8 Tips To Improve Facebook Reach With Unconnected Distribution
This article is brought to you by Social Media Marketing World.
Facebook started as a platform for connected distribution. In other words, users would only see content from profiles and pages that they followed. When FB launched ads in 2007, they remained the only reliable way for brands to deliver content beyond their follower base.
For years, an unconnected distribution system has been used to expand the reach of public organic posts. Historically, this system has delivered content that connected profiles and pages have engaged with. For example, users might see content from a business page they don’t follow, prefaced by a note that a person they do follow commented on the post.
Although this unconnected distribution system has its limitations, it’s allowed businesses to reach more people like their followers, which is helpful for visibility and brand awareness. However, it’s also contributed to an influx of engagement bait. Meta officially discourages engagement bait, which it describes as encouraging followers to react, comment, or share.
In mid-2022, Meta began expanding its unconnected distribution system. Now users can see content from business pages and public profiles that they have absolutely no connection to but that may be of interest, according to Meta.
Content from Facebook’s unconnected distribution system may display in a couple of different ways in a user’s news feed:
Image, video, link, and text content shows a Suggested for You label at the top of the post.
Suggested reels display in a dedicated panel at the top of users’ feeds and in reels-only panels that appear randomly throughout users’ feeds.
For social media marketers, the struggle to get results from organic tactics isn’t new. Studies show that organic reach has declined for years. In 2022, the average organic reach for a Facebook page post is only 5.2%, down from 7.7% in 2018.
In most cases, FB reach is just a small part of marketers’ goals. Instead, actions such as likes, comments, shares, messages, and clicks are much more valuable because they can increase reach and lead to conversions. But the average engagement rate for Facebook pages—0.13%—isn’t particularly encouraging either.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that continuing to rely on FB’s connected distribution system won’t help marketers improve these rates. Instead, understanding and using Facebook’s unconnected distribution system is the most effective way for marketers to generate value and reach their goals.
If you’re marketing businesses but you’re still relying on connected distribution, it’s time to revisit your strategy.
To learn how to adapt to Facebook’s unconnected distribution system, read the full article.
Patricia is the Business Mentor and owner of Grow Vantage and a Past President of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce. She applies over 30 years of business experience (from start-up to corporate) to mentor entrepreneurs. Since 2011, she has held over 6,500 coaching and training sessions in-person and online. Through Ask For Directions Training, her entrepreneurial training program (and parent company Grow Vantage), and as a business coach, she works with start-ups who are new (or who have lost traction) to design, launch and grow their businesses. Along with 20 other expert instructors she teaches strategies in marketing, sales, communications, and finance, as well as practical techniques to increase productivity, and manage their businesses. In other words, everything entrepreneurs need to learn to grow and run their businesses successfully, and avoid the costly mistakes they can't even see coming - that lead to delays in growth and getting stuck.
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