Reach & Scheduled Posts (76 posts)

  • Hi all. I manage 10 Facebook pages for clients of many different sizes. Recently, I’ve noticed the reach has gone WAY down for all of my pages. I haven’t done anything differently, but for example, pages that would typically get 300 reach are now getting below 100. I’ve also noticed the reach goes down when I schedule posts through Facebook’s own scheduling tool. Has anyone noticed anything different lately with theirs? Thanks in advance. 

  • @amoresocial – Samantha, I have been scheduling posts about twice a week for my MIssouri Arts Council page for about a month, and I have not noticed any slump in reach. In fact, these posts have been just as or more successful than posts with similar content.

    - Barbara

  • @bamacrobie Thanks Barbara, it’s just been the past 2 weeks for me so I’m hoping whatever it is will go back to normal soon. 

  • @Samantha I have! I don’t manage 10 pages but I do manage a lot …. yes I don’t know why this is and I don’t know the remedy — so any help would be awesome! :-) … OH BUT what I have heard is that sometimes Facebook doesn’t always pick up on third party posts and this is a more recent change so maybe that’s why the numbers are being negatively effected…? 

  • @amoresocial  @bamacrobie My reach has gone down but I attribute it to August which is typically slow. We don’t hold any member webinars; however, we’re gearing up to start off the Fall full of content. That said, some of my posts have gotten a more normal response (over 300) when I included an actual photo. My efforts are part of a challenge from Andrea Vahl in these clubs.

  • @devanianjali I don’t think Facebook consider’s its own scheduling tool a third party app, but who knows!

  • @kc_kreative Yeah I guess people could be on vacation and just generally away from their computer/phone. I include a photo whenever I can, as I too have noticed it gets more engagement but I haven’t noticed it gets more reach. 

  • @Samantha Oh! I thought you meant you were using something like hootsuite! sorry for the confusion there …. that’s what i was using for a while and I noticed the numbers going down so I stopped and went back to Facebook’s system and it is slowing crawling back up to the original numbers

  • @devanianjali I learned about 3rd-party posts from Mari Smith (or maybe SME) so that’s why I use FB’s scheduler.  @amoresocial Maybe you could do a poll about the content? Visit competitor / similar sites to see what they post? Time to put on your detectives hat!

  • @kc_kreative Thanks :) If it were only one of my clients Facebook pages, I would chalk it up to poor content. But the fact that it’s all of them, I feel like it’s something else. Because the posts are getting good engagement, just not good visibility.  

  • @amoresocial Good point…yesterday, my posts had low visibility yet had decent engagement (aka normal “Like” amounts). Maybe Facebook is tweaking the algorithm? My weekly Mari Smith email may have insight (which I shall dutifully post).

  • @kc_kreative It’s possible Facebook is doing something, because I notice now when I post something, the reach numbers won’t show up right away. Like I have a post that went out an hour ago and where the reach # usually is, there’s nothing! 

  • I think it is facebook.  My reach has been as high as 115k and now it is 75k.  It drives me nuts.  I know one thing that spiked the reach is when they included facebook from cell service. Maybe, facebook changed their minds about that. My posts use to be seen by 2,000 or more people and some posts are less than half now. 

  • @kim-olive Good guess. Mobile is a huge space tho and usually how I view Facebook when not at the office. Mari didn’t mention anything in her Friday email about the drop in numbers. Wonder if Ms. Cindy King will have any tidbits in her weekly review?

  • @kim-olive Okay I’m glad it’s not just me!! It’s driving me nuts as well and no one understands why I’m so upset about it. 

    I feel like it might have to do with the fact that their rolling out targeted posts. I have not received targeted posts yet, but I know some pages have. I remember Mari saying that sometimes when Facebook makes big changes, their analytics get all out of wack. 

  • I use my reach to get people to advertise with me on my website.  I give them shout outs on my page and I was able to say my posts reach over 100k people each week… (more than the Thrifty Nickel in our area…I don’t say this part).  They only claim 97,500.  Now I can’t say that.  It is very disappointing. But, I am negotiating an advertising deal with the Thrifty Nickel to have a “Fort Benning Area Guide” page in their classifieds.  So, I can reach their 97,500 people each week, plus my 75K people. 

