I recently shared an article on my Facebook business page from Mashable that reported there are now over 3 billion social media users in the world. I thought it was astounding that out of the 7.5 billion people on the planet that nearly half were on social. So I shared this seemingly interesting article on my page that afternoon.

“This is an amazing development.” I thought. “My followers will love this. It’ll be sure to wow ’em.”

Fast forward 12 hours later and it is 3 am. I had woken up in the middle of the night and was unable to get back to sleep. So like most who can’t sleep I reached for my phone to check Facebook. I checked my post from earlier to see how it did. I was eager to see all the interactions I had surely received. “There are going to be so many likes and shares” I thought. Well to my surprise there was nothing.

Zero. Zip. Zilch.

Here’s a screenshot of what I saw in all its glory.

Not only was there zero likes and shares, no one even saw it.

What?!

How could this be?

It wasn’t like it was July when social media slows down considerably. This was September. Summer was effectively over. The rush of back-to-school was over and classes were back in session. People were back to there usual social media usage again.

Before I go any further, here’s some background information: Facebook made a change to their algorithm a few years back so that users would see more updates and news from their friends and family and less from brands and pages. So now a Facebook business page reaches just 16% of their followers and we can expect organic reach will eventually arrive at zero.

Crazy, I know.

Now back to me at 3 am.

“So this is it.” I think to myself. “We’re now at zero organic reach.”

I also couldn’t help think about the irony of sharing an article reporting the large number of worldwide social media users and how not a single one of them saw my post.

Wow ’em, I did not.

I did check back on the post a few days later after I started writing this article and saw that 13 followers saw my post which was a small relief. “Okay. So we’re not at zero reach yet.”

It got me thinking though. What went wrong?

Did I share this article at the right time? Was my introduction good? Was my audience completely uninterested in the subject?

I took a look at my other posts (including those on my Twitter page) and saw that many had actually done well and reached a fair number of people even if some didn’t get a high number of social interactions. They seemed to fit a pattern. They were educational, inspirational, funny or social.

So here are some of my better performing posts to give you ideas on what to use on your social media pages.

Educational

Share something educational or informative like news about your company or industry. Tell people about a life hack you just learnt or an article you wrote. Tell everyone about upcoming business networking events or community events. Is there breaking news or an important alert your followers should know about?

Are your social media pages still suffering from a lack of engagement this summer? Get noticed with these tips. https://t.co/aTZjLsZSTO

— Knockout Social Media (@KO_Social_Media) August 17, 2017

Share motivational quotes or a personal story about a lesson you learned. Do you have stories from your industry or company about overcoming struggles or beating the odds that are shareable?

“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”

~ Lewis Carol pic.twitter.com/9j2h8vm5lH

— Knockout Social Media (@KO_Social_Media) December 23, 2017

— Scott Trites (@KO_Social_Media) May 31, 2017

Funny

Do you have a humourous or cute story you can share about a business experience? Try sharing a joke of the day, funny video or a funny article you found.

It’s Bacon Day. Celebrate accordingly. 🥓#BaconDay pic.twitter.com/Ss8ZCvbzta

— Knockout Social Media (@KO_Social_Media) December 30, 2017

Tell people about something you’re working on or a business trip you took. Tell your audience about an event you are attending and share photos/videos from that event. Get to know your audience by asking them questions. Ask them about their work (ex. what was your biggest accomplishment this week?). Also ask them about their interests (ex. How do you unwind after a busy day or what are the best shows on Netflix?).

Today I’ll be at the @QueenPinsHFX fundraiser for @nsedrecovery. QueenPins is a wonderful group, which I’m apart of, that selects a charity or cause to help and then organizes a top notch fundraiser to benefit it. Going to be an amazing event for a great cause! #QueenPinsHFX pic.twitter.com/SNDCmDHmmw

— Scott Trites (@KO_Social_Media) November 16, 2017

 

Final Thoughts

One of the best practices is to experiment. Try a few different kinds of post at different times and see what your audience responds to. Once you have a better understanding of what they like you can gear your content to their tastes.

There are 3 billion people out there just waiting for your content. Go wow ’em.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Trites is a Social Media Consultant and Owner of Knockout Social Media