Seven Tips to Organically to Grow Your Reach on Facebook

Growing a fan base on Facebook in 2021 is not an easy thing to do, it is especially hard if you're trying to grow a fan base for a new page.

Just a few years ago new pages could grow quickly and organically -- because there were so few pages competing for attention in the news feed.

But now, if you want to grow a high-quality, engaged fan base, you need to plan well and execute well.

How do you do this? What are the steps for making it happen?

Let me show you 7 ways to build up your loyal Facebook following.

1. Define Your Target Market

It's critical for every business to know their ideal customer BEFORE getting started on Facebook.

Remember -- not all 1.86 billion Facebook users are your target customers. Finding the right kind of fans is essential if you want to use Facebook to drive sales. And targeting helps you find the right kinds of fans.

2. Get The Tone Right

Now that you've defined your target audience, you need to start talking to them using the posts on your page.

While communicating with fans you should:

• speak like them
• think like them
• act like them

For example, if my target customer is a young mom in my area, I need to post things that appeal to young moms.

I shouldn't post about stuff about going out or things that appeal mostly to men or people without kids.

So to build trust with my fans, I will need to design my posts to appeal to my target market.

3. Identify Which Posts Spur the Most Engagement

Every Facebook page is unique and posts that work on one page may not get engagement on another page. That's why it's important to test what works and what doesn't.

When I see a post has been successful, I plan a similar post in the future. If a post does terrible, that type of post will be avoided.

Facebook status ideas that repeatedly spark response from fans include:

• Questions -- people love to answer yes/no or similar 1-word answers (just keep it relevant)
• Photos -- pictures always win on Facebook because the website is so visual
• Fill-in-the-Blanks -- these allow for a quick answer on light-hearted topics
• Contests -- Facebook contests typically do well with targeted fans (don't use contests too often and make sure prizes are relevant to your page). 
• Videos - Videos are hot on Facebook, and pretty much everywhere else.

4. Remember it's a Long-Term Investment

With a Facebook page, it's not "If You Build It They Will Come" -- that only works in a Kevin Costner movie!

Successful social media marketing takes time, hard work and patience.

So continue building your page, maintaining and nurturing strong relationships with fans.

And remember -- those not buying today will know about your brand when they need to make a purchase somewhere down the road.

5. Keep it Real, Relaxed and Relevant

I love the 3 R's.

While building your fan base you MUST keep things real, relaxed and relevant.

Don't get frustrated when sales don't immediately come. For heaven's sake, don't start blasting promotional posts every hour thinking that's the best way to drum up business.

You'll only chase away high-quality fans and blow your budget in the process.

Instead, try a post a day in the beginning. Don't overwhelm fans by flooding the news feed right out of the gate.

Give fans a chance to get to know, like and trust you -- then start posting more often.

Consistency is important, but quality should be your top priority if you hope to grow a high-quality fan base.

6. Stick to a Schedule

As a page manager, the worst thing you can do -- especially in the beginning -- is post sporadically.

Two posts Monday, 4 on Tuesday, none Wednesday, 7 posts on Thursday and nothing on the weekend...

Sound familiar?

Stop it! This won't help your page.

Set up a schedule with times during the day when you want to post.

I strongly suggest you create a posting schedule for your Facebook page. Just decide what and when you're going to post -- then stick to it.

7. Monitor and Measure

By now we've committed to:

• define our target audience
• use the proper tone in our posts
• post the kinds of updates that get the most engagement
• follow the 3 R's -- Real, Relaxed and Relevant
• and stick to a schedule

Now what?!

Sit back and evaluate what works. Take some time once a month to explore your page's Insights. Identify what worked and what didn't.

I can't tell you what strategies are best for you -- because every page is different.

But if a post gets ZERO engagement, obviously that technique didn't work and it's time to make some adjustments. 

Just make sure you are reviewing the results at least once every 30 days.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have these 7 tips for growing your fan base, it's time to apply them to your page.

And if you're really smart, you'll apply these same principles to your efforts on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest too.

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