    I really need to a way to take what I have on facebook & put it on a website, but I am having problems getting people off of facebook. 

  • @amoresocial  @kim-olive Just saw this article on ZDNet. Maybe it explains what is going on?

    Facebook to delete Page Likes and improve site integrity

    (http://www.zdnet.com/facebook-to-delete-page-likes-and-improve-site-integrity-7000003576/)

  •   @kc_kreative  Hmm I would hope that the two aren’t related in any way if you don’t purchase likes. But you never know.

  • @amoresocial I would hope not either but while they’re in the process (of setting the filter up?), it might change our dynamics…

  • @Kristy C. Carier, thanks for the article link.  This is going to be interesting to see how they do this.  I have never purchased fans, but I have participated in like ladders (but, these are typically genuine people) and also, through linkedin.  My fan base is mostly military families or people from my surrounding area. 

    I, also, think facebook is trying to come up with ways to force business owners to buy facebook advertisement to reach their fans.  I know personally I could not afford to pay facebook rates on a daily basis to advertise with them.  I have tried it on occasion, like the $50 (this is low compared to their $1,000 plan) one time post…if I did one post for 30 days…it would be $1500 & no guarantees.  I can’t even find the posts…afterwards, maybe I don’t know what I am doing.  I could copy & paste the link to keep up with it, I guess.  I have up to 140 posts a day on my wall b/c it is a community support page.

  • @kim-olive I would love to do some cross promoting with you on your Facebook page. Check out my page http://www.facebook.com/militaryhandbag.com.lori I am always promoting pages that support the military.

    Looks like you have a great page full of resources. :)

  • @kc_kreative  That is interesting!   You are right, @amoresocial – I don’t think that would be related to your issue.  It would be interesting if you went back to posting live and see if that changed your reach.

  • @andrea-vahl Yeah I did go back to posting live, still very very low comparative reach. :( I’m hoping next week will be better. 

  • I have the same thing happening.. as do many in my same niche.  It started in the morning of 8/30.. frustrating..

  • Is anyone still experiencing this dip in reach? I have one page that was averaging 500 reach a few weeks ago, and I’ve been consistent with posting and whatnot, and something I posted tonight got a reach of 70. She has 700 fans and she went from 70% reach to 10% reach. I feel like this is Facebook trying to get me to pay for promoted posts. We promote a post a few times a month, but c’mon, I’m going crazy over here! Especially since I don’t see any mention of this anywhere on the web.. -endrant-

  • Yes.. in my niche I have many, many people who are having the same issue.  Most of us had the problem start 8/30.

    We are seeing a 50-70% reduction

  • @devanianjali @kim-olive @kc_kreative
    @amoresocial

    If you see this will you post your average “taking about this #’s”.. are they under or over 10% of the fan base..

  • @jenettapenner I haven’t converted to %ages; however, I was getting over 400 views on a regular basis and now I’m lucky to get 200. I believe that we have around 2000 likes.

  • @jenettapenner All of my pages reach have been cut in half. So, if I used to get 500 reach for a post a few weeks ago, now I’m getting more like 250. 

    In terms of percentage reach of the total fan base, mine was always much higher than 10%. Right now I’d say my average is more like 40%. 

  • @amoresocial Hi Samantha- I have noticed the exact same thing, and my conspiracy theory brain is going nuts on this one… :-)

  • @kc_kreative  @omni-concierge  @jenettapenner It seems at least a 50% reach reduction is consistent. Peculiar… 

  • @amoresocial @jenettapenner @kc_kreative I think it’s time for an uprising… I’m going to piece together some stats into a post and start publicizing…

  • yep still struggling over here..

  • I wrote out some specifics about what we’re experiencing – does this look familiar?http://halftimelessons.com/is-facebook-decreasing-your-post-reach-to-get-you-to-buy-promoted-posts/

  • @omni-concierge Good blog post. Glad to see this conversation is going on in other places as well. I just don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about it, I can’t imagine us 6 or 7 are the only people being affected? 

