How to maximize your organic results on Facebook

Here at spark*, we’ve had plenty of practice perfecting our organic (non-paid) Facebook strategies. While we can’t promise that we can help you go #viral, we can offer some tips and tricks to boost your social media success.

When it comes to Facebook and what helps organic content become successful, the Facebook algorithm can be a bit of a mystery. We’re here to help you decode the platform and test out new strategies to maximize your results. Whether your goal is to gain followers, encourage engagement, or increase impressions, below are five ways to improve your organic social media results on Facebook.

1. Engage With Your Audience

A bit of audience engagement can go a long way. The Facebook algorithm prioritizes posts from Pages a user has interacted with in the past to determine what to show first in their feed. Commenting on follower posts, liking mentions or shares, and answering user questions can all help your Page increase its own reach and engagement.

Facebook will also show your posts to more users if it inspires them to interact with each other. You can help create conversations by adding questions to the end of your post, encouraging users to share their thoughts, and posting timely and relevant content.

2. Avoid Posting Engagement Bait

Receiving engagement can help boost your content, but did you know explicitly asking for engagement can sometimes lead to the opposite? Specific types of engagement “bait”, such as asking users to like the post or tag a friend, can trigger the algorithm to reduce your organic reach or hide your post from user feeds all together.

To avoid this, focus on creating authentic content instead. Facebook prioritizes meaningful and informative content, including stories users will want to talk about or spend time reading. To determine what type of content resonates best with your audience, we recommend doing some audience research before posting. Using relevant hashtags can also help improve your reach without hurting your algorithmic score.

3. Determine Your Best Posting Schedule

How often you post on Facebook will depend on your specific account and audience, but a good rule of thumb is to aim for one post per day. When determining the best time to post, keep in mind time zones and which hours your audience will be most active online. By posting during these hours, your content will have a better chance of showing up higher in your audience’s feed, leading to more organic reach. Your best bet for maximum engagement is to post earlier in the day, before the peak hours of online traffic. This can help you “beat the rush” and allow your post to be served up first in user feeds.

4. Include Images and Short Videos

When it comes to maximizing engagement, there’s no better pair than Facebook posts and images. Facebook posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement on average compared to those without – adding a graphic or photo to your post could make all the difference. Additionally, 15% of all Facebook content is video. Making videos can sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! To cut through the static content your followers usually see, consider adding a simple, short video to your Facebook post.

5. Make Use of Facebook Stories & Reels

Facebook Stories will be your new best friend when it comes to generating engagement.

Stories automatically appear at the top of user feeds, meaning your audience will never need to search or scroll through their feed to see them. Facebook Stories can also help your organization stay top of mind, without overcrowding your Page with more permanent posts.

Half of all user time on Facebook is spent watching videos, making Reels a great option to gain impressions and engagement. Similar to TikTok, you can add music, audio, and visual effects to spruce up these short form videos. Other users can even “remix” these videos, allowing them to add on to your Reel. Encouraging users to remix your Reel can double the fun and the results!

Reels are also a great way for your page to be discovered by users who don’t already follow it. Facebook shows suggested Reels to users, regardless of whether they follow the creator, making Reels a great way to help increase your Page’s following.

Parting Thoughts

One final thing to note – the Facebook algorithm will affect all Pages differently. Keep our advice in mind, but don’t forget to test out what works best for you. If you’d prefer to leave the social media management to us - drop us a line!