Hughes blog post: Five ways to increase reach to your Facebook audience

Here are five things you can do today to make sure your content is communicated as effectively and efficiently as possible on Facebook:

1. Upload your videos natively to Facebook, rather than linking to YouTube or Vimeo.

When you upload your video natively, it starts to autoplay when Facebook users are scrolling down their newsfeeds, catching their attention and drawing them in to watch. No clicks required!

2. When uploading a video to Facebook, add subtitles.

Facebook’s autoplay feature plays video without sound. If a Facebook user doesn’t want to activate the sound of the video, make sure you still get your message across by adding subtitles (closed captions) to the video.

3. Use visuals on every post.

Whether it’s a photograph, a video, a slideshow or an image added to a link preview, make sure there is a visual element to your post. A “status update” with no visual, or a link with no visual preview, will not engage users as effectively. If you can’t find a photograph, use a site like LibreStock to find an image or better yet – engage a photographer to create a library for you!

4. Find out when your users are most active online.

Head to the Insights section of your business page and click “posts” on the left hand side of the page. Here you’ll see what time of day your Facebook audience is active on the site – and when you scroll over each day, it will show you the difference day by day. Schedule your Facebook content to coincide with a time when most of your Facebook audience are active. To schedule content in advance, click the dropdown arrow next to “publish” in the update box and choose “schedule” instead of publish.

5. Optimise your graphics for the Facebook experience, particularly mobile users.

Engage a graphic designer to create Facebook-specific graphics promoting products, events and services. By creating Facebook-specific graphics for your organisation’s Facebook page, you are telling your Facebook audience that you are committed to communicating with them in a format that is optimal to their experience.

Hughes can assist you with Facebook strategy and implementation to ensure you’re communicating effectively. Contact us to find out more.

- Kate Potter