  • I’m guessing that because there are so many variables, not to mention the subjectivity of each post, that people like us are just starting to catch on. I’m going to be tweeting this up over the next few days trying to raise its exposure…Jay

  • Hello everyone,
    I too have noticed a drop in reach on my Facebook page.  @omni-concierge – good article.  I have never used promoted posts, so in my case that is not the issue.  It just seems in general that the reach is less, even though I’ve been posting the same as always.

  • I did one promoted post.. but just when it first came out

  • this is interesting (look how recent it is).. this is my niche.. https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=2441021

  • @jenettapenner Interesting! Guess Edgerank isn’t a full-proof system.

    Right now my reach numbers have disappeared on all of my posts on all my pages. Clearly there is some kind of glitch… maybe they’re fixing it. 

  • it’s not… because FB is manipulating..

    some of mine have stopped showing since about aug 30, too

  • anyone else see this:

    https://www.facebook.com/marismith/posts/10151046874885009

  • @jenettapenner  Wow, I read through all the comments and everyone is having a problem. I wonder if Mari saw a dip in hers as well. 

    I’ve definitely noticed my own personal newsfeed is slower and shows less updates from the pages I like. I hate that – if I opted in to like a page, I want to see all of their updates! It’s rare that I like a page just for the fun of it… 

    I’m chalking it up to the fact that Facebook is trying to get us to buy promoted posts (obviously). I was just saying to someone that my clients spend enough money on ads, and that promoted posts are just not in the budget. Facebook needs to work on this or the advertisers will leave the platform. There are other places we can go (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, etc) that won’t take advantage of small businesses like us. 

    Oh and someone brought up a good point that even when you do promoted posts, it ends up getting a lot of foreign responses. So its not like when you promote a post, you’re getting quality targeted eyes… 

  • @jenettapenner  Wow, I read through all the comments and everyone is having a problem. I wonder if Mari saw a dip in hers as well. 

    I’ve definitely noticed my own personal newsfeed is slower and shows less updates from the pages I like. I hate that – if I opted in to like a page, I want to see all of their updates! It’s rare that I like a page just for the fun of it… 

    I’m chalking it up to the fact that Facebook is trying to get us to buy promoted posts (obviously). I was just saying to someone that my clients spend enough money on ads, and that promoted posts are just not in the budget. Facebook needs to work on this or the advertisers will leave the platform. There are other places we can go (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, etc) that won’t take advantage of small businesses like us. 

    Oh and someone brought up a good point that even when you do promoted posts, it ends up getting a lot of foreign responses. So its not like when you promote a post, you’re getting quality targeted eyes… 

  • I have done a few promoted posts.. one just the other day.  And I simply can not see how it is sustainable.  I lost money on it and maybe only gained 20 or so click thorughs to my site.

    I simply don’t see how their high cost could be worth it to the average page owner..

  • I have done them as well for a few of my clients, and I think only one of them has really benefited and just by increasing awareness of her business, not by driving more traffic to her store or anything tangible like that. 

  • Samantha I’ve also seen a decrease on reach to my campaigns. I run several fan pages from creative to traveling and the engagement doesn’t seem to be the same.

  • @mvicioso Thanks for letting me know. I wish there was something we could do.

    A post I posted an hour ago reached only 23 people. Granted, the page is relatively new and only has 250 fans, but a month ago before this all started I was getting a reach of 150! It has literally decreased 85%! I would appreciate some kind of explanation from Facebook. I spend hundreds, close to a thousand dollars in ads every month. Ridiculous. 

  • @amoresocial I noticed it takes time to reach more people. A posted to 1658 fans and reached 554 of them a hour ago. My latest post doesn’t have any updates yet.

    Also do you have an email you could PM, would like to ask you something.

  • @mvicioso Right I hear you, but that goes against what Edgerank is all about… one of the components, “decay” says that the longer a post has been up, the less likely it is to be seen. 

