If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make a sound? And if a company posts something to Facebook but no one sees it, does it make any difference?
The answer to the last question is a resounding no, which explains why more and more small business marketers have been in a tizzy lately: Facebook has changed many of its internal algorithms, and the cumulative effect is that fewer business posts are actually getting seen by users. According to a study cited in TIME, the average business page post now gets seen by only 6 percent of the page’s followers.
That’s a terrible margin, but what small business owners need to know is that this is not purely left to change; there are actions you can take to boost that number well above 6 percent, and to ensure that your posts are getting seen by more people—and thus, making an impact.
Targeted Posts
One recommendation is to target your posts; if taking the shotgun approach doesn’t work, you might as well try something with a little more finesse and precision, right? You can target posts for users who fall into a certain age range, or who are at a certain location; you can even target by gender. This may or may not give your posts a broader reach, but it absolutely will boost the odds of them being effective for the people who do see them. (This is assuming you’re strategic in how you target, of course.)
You can do this simply by going to your business page’s admin panel and choosing “Edit Settings” from the “Edit Page” dropdown menu.
Photo Posts
Which kind of post is more effective in reaching people: Just-text posts, or photo ones? You might be surprised to learn that text-only posts have been bizarrely and surprisingly effective in recent years, but the new Facebook algorithm changes have reduced their potency, increasing the visibility of posts with photos, videos, etc. The photos most likely to connect with a wide audience are original graphics, though—photos that are unique to your brand, not the same old meme photos that everyone else is passing around.
Post at a Weird Time
Most Facebook marketers like to post during the peak hours of Facebook use, and it’s not hard to understand why. Then again, if everyone is posting at a certain time, maybe there’s some merit in experimenting with some posts at weird times of the day? If you’re the only one posting in the wee hours of the morning, or late at night, it increases the odds of your post being seen by your night owl followers, or by those who check Facebook first thing in the morning.
Scaling Back
A final word of advice: Think about scaling back on your posts. Facebook’s algorithms determine the reach of your posts according to how much people engage with them, so if you clog up your page with posts nobody is liking or commenting on, it’s not doing you any good. Instead, offer one or two strategic posts each day, ones that you believe to be compelling enough to get some real interaction. Quality absolutely matters more than quantity, now more than ever.
And indeed, it has never been more important for small businesses to develop strategic Facebook marketing campaigns. For insights into how this can be done, contact the Grammar Chic team today: Visit www.grammarchic.net, or call 803-831-7444.
The Red Ink 
These are some great suggestions, and no doubt they’ll help boost the eyes that see our posts. I get the feeling Facebook is firmly committed to a “pay to play” policy, almost guaranteeing that significant results require using their Ads. Yet there is no doubt the strategies you’ve presented will make a difference!