Anatomy of an Authentically Viral Local Facebook Post
This may come as a surprise but fans of your Facebook Page don't see all of your posts, not even close.
The average post only reaches an audience of 16-17% of your fan base i.e. if you have 1000 fans the average post will reach 160-170 people.
Reach on Facebook is determined by an algorithm previously referred to as EdgeRank which looks at things like post type (image, text-only, links), audience engagement (post clicks, likes, and comments which carry the most weight or if they "Hide Post" which is akin to marking it as spam), time of day and the frequency of which you post i.e. once per week or once an hour.
In a nutshell, this means there is a wrong way to use Facebook.
So, it begs the question, "how do you reach more people?"
It's been said many times but social media is a conversation not a megaphone so if you aren't approaching posting status updates hoping to elicit engagement, you can even ask your fans to engage through a call to action, you're not only missing the point you're missing a chance to reach people.
Post those grainy, out of focus images of a concert at a great local venue. You can find perfectly posed photos of stars anywhere on the internet but where else can you find that vintage look in your hometown?
Because every market and fan base is different what qualifies as engaging varies but if your print publication has a finger on the pulse you should be able to use that same content approach on social media just remember to ask for feedback and acknowledge and respond when your fans do engage.
What does a viral actually look like?
A viral post is authentic, relevant, insightful/informative or perhaps even odd or unlikely; it's visually interesting, stunning or visceral. Come to think of it, this could be used to describe nearly all great content.
The post to the right reached more than 200% of Mansfield Magazine's fanbase, that's 15-times more effective than your average Facebook post, and it even yielded a nice increase in page likes - viral posts beget more fans which beget more reach and, thus, even more fans.
Authentic: If something looks too staged people aren't that interested, this looks like an authentic family photo with their new little addition.
Relevant: There is a reference to where and who is involved, many fans of Mansfield Magazine might know either the family, the doctor or people who work at the hospital where the baby was born.
Insightful/informative or odd: In this case, the date and time of the birth create a "whoa, that's crazy" response.
Visually Interesting: Some think this might be gimmicky but people like seeing people in life's circumstances through stock photography on Facebook or even your website will often get you nowhere.
Stunning: Think beautiful sunsets, fall foliage, first-snow, babies and puppies, the juxtaposition of joy and sadness or chaos and serenity. You get the idea.
Visceral: Like authentic, this connects the people with the photo and, often, the lower the production value of a photo the more visceral it is - post those grainy, out of focus images of a concert at a great local venue. You can find perfectly posed photos of stars anywhere on the internet but where else can you find that vintage look in your hometown?
Other Considerations
When you do have more engaging posts it has a halo effect, in terms of reach, on subsequent updates which is what we saw with Mansfield when a follow on post the next day, which was average-at-best, reached 50% of their fans - that's more than 3 times the reach of the average.
What this should highlight for you is that a fanbase is a catalyst, the starting point for reach not the ending point.
Sure, when you post a viral update more of your fans will see it than other updates but your reach really grows when people see their friend's comment or like and thus the post "comes from their friend, not from you."
This is true of organic posts like this one from Mansfield Magazine, it's true of promoted posts and it's true of those posts you run related to Social Promotions which helps maximize value for sponsors.
How often should you post to Facebook?
First, think of all of the things that come across your news feed on Facebook and what are you most interested in? What types of posts? Then consider, would you really want to hear from the same person 3, 5, 10 times in a single day? I doubt it. So why would your fans want to hear from you that often?
We see a range of frequencies for Facebook updates and publisher often ask how often they should post. The simple answer is, only post things that are interesting and engaging and not more than once every 3-4 hours unless it's absolutely critical such as related to breaking news.
Post more frequently and you'll be limiting the reach of the prior post thus reducing it's value and making digital more work than it should be though you can always use Facebooks scheduling feature.
What about Twitter?
Twitter's usefulness for local publishers varies wildly by market and audience demographic composition, as a general rule we recommend publishers focus their efforts on Facebook (although setting up Twitter to auto-tweet Facebook updates isn't a bad idea).
While Twitter does not filter any posts the result is that a user only sees a fraction of the posts as the majority of posts are simply missed. A higher post frequency may be more useful on Twitter for this reason however relevance still matters or followers will stop following you and you still see the highest reach with posts that others re-tweet and thus share with their followers.
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