Organic reach on Facebook is not dead!
The key to reaching non-followers or non- Facebook page likers, is to leverage their playlists and series..
It's not as complex as you think.
If you use Facebook's own Creator Studio to schedule your posts for Instagram and Facebook, you just have to go through an extra step or two as to optimize your videos to reach more people on Facebook.
Videos are the key to reaching more people on Facebook organically. This is the only way that you can leverage Facebook's playlists and series and reach people who don't follow you.
When I tell you that you can get organically discovered, it's so worth it.
To give you an idea, 49% of the people who watched my videos on Facebook since I've started adding them to playlists and series are people who do not follow me.
This shows you the power of organizing your videos (even GIFS, or animated videos) into playlists and series on Facebook.
As I mentioned, I schedule my posts through Facebook's free scheduling tool- Creator Studio. So watch Video 1 to see how I optimize my videos to get discovered via Creator Studio:.
For those of you that use other scheduling tools for your social media posts, you can add your videos to playlists and series too!
Just watch Video 2 for that.
Video 1: How to optimize your videos to get discovered on Creator Studio
Make sure you're set up for Creator Studio. You can get a step-by-step overview on how to do this via this Creator Studio lesson on Facebook.
Once you're signed up and on the main page, click the Create Post button on the top left hand side
Click Upload Video
After you upload your video, press play on the video to follow along with the steps.
Add a title with keywords about your post, type your caption as usual, and add hashtags at the end.
"Check in" to a location using the location drop symbol for local exposure
Add relevant tags. Facebook has pre-made tags, and you can also create your own. (I just use the Facebook created tags)
After you have the main page filled out, look at the right hand side of the screen. You should be under the Video Details Section
Click down the list, starting with Thumbnail to pick the best title image for your video. It should include similar keywords used in your title. You can use an auto-generated image, upload a custom image, or pick a frame from your video as the cover photo.
Next, you'll want to visit the distribution section. This is where you'll see the option to add your video to a playlist,, series, or both.
TIP: Create a series if you're creating multiple videos with the same story line (like multiple episodes in a Netflix series). Playlists have a similar theme. If you have your content pillars for your social media strategy I would suggest creating a playlist out of each.
11. You'll need to first create a Series or Playlist by adding a title, description and adding a playlist cover.
TIP: Use the dimensions 1600 x 1200px for your playlist cover. Use your brand fonts and colors if you have any.
12. Make sure the title of your playlists are also keywords that you want people to identify your page with. The biggest tip of from Facebook for maximum discovery is to keep your playlists within a unified theme.
For example, a playlist of recipe videos will perform better than a one covering a range of topics without a coherent theme.
If you don't use Creator Studio, and use another scheduling tool, (or even if you don't use anything at all) you can still at your videos to playlists or series.
Hopefully you have common themes for videos you've already posted.
If you don't you might want to figure out 3-5 topics you want to post about on your social media page moving forward.
Look over your videos and write down common themes. For example, since I teach Social Media Tips for growth, my Series is called Social Media Chat where I share tips about strategy, content creation, and about me. Each of these are playlists!
Once you're on your Facebook page, follow the video below to see how you can add your existing videos to playlists and series in addition to optimizing your video to have keyword-rich title, hashtags, and related tags.
Video 2: How to optimize your videos to get discovered on your Facebook page
So maybe now you're thinking... "Ok, so how does adding a video to a playlist help me grow?"
According to Facebook,
"Playlists and series can help all Pages that create related content increase discovery across the Facebook app ecosystem.
Organizing your videos into playlists or series enables Facebook to better suggest related content to viewers, increasing the likelihood that your audiences discover and watch multiple videos from your playlists and series. We create opportunities from Watch to News Feed to Search, to your Page itself for viewers to explore playlist and series content."
Basically, Facebook will show your videos for free to people who have interacted with similar videos.
Reaching new people for free is not an easy thing to do nowadays, so make sure you take advantage of these 'boosts' from Facebook when it's not something everybody knows about!
My final tip is to make sure you make notes of your current statistics such as how many people have viewed your video, and for how long, and check back on the results in 3 months.
For more "How to" tips for social media, check out my guide I've posted on Instagram which has the top 12 most frequently asked "How do I. ________ on social media" These tips will help you optimize and grow your brand on social media.
Let's connect on social media