  • @mvicioso Email: samantha@amoresocial.com

  • @amoresocialthe whole thing seems to be “anti” edgerank, though. They are showing some much less despite high engagement… it doesn’t make sense.

    Someone in my niche recently got 1000+ likes on a photo and they only showed it to around 15% of her fans..

  • @jenettapenner Exactly! If Edgerank were functioning correctly, I assume she would have gotten much higher reach. 

  • Thanks S. I just sent you an email. 

  • new article fror you all..
    http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/09/17/is-facebook-viral-reach-down/

  • hej jenetta, great link thanks, looking into it now, though I think the problem I have is not 100% or maybe people here aren’t looking back at the posts couple of days earlier.
    My reach isn’t necessarily affected per se. 
    It’s the same, but you get bumps.say today saturday post = 100 likes 10pm 5 commentssunday 2am 105 likes 8 commentssunday 4 am 106 likes 10 comments

    sunday 8 am 150 likes 15 comments

    sunday 9 am 151 likes 15 commentssunday 10 samesunday 11 samesunday 13 400 likes 36 commentssunday 18 600+ likes 50+ commentsuntil mon evening 700+ tuesday 900it’s like they get stoppedi write this down manually by hand

    also before, when I post something, leave it up, see it dies 5-10 hours later or so on average, I post a next and almost immediately kill the previous post.

    now posts generally get the same bumps at the same time.

    now, new post have basically no effect on older post but they all slow down like hell? I tried this posting more frequently and same.but get more unlikes (annoyed people i’m guessing, hey was experimenting) 

    though if the algorithm changes into showing posts longer, and together this means I should post less, since nobody once they’re feed clogged up by just one page, and posts they seen, that were old, that they liked, already or where the conversation is already done and dead

  • funky thing throwing me off is though, some posts are still as used too, but not money, quick viral, 1 day, die off

  • @oli-sun 5 hours seems like a long FB life. I would be amazed if you could keep something alive longer.

  • posts? earlier days wasn’t so difficult, when i first started a new page last year I did a photo(manipulation) that went into several magazines fb pages, it was the 5th picture I shared, with maybe 150 likes on my page at first.
    I was shared 1843 times, liked 4152 times and commented on more than 700 timesbut it was like day one 50 likes, week 2, 500, week 4 1500, week 10 3000 was alive forever, even recently i spotted it in an albanian/german site, just shared, but not from my page.

    good stuff can stay alive forever, i think commenting helps, sharing as well, especially once you hit a certain social group where more than 1 person of that circle shares, facebook will give it more relevance, just like the google PR cred tweak ages ago.
    the more relevant to you (I’m sure they scan words and not just the word count) the more facebook will show it, and the longer unless you have put it up as most recent. 
    I think the same goes with pages you like, sharing or commenting on the same content, even liking. 
    Though with less authority than your friends.

    People you subscribe too, your “best” friends should also have more authority over aquantancies.

    I’m a freak theorist, but I think they also look at which groups you look most and build that into what you see to keep you on the site longer.
    exposure and frequency, say you like and comment more on co workers, (maybe also times related) then maybe what your coworkers like and comment on have more authority etc.

    maybe sounds a little far fetched.
    facebook has so much data they can use to keep you on the site, clicking them ads. i just know if it was me I would track (they track) and make use of all of it.

  • man, I went off track, but that was because of your question ;-)

    main point is I think it may have something to do with authority, like google does and did for a long time. how many people % favorited  you, how many of your friends like, favorite and frequently engage in the page, how many click the x, x 1000 variables….
    FB feed is maybe a mix between digg and google now which determines which pages live longer. 
    now I’m also reconsidering all of my outgoing “links”….. (page likes by page)

  • http://seekingalpha.com/article/863711-facebook-search-engine-the-death-of-google

    http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/26/prediction-facebook-will-enter-the-search-market-next-year/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)

  • Mine have continually dropped the past couple of weeks.  I went from having 1000-2000+ people that saw my posts to now less than 300.  I’m doing nothing different.  Very frustrating!  I was glad to come across this forum topic because I wondered if others were seeing this huge dip. 

  • Sorry you had to join the #NobodySeesMyFacebookPosts club @gina-stephenson

    ;0

  • lol.. we are trying to get it trending.. https://twitter.com/FrugalFreeGal/status/250663376697581568

    #NobodySeesMyFacebookPosts

    join in if you like

  • Okay I’m sorry, but within the last week one of my pages has gotten 250 new fans, putting us at over 700 fans. Yes, I had to advertise to get these fans, putting PLENTY of money in Facebook’s pocket. And yet, something I posted tonight for that fan page got a reach of only 47 (after an hour). I figure it MAY go up to 100 by the end of the night. Right now that’s LESS than 6% reach. 

    Are you kidding me? Why should I invest money in ads if this is what I get in return? Shame on you Facebook. -endrant-

  • I MAY have found an answer to our questions but I’m not sure. 

    This article was published about our problem: http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/09/17/is-facebook-viral-reach-down/

    Then, someone in the comments linked up to this article: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/07/03/facebook-updates-page-insights-to-make-reach-metric-more-accurate-include-mobile/

    This Inside Facebook article was published in the beginning of July. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.



  • @amoresocial Thanks for the article, Samantha.  This does seem to clarify things a bit.

  • I am working on a theory.  I have been doing a ton of research and thought about this whole thing.. and I THINK it might be simpler than we thought.  I think there may be no conspiracy theory (that FB just wants us to pay up).  I believe the sometime around the end of Aug they simply tightened up their edgerank.. specifically affinity (how much a reader interacts with your page).

    Why?  Because fb profiles are getting more and more bloated.  They “like” too many things, have too many friends.  And all the info simply does not fit in the feed.

    So tightening up the affinity algorithm gets rid of the extras..  I think it is that simple.

    I believe that those in my niche felt it quickly and were some of the 1st to notice because as deal and freebie blogger we ask our fans to like many, many FB pages a day.. because that can get free stuff doing it.  So our readers are extra “like” bloated.. so to speak. I think we were a bit the canary in the coal mine..

    The solution.. you either need to somehow get people to pair down their Facebook likes and don’t get rid of you in the process or you need to create more affinity with them.. ie.. like more of your posts, comment, share, and visit your page..

    thoughts?

  • @jenettapenner  Personally, I really think you may be right.  I tend to believe we are reading way too much “conspiracy” into the drop that many are experiencing.  I am not one of those pages that has a lot of likes, but those I do have tend to comment and post, so I have not noticed the kinds of issues many of you with more popular pages are seeing (so I guess my opinion may not pertain).

    I do know Facebook changed things to try and weed out the “fake likes” that may have also affected your pages.  I just hope you are able to get this worked out.  Good luck!

  • @kimkline I’m pretty sure it’s not fake likes.. I didn’t have any fan drop.. but it’s definitely a thought.

  • @jenettapenner  I actually didn’t think you had the “fake” like issue, but I do know many pages that seem to grow astronomically do.  

  • Oh I know that is not what you were saying ;)
    @kimkline

  • My fan base grows  & decreases by a few every day.  I post a lot so some people get annoyed…lol.  I have never purchased fans, but I have participated in LIKE ladders in the past.  My reach has gone down a lot, but I still have a lot of people responding to my posts.  I just don’t get it. 
    I do believe this is an agenda by facebook to get us to pay for the ads.

  • thought you all might want to check out my post:

    http://www.frugalfreebiesanddeals.com/not-seeing-the-updates-you-want-on-facebook-do-you-have-facebook-like-bloat/

  • Ugh.  I think I have read a couple of you have tried paying to promote their posts, I’d love to hear some more feedback if others are doing it as well.  My viewers just keep dwindling and now I’m at under 200, coming from over 2000.  Obviously it is time I put my social media efforts elsewhere but Facebook has been what worked the best for me in the past.    

  • @amoresocial For the past 2 weeks, I have noticed this as well, on about 4 different pages. In addition, I saw the Promoted Posts performances dwindling down too. And this is on posts launched on days/times previously very successful.


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