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Does posting natively increase your reach?

does posting natively increase your reachDoes posting natively increase your reach? Well, there are a few things to consider here – and a few points were raised in a previous blog about context and content… but let’s dive in.

What do you mean by ‘posting natively’?

Posting direct to the platform and not making people move around to view content. This works with blogs, vlogs and links to websites. And I get the irony that this is a blog and has been promoted on my social media platforms. But you’ll notice how that even though the blog isn’t native to the platforms I’m promoting it on, I’m creating native content to promote the blog… did you see a graphic on Facebook or did you just see a boring old link with no imagery? I hope you saw the graphic that I uploaded to Facebook so I could combine the benefits of the native posting with the benefits of bringing you here to my little corner of the internet.

Does posting natively increase reach?

Yep. And this is two fold. Thinking of Facebook, it’s said (and in my experience this is correct!), that the algorithm prefers native content. And why wouldn’t it? Watching stuff natively on the platform and not venturing off to other sites is a win for any website. Even when you’re as big as Facebook. For the consumer too, you click it, you watch it, you get bored, you move on. You don’t have to open and close tabs to get back to where you were. And the other reason that native posting can increase reach is simply because it looks a whole lot better in the feed. This means it looks a LOT more interesting and will encourage a lot more engagement.

Should I only post natively?

Yes and no. If you take the example of video, you might be looking to develop your Youtube channel, but want to use your Facebook page to help promote your videos. So what do you do? There are a few options. You can just post a link to your video on Facebook and hope for the best, fully aware that it doesn’t look half as good as a native post and that the reach will be less – but it will link to Youtube and you’ll get your views there. You could post an image from the video natively and also post the link to the video. It looks visually more inviting and you still drive people in the right direction. You create a short ‘trailer’ and post that video natively and include the link to Youtube. You post natively to Facebook. By which I mean you post the WHOLE video natively to Facebook and, if you like, to Youtube. If your objective is views, wherever they come from, this can work well.

Here’s just one example of how posting natively can increase your reach – what do you think? How did you do it? I’d love to hear…

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Does context matter on your social media content?

Does context matter on social media?Does context matter when it comes to your social media content? It’s something that I am constantly aware of, but a post I saw on Instagram last week prompted me to blog.

So, what do I mean? Context?

In this blog, I’m looking at the platforms and the way they work – so we’re thinking about Twitter’s 140 character limit – the ‘stuff’ that makes a platform the platform. Now, any social media user will know that all the platforms have their own style and their own limits. We have the retweet on Twitter, for example, that allows you to share other people’s content with your followers, but you can’t retweet on Facebook, you share. And you can’t share on Instagram, you repost. See what I mean?

Does context matter then?

Yes. The example I saw that inspired me to write this blog (and made me revisit the importance of this) was a competition on Instagram. Instagram is a highly visual platform, as we all know, and this competition graphic was, well, underwhelming. White background, common font, pixelated. Ugh. That annoyed me for starters. But you know what annoyed me more? The word share. Like and share. Now, this annoyed me on a number of different levels…

  1. The graphic had clearly been used on Facebook as that’s where ‘sharing’ works
  2. The graphic was rubbish and shouldn’t have generated much interest on Facebook either
  3. The competition was using liking and sharing as an entry mechanism. And having sharing as an entry mechanism breaks Facebook rules.

The last one is a REAL bug bear or mine, but let’s get back to the actual theme of the blog…

The graphic asked people to like and share to enter. How on earth can you do that on Instagram? You can’t. Saying this shows a lack of understanding for the platform and a lack of care. Context matters. It’s frustrating when someone posts competitions and even content that doesn’t fit a platform’s parameters. And there’s no need for it. If you’re doing it to ‘save time’, just don’t. Some content can be shared across platforms, I get that, but if it doesn’t look native, just don’t. It’s better not to bother. Please. Context matters. You could have killer content, but if they context is out, it just doesn’t work.

What do you think? Does context matter to you?

What do you think? Have you see requests for a share on Instagram? A repost on Facebook? How did it make you feel?

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How does Facebook advert targeting work?

I love a Facebook advert, and the targeting available is just incredible. More than this, it’s really easy to set up. It takes a bit of time and patience, but it’s really worth it. This is more of a basic intro to get you all fired up about Facebook adverts and targeting, I could probably write a book on it…

Let’s start at the beginning…how does Facebook advert targeting work?

How does Facebook advert targeting work?If you have a look at Facebook and select the create ad option, you’ll work through it (after you’ve chosen your objective, etc.) until you get to targeting – which is what this blog is all about about. So, how does it work? Facebook targeting allows you to make sure your ad is shown to the people who have the most chance of wanting to buy or being interested in your product. You can target by geographical location (not just UK, a whole lot more specific than that!), gender, age, language, behaviours and interests (including pages they like), and you can even include or exclude people. You can even target connections. Targeting is great and can make sure your ad is seen by the right people, which is different to magazines. Let me work through one example before I leave you to ponder you own targeting and your next Facebook ad.

And example of Facebook advert targeting in action

Let’s say you make car seat covers – you know, the seat covers that stop hair, mud and other stuff damaging your upholstery. You do loads of car seat covers, but let’s say you want to promote a backseat cover that stops little Charlie’s juice and snacks from making a HUGE mess inside the car. So you’d probably target ladies of childbearing age. Maybe you’d go UK (if that’s who you market to) and you could look to add interests connected to children – and websites/pages too. Maybe somewhere like Mumsnet? Mothercare? NCT? That would be one ad. Or maybe you have the same product but you want to aim it at men who have ‘luxury’ cars that the kids sometimes go it? So you’d change the gender and the interests – maybe you’d think Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc. Get the picture? Of course, your imagery would be different to appeal to different groups, but can you see what I’m getting at. And this is just an overview, when you get into it, you could can be even more specific if you like.

How specific should you be?

However, a word of warning – being specific is great, but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face and don’t make your potential reach too small. There’s an illustration that shows the size of your potential audience as you add to your targeting, so try and keep the dial in the green to get maximum reach. Find out more here 

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