There are a lot of tricks out there to outsmart the Facebook algorithm, but they can easily
backfire and get your organic reach restricted.
So watch out for these bad practices — details inside the video!
Hey this is Chia from Brand24 and today I want to take another look at Facebook, this
time at some common mistakes that can end up devastating the organic reach of your Page.
These bad habits essentially help you “game” the Facebook algorithm, so they might give
you a quick little boost in engagement in the short run, but since Facebook considers
these methods to be manipulative, using them too often can actually get the organic traffic
for your Page restricted once Facebook figures out what you’re doing… which it will,
eventually...
These bad practices for Facebook are known collectively as engagement bait.
You’ve probably seen engagement bait type posts, or maybe you’ve even created or engaged
with one yourself.
In fact, one of the most popular types — “Comment Bait” — is directly about the Facebook
algorithm itself.
It’s a meme that says unless you comment on the post to “bypass the system” and
then copy-and-paste it to spread it even further, you will only ever see content from the same
26 people in your feed.
This isn’t true, you’re not limited to seeing content from the same 20-odd people,
although it might seem that way since the algorithm likes to play favorites.
It’s just a tempting form of Engagement Bait that seems to work.
Another common type is Vote Bait, where a post will ask you to engage by commenting
with your vote on something;
React Bait is pretty similar, except that the post will ask you for a reaction instead
of a comment;
And Comment Bait, like in the example above, is exactly what it sounds like.
The post will ask you for a comment and may even give you specific instructions about
which word or emoji to comment with, if you want or like something.
Share Bait and Tag Bait posts are also pretty common, especially in conjunction with social
media contests.
These usually ask you to share a post or tag a friend in the comments section for a chance
to win a prize.
And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t EVER use these techniques to run a contest
or share content, but if engagement bait posts are the only trick in your bag, and you don’t
throw other, more interesting strategies into the mix, Facebook will eventually catch on
and penalize you for this.
Apart from using too much engagement bait, there are also some trigger words that can
squash your organic reach.
This makes perfect sense, especially if you know how the Facebook algorithm works.
I actually explain this in the last video — and here’s a link to i, just up above,
in case you missed it.
Basically, the Facebook algorithm favors content that will spark meaningful interactions, or
posts that will get people talking and connecting with each other.
This is why Facebook reacts so strongly to engagement bait, eventually restricting the
organic reach of Pages that use too much of it — because this usually indicates that
these pages share content in a way that isn’t engaging on its own, or that people otherwise
wouldn’t react to if the post hadn’t asked them to do so directly.
Needless to say, this means that the Facebook algorithm prioritizes content that comes from
our actual Facebook connections — over posts from businesses and other media, especially
if they’re overly promotional and sales-based.
One way that Facebook identifies these types of posts, is by seeing if certain Trigger
Words were used.
The problem with using particular words, is that they can trigger certain reactions from
the algorithm.
Sometimes this is positive: words like ‘birthday’, ‘anniversary’ and ‘congratulations’
have been observed to increase the reach of a post.
Other times, however, using certain words cause the algorithm to automatically squash
the organic reach of your post.
That’s because these trigger words indicate that your post is probably very sales-oriented,
promotional, and just a little too spam-y.
As you can see, the list of trigger words that can trigger a negative reaction from
the algorithm is pretty long — and it’s actually similar to the list of trigger words
that will prevent your e-mail from reaching a user’s main inbox in email marketing,
thereby decreasing your open rate.
You definitely want to avoid using the words on this list in many contexts.
Some marketers think they have found a way to outsmart the Facebook algorithm by mis-spelling
trigger words.
For example, instead of writing “Comment below”, they’ll use the number “0”
or a sunshine emoji as a substitute for the letter “o”.
This might buy you a little extra time before the algorithm catches on