How to Get More Facebook Traffic by Posting Less

This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Dane O'Leary

I continuously hear the same questions from my clients:

"How can I start using Snapchat?"

"Should I be posting more Stories on Instagram?"

These new platforms are obviously important. But my response is typically the same:

"But how are you doing on Facebook?"

It may seem like old news now, but Facebook still tops the charts with nearly 2.2 billion peopleactive on Facebook at least on a monthly basis. Of those, over 63% (or 1.4 billion) log into Facebook daily.

Going by the most recent tally, Facebook's global penetration is an astounding 22.9%. This means that more than one in every five humans is on Facebook.

It's enough to make any marketer's mouth water.

With Facebook being so ubiquitous, the logical assumption is that posting more content on Facebook would give your content more opportunities to be seen. But that's not exactly how it works. In fact, it's actually the opposite.

Wait. Why would fewer posts mean more reach? Does that even make sense?

Actually, it does. Here's why.

Facebook's new algorithm prefers quality over quantity

Your organic reach is the number of people who see your "free" posts. While there are strategies to boost your organic reach, it's only getting harder and harder.

In fact, the vast majority of Pages have seen a continual decline in their organic reach over the past several years. Some have suggested these changes to organic reach reflect a shift in the company's priorities as Facebook has become more focused on generating revenue with its hugely popular advertising system.

Basically, many of the changes Facebook has made to the News Feed algorithm have resulted in Facebook Pages having far less organic reach than before.

One of the specific changes to the algorithm pertains to how Facebook counts post views. Previously, Facebook would count a view for just being in a user's News Feed, even if that post never actually appeared on the user's screen. However, with the algorithm changes, a post must actually make it onto a user's screen before Facebook will count it as a view.

It's always been this way for paid (or "boosted") posts, but it now counts views of non-boosted content in the same way. As a result, organic reach now appears to be far less for most Pages.

According to a post from Mark Zuckerberg, they made these changes to the News Feed algorithm as part of a new direction for the platform. In effect, the company wanted Facebook users to have more "meaningful interactions" on the platform, and they achieved this by making sure their News Feeds consist almost solely of content from family, friends, and relevant branded content.

Written by:

Dane O'Leary
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My name is Dane, and I'm a professional writer and tech journalist. My work has been featured on the likes of Android Authority, Dual-Diagnosis.org, Millennial Magazine, Modernize.com, and numerous other properties. I excel at long-form content, technical copy, editorials, and blog posts. Some of the industries for which I've written the most include consumer and mobile technology, interior design, and mental health.
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