Tips for Getting Your Content Seen on Facebook

Getting your content in front of your target audience on Facebook can be a challenging process. However, by understanding how Facebook chooses to display content, you can greatly improve the likelihood of your posts being seen. 

In this post, I will offer a curated list with tips to help your practice produce higher-ranking content within Facebook’s algorithm. Keep reading to learn more! 

 

Respond to Your Patients

Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes posts from pages that an individual has interacted with. If you have patients leaving comments on your posts or reaching out through Messenger, respond to them. Not only does this help your rankings, but it also allows you to connect with more (potential) patients.

Create Opportunities for Conversation

Facebook prioritizes posts that spark conversation and meaningful interaction. When posting content to your page, consider asking your audience a question like “what do you think about this new service?” This presents your audience with an opportunity to share their thoughts, which could lead to others engaging with them in the comments.

Avoid “Engagement-Baiting” Posts

Don’t launch posts that beg people to engage with you. This is different from the previous tip since engagement-baiting typically lacks personal or thought-provoking content. Examples could be anything from asking people to respond to the post with likes/comments/shares to posting spammy links. In order to perform better within the algorithm, avoid posting this kind of content.

Use Images and Videos in Posts

Over the years, Facebook has seen increased engagement when it comes to visual content, specifically videos. The longer a user watches your video content, the more likely they are to see future videos rank higher in their news feed. If your practice is able to utilize video content, make sure the content is engaging enough to keep the user invested throughout the video.

Post Content During Peak Hours 

Post at a time when your audience is most likely to see it. This is also known as peak time. By posting your content during peak time, your audience is more likely to see the post because of its relevance. (Please note, if you are signed up for our Sesame Social Service, you should have access to this information within the Social Tool. If you have our service and do not know how to access this information, please reach out and our team will be happy to assist you.)

Consider Audience Reaction When Posting Content

Over the years, the Facebook algorithm has ranked posts with emotional reactions higher than posts with just “like” reactions. If you know your patients react to specific content with “love” or “caring” reactions, be sure to utilize this to your advantage. For example, if patients typically react to posts about happy smiling patients or in-office giveaways with the “love” reaction, create more of that type of content.

Encourage Employees or Patients to Share Posts

Because of the Facebook algorithm, your posts benefit from additional engagement when it comes to sharing them. As a practice, your posts will achieve minimal ranking by just posting to Facebook alone. But if a user were to share a post, that post will automatically rank higher within their friend’s news feeds. This occurs because an individual user’s content is seen as being more credible and meaningful to the algorithm than a business page’s content. Without being pushy, encourage employees and patients to share your practice’s content to help give yourself a rankings boost!

The first step to improving your rankings is to understand how you can utilize Facebook’s algorithm to your advantage. It’s important to know your audience (when they’re active and what content they like) and engage with them. Just this alone will help your content immensely. That said, I hope that you are able to utilize all of these tips to help your practice rank higher and receive more engagement.

If you have any additional questions regarding your social content or would like to speak with the Social Team about how to integrate these tips at your practice, please feel free to reach out to us!

 

—Nicole Gamble, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications