Hey, babes! Welcome to my newest blog series, Soul Biz Sunday! Several times a month, on Sunday’s, I’ll be sharing with you some of my favorite tips, tricks and thoughts to help you start, build and grow your soul-centered biz online.
Our first topic of discussion: Facebook. Specifically your Facebook news feed. This actually applies to everyone, but it has extra importance for those of you with a biz with a Facebook page. Even if you don’t have a business but you’re feeling frustrated with the state of your Facebook news feed these days, keep reading.
Facebook has rolled out yet another change to their algorithm to determine what people see in their news feed. News feed has been a point of frustration for everyone for a while. Users log in and see posts they couldn’t care less about, while Page owners are seeing fewer and fewer people are seeing posts “organically”. {Organic Reach: the number of people who see your posts on Facebook for free. i.e. you didn’t boost or pay for an ad}
There are a handful of factors that determine what gets in your news feed, but one of the core factors is how you engage with the Pages you like. Keep in mind that you’re always going to see more of what Facebook thinks you like which they determine based on what you like, share and comment on.
I did kind of lie though because I’m actually going to share 6 tips, 3 more aimed at Facebook users and 3 specifically for you babes managing a biz page.
3 Tips for Your Facebook News Feed
1. Update Your Likes
Many Pages for things like blogs, Etsy shops and what are considered Facebook Community Pages can fall to the wayside over time and stop getting updates but still influence what Facebook thinks you like. Our interests change over time too so you probably have likes that you really aren’t interested in anymore. The best thing to do is go through your Likes and “unlike” anything that no longer interest you or that looks like a dead page. When you leave the things that you would genuinely like to see in your feed you will actually see more of it. You can do this by going to your Likes box on the left of your profile page. Click the number listed {I have over 1700!} and start unliking things you no longer care to follow. Your likes are shown chronologically, so take the time to scroll to the bottom because you’ll likely find your oldest likes are the most irrelevant to you now.
2. Create Lists
Even with cleaning your likes you may still be missing out on stuff you actually want to see. Creating Interest Lists help this tremendously. Go to your Interests page and click the Add Interest button. You can search public lists or you can click the Create List button to make your own. Search for the people, blogs, sites and companies you want to remember to read updates from. Name your list and save it. It will then show up on the left column of your news feed page. When you click the name of an interest list you’ll see everything from the people you put there.
3. Use Notifications
Make sure you use the Notification option for both Pages and Groups to make sure you’re getting more of what you want and less of what you don’t. For Pages, go to a page you’ve liked and hover your cursor over the “Like” button. Click the “Get Notifications” link that pops up. In Groups click the Notification button found at the bottom of the Group header graphic so you see a blue checkmark indicating notifications are on. With Groups this will not only show them in your news feed but will also send you an email when someone posts to the Group. For really active Groups this might not be ideal so be sure to add them to your Interest Lists.
3 Tips for Your Facebook Page
1. Don’t Flood Your Page
More posts doesn’t mean more reach. The key in all interactions with your Page and your audience is quality over quantity. Posting something every few hours doesn’t help {which is easy to arrange with scheduled posts and some pages really over use this feature}. And don’t make all your posts promotional posts. Give people something to engage in! Remember, engagement is what helps your stuff show up in their news feed. Chat, talk, ask questions and in general shows us you’re a real person too!
2. Don’t Invite Your Friends
…unless they really have an interest in what you do. Some people have this egocentric need for all their Facebook friends to “like” their Page. It doesn’t matter if their friends like what they do but they feel that if you’re really their “friend” you’ll support them by “liking” their Page. No! Stop this! Invite them once but don’t nag people with invites until they cave. If you know your organic reach is only 2% on average that 2% should be people who are truly interested and engaged with your Page. Again, quality over quantity. A smaller number of genuine likes is better than huge numbers of likes just for the sake of looking popular. {P.S. We know when your likes are bullshit when you have something like 20K likes but nobody ever comments, likes or shares your stuff…let’s be honest.}
3. Create a Group
This might feel like overkill, but Groups are something that I genuinely feel are getting to be necessary when it comes to Facebook engagement. It’s something you can do along with your Page or it can take its place, which is what I’ve done. Your Group is a way to more deeply engage with and support your the people that really love what you do. With a soul-centered biz your focus is on helping people, something you can often do more with a Group than a Page. Not everyone will join your Group but you can be assured that the ones that do make up the core of your Facebook tribe.
Social media is constantly changing which is one of the many reasons it shouldn’t be the place where you run your business, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or anywhere else. It should be a way to engage and find your clients and community but be sure to put time and energy into your website, blog and email list first and foremost.
By the way…
The new REVISED and PERPETUAL Soul Biz Planner + Workbook is out! Tons of biz goodness to help you start, build and grow your biz online including biz lessons, calendars, trackers for your growth, journaling and so much more. Start using it any time of year no matter where you are in the growth of your biz. And it comes with a very cool bonus!
