuse to pay for ads to reach their
current fans
Not reaching the folks that they paid ads
to reach in the first place
1
2

15. 15
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
People are feeling a sense of betrayal from Facebook and while they
may be losing money by not reaching the followers that they already
paid to reach, it seems that some aren’t looking at the big picture.
Facebook is a business. It’s that simple. But if the only way to get in
front of people is to pay for ads, is Facebook even a valuable
marketing tool anymore? Yes! Let’s talk about how businesses are
succeeding on the platform.

16. 16
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
So, should you take your business off of Facebook? I will answer with an
emphatic and resounding no. While you may not want to pay for ads, there
are still opportunities to be had for businesses on the site.
Is your business B2C?
According to Social Media Today, 83% of B2B marketers invest
in social media to increase brand exposure; 69% to increase
web traffic; and 65% to gain market insights.
According to Business Insider, 68 percent
of B2C marketers say Facebook is the
most important social network with Twitter
taking 10% of the vote among B2C
marketers.
On top of the numbers, another reason to stick around is your followers. A
Like is not easy to come by on Facebook and you managed to get a number
of people to choose to follow your brand. They actually care about your
services and appreciate the content you provide. Don’t leave them hanging,
man!

17. CHAPTER THREE
MY BUSINESS
ISN’T ON
FACEBOOK.
IS IT EVEN
WORTH IT?

18. The salad days of free Facebook advertising may be over, but there are still plenty of
brands reaching a good portion of their followers organically. Yes, it is still worth the
time and effort to keep your Facebook page. A photographer friend of ours, Matt
Steeves, sends clients and links his Pinterest pins directly to his Facebook page over
his actual web site. Why? It keeps the engagement up on his business page in addition
to the ease of adding new photos versus updating galleries on his actual site.
18
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Creative thinking like this is the cornerstone of
good organic reach. If you funnel your traffic to
Facebook, your reach is going to stay pretty
high. Of course, this tactic doesn’t work for
every business. In fact, most businesses have a
site equipped with a blog loaded with valuable,
educational content to share. In that case, you
most definitely want to get that traffic to your site,
but where does Facebook come in? What’s the
point in sharing this content if no one is seeing
it?

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Here’s a tip: The chances are
incredibly high that at least 6 percent
of your following is seeing your
content. If you have under 50,000
fans, the chance for this is the
greatest. On the other hand there
was a post by
Brian Carter over at Moz where he
explains how just $1 per day can
increase your reach.
“If you just spend $1 per day on Facebook ads, you will get in
front of 4,000 people that wouldn't have seen you otherwise. If
you are doing that and your competitors aren't, you win the
awareness game in your niche.”

20. 20
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Below is a chart from the same article outlining the cost through various
media to reach 1,000 people.

21. 21
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
Purchasing ads from Facebook is a decision each business needs to choose based on their
own preferences. It’s high-time to pay for ads if…
Your engagement flat lines.
This likely happens because your buyer
persona is not being reached. If you’re
reaching a bunch of people who could care
less about all of your amazing information,
what’s the point in putting it out there? If you
want to ensure you’re reaching your buyer
persona(s), paid ads might be the way to go
or…
You’re Brand, Spankin’ New.
A friend of mine, a gym owner, asked
me if his business should pay for ads
on Facebook. He said they had tried all
different kinds of posts and posting
times, but were getting little to no
engagement. Here’s the deal: Having a
Facebook business page is pretty darn
common these days. There is an
oversaturation of content in the average
user’s newsfeed. Purchasing ads as a
newer business will definitely get you in
front of more people and ramp up your
engagement.
I can tell what you’re thinking; you’re thinking to yourself, “But I don’t wanna pay for ads
and I’m not gonna!” I like those stick-to-your-guns ideals you’ve got going! There are
measures you can take to encourage organic reach on your Facebook business page.

22. CHAPTER FOUR
KEEPING IT
SPICY: TIPS FOR
MAKING THE
MOST OF YOUR
ORGANIC REACH

23. 23
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
In all honesty, marketing a business on Facebook is hard work and it has
become increasingly more difficult due to the algorithm changes. There are no
speedy quick tips that will increase your engagement over night; there are
things you can do to ramp up the engagement, which ultimately increases your
organic reach.
Follow the next
four tips for
spicing up your
page to increase
that reach.

24. 24
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
BE PERSONAL 1
This is a biggie. While Twitter and LinkedIn
are the best places to share educational and
helpful content, Facebook is the place to
woo your followers. This is hard for some
businesses, especially those in the B2B
category, but there are things you can do to
liven up your Facebook page. Behind-the-scenes
or Throwback Thursday posts give
your followers more of your personality. And
while you want to highlight your product or
services, it’s a good idea to use Facebook
as a casual space.

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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
2
BE CONSISTENT
Nothing ruins the mood for followers than an inconsistent page. This usually
takes the form of a page not posting for a few weeks followed by typhoon of posts
in one day, and then going silent once again. It’s annoying to followers because it
junks up their feeds, which could cause them to Unlike your page (eeek!!). It also
leads people to question the business as a whole. Some might presume if you
can’t be consistent on Facebook, why would your business be any different. Be
consistent: in your posting schedule, in your voice and in the amount of posts.

26. 26
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM 3
BE ENGAGING
As I mentioned before, your Facebook page should
probably be more on the relaxed side of business
rather than the buttoned-up side. Part of that is
talking to your followers in a social manner.
Engage them by asking fun questions or for
feedback on a new product. Post amazing
inspirational quotes or funny pictures and ask
followers to caption it. If you are engaging your
followers, the conversation won’t be so sales-y and
one-sided.

27. 4
27
ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
FIND OR CREATE SEXY
CONTENT
Since Facebook’s algorithm favors high-quality
content, it’s time to follow suit and share just that.
You can find awesome content through news
aggregator sites like Digg, Reddit or Alltop, all of
which post the most shared stories from across the
web for the day. These sites are great resources for
kooky or business related content. You can also
create your own for your blog. Don’t like to write?
Outsource that stuff with an agency or a freelance
writer.

28. Conclusion
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ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM
It is true Facebook tweaks their algorithm
to benefit themselves – they are a
business and a successful one at that.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t frustrating
for those either trying to make a name for
or market their business using the social
platform. Making sure you arm yourself
with remarkable content and knowledge
about what your followers want to see;
this will keep them engaged and could
even bring in new followers. In short, all
is not lost for businesses on Facebook.
Not yet, anyway!