How to Increase Reach on Facebook with Stunning Interactive Content

We’ve all been there, spending countless hours trying to figure out how to increase reach on Facebook.

You take the time to produce exceptional content only to have just a handful of people see and interact with it.

What do you do if you want to get more out of your Facebook posts?

Is the content you posting the main issue here?

The mistake that most of us make is to post the same sort of pictures and videos daily. This is why people just swipe pass your content.

Facebook carefully takes note of this and simply keeps similar future posts of yours away from users.

Its time to start mixing things up a bit by making your posts more exciting for your audience.

No more sticking to the same format, Facebook has tons of features that will allow you to create engaging content.

Let’s explore some of those features now.

How to Increase Reach on Facebook

Facebook reach keeps going down to force us to use their ads. This is how you can use viral content to push your message through.

Facebook Reach is a key KPI for social marketers. It’s vital in measuring how your brand is reaching a wider audience.

In this article, we look at exactly what affects Facebook Reach and how you can boost it with interactive content.

There are a couple of different types of Facebook Reach, each work in different ways. Here’s what you should know:

Organic Reach

According to SocialBakers:

Facebook Organic Reach means the number of unique users who saw your Page post in News Feed or on your Page, not as a result of an ad, otherwise known as ‘unpaid’ distribution.

Facebook “bases what you see on aspects like popularity, post frequency, the likelihood you’ll like a post,” amongst other factors.

This means that our audience doesn’t necessarily see things in chronological order.

Everyone’s posts get a specific ‘ranking’ based on the factors mentioned above and are shown in the order perceived most relevant to the user.

Organic Reach can be one of the trickiest to really master, as you are increasingly fighting for space amongst ads. 

Viral Reach

The word ‘viral’ may cause you and your marketing colleagues to roll their eyes… 5 years ago, ‘making something go viral’ was a frequent request to marketing agencies following the explosion of online video. 

Now, we see viral posts daily with so many engaged social media users across a growing number of platforms.

In this context, ‘viral reach’ measures the number of people who came across your post because of another person within their network.

This is achieved with a high level of engagement, such as comments, shares, likes.

Paid Reach

This doesn’t need too much explanation:

Paid Reach measures the number of people who saw your posts because you paid to advertise them.

How Can I Improve My ‘Reach’ Score on Facebook?

Improving your Facebook Reach is all about the content you are putting out.

When looking at Viral and Unpaid Reach, we’ve already learned that engagement is important, so it has to be relevant and interesting.

With Paid Reach, making sure that the audience you’ve targeted to see the content is compelled to interact with it is key.

The answer lies in interactive content. It’s a win-win, entertain and engage your audience, and get the opportunity to learn a bit about them.  

81% agree that interactive content grabs attention more effectively than static content. 66% agree that audience engagement has increased since their organization started using interactive content.

It’s a no brainer. There are lots of different kinds of interactive content that can encourage your audience to get involved. 

Quizzes

Quizzes are up there with the most engaging types of Facebook posts. 

Buzzsumo tells us: “The most shared quiz published during the last 5 years has gotten a total of 5.4 million social interactions, almost all of them from Facebook”. 

Quizzes is an effective tool because:

• You can give people more information about who you are and what you are doing
• Provide simple Call-to-actions
• Capture data from those taking the quiz

For your audience, quizzes are quick to consume, and most of all, fun!

Personality quizzes are particularly good at capturing attention and compelling your audience to take part, “What kind of a marketer are you?” or even “Which Disney princess would be your best friend?” are difficult to scroll past, let’s face it, we all love talking and hearing about ourselves.

You can easily create quizzes online that integrate with your marketing platforms, capture useful data, and have a beautiful design.

Pro Tip: 

You can drum up engagement on Facebook by:

• Linking to a great quiz (relevant to your brand and content plan) in your post.
• An engaging headline.
• Inviting your audience to take part and share with their friends.

Calculators

Calculators are a great practical tool that gives instant answers to your audience.

They work well because, like quizzes, they’re quick and satisfying to interact with.

Calculators work because it’s often the perceived ‘experts’ challenging the proficiency of something that their audience is trying to do well.

The calculator often provides a ‘score’ and follows up with advice on how to improve (with their content, product, or service), making it a great way to convert those that interact.

A great example of this is Hubspot’s Website Grader:

You simply enter a URL and your email address and get their assessment of your site.

It prompts you to find out “how we can bump up that score a bit,” with a page that breaks down your result and links to content from Hubspot to further your understanding, and of course, clear calls-to-action to start a free trial.

Pro Tip: 

Create a calculator or measuring tool that responds to a challenge your audience will be familiar with. Invite them to take part, share their score in the comments, and then share with people to compare, engaging in a bit of healthy competition. 

Let’s not forget Facebook Native content. This was when content created directly within Facebook, and the activity and interaction stay within the Facebook post.

It’s no surprise that Facebook’s algorithm favors this kind of content, so it’s a smart way to boost your Organic Reach.

Contests

Social media contests are a popular type of post that works especially well with platforms that collect comments under posts, such as Facebook.

Due to the amount of interaction required to enter a Facebook quiz, it’s a simple way to boost your Facebook Reach, provided your ‘prize’ and copy are compelling enough.

This example from Dopesnow shows this perfectly. To enter the competition, you must visit their ‘style creator’ on their website, and put together a snowboarding outfit based on items they sell. 

The action of doing this helps convert customers by forcing them to play around with different looks and examine the items ‘up close’, informing them of the offering as well as getting them to stick around on the website.

It then asks people to like the photo and share examples in the comments (improving Organic Reach). 

Pro Tip: 

Come up with something of value that you can gift to the contest winner. Examples include products, experiences, or your service.

Explain the ‘rules,’ which usually involve a combination of commenting on the post, tagging a friend, following the page and sharing it on their own profile.

Give a deadline to enter, and make sure you follow up on the post as a reminder to those new followers who participated in the contest about your offering.

The aim is not to just convert the ‘winner,’ but to gain new followers, get them interested in your product or service, and to get them sharing your posts with their network.

Polls

A poll created directly within your Facebook page is perhaps your fastest route to engagement, which will increase your reach.

For the same reasons a quiz works, it’s fun and quick, and we get the instant gratification of knowing how others voted. 

You get answers to help you develop your approach, and your audience feels involved. Win-win!

You can use polls in many different ways, for example, to get feedback on something product-related, to prompt discussion on something relevant to your audience, or just for fun.

Pro Tip: 

Ask a question relevant to your audience’s interests.

For example, you might ask, “What’s your favorite email platform?” to marketers.

You can also use it as an opportunity to direct people to other content, such as a link to a post on your blog.

Prompting the audience to add more detail: “tell us why in the comments!” is another great way of attracting even more engagement. 

You can also create polls within stories, which comes with the benefit of sitting at the top of everyone’s Facebook homepage when they log in, rather than being lost in the feed.

Livestreaming

Another example of a Facebook native tool that comes with the benefit of being new and shiny and Facebook wants to show it off!

Your audience is, therefore, more likely to see it, and if you get the content right, it’s a great way to get people commenting. 

Livestreaming is a growing format, with the number of Facebook Live broadcasts reaching 3.5 billion in 2018, according to Facebook.

You can use a live stream as a way to broadcast something already happening.

For example, a presentation at an event, which you can ask people to comment along to.

Or, you can come up with content that is especially for the live stream, such as an unveiling of a product, or a live Q&A.

Pro Tip: 

This works best when people know it’s happening.

Alert your existing audience of the time and date to expect the live stream in advance, so they are prepared to join you online.

Encourage that they tag friends in the comments to do the same, and recommend that people ‘like’ your page, so they don’t miss it.

TL;DR

If you want to increase your Facebook Reach, it’s all about engagement. The best way to increase engagement? Share fun, interactive content that your audience actually cares about.

What is your strategy for increasing reach on Facebook? Let us know in the comments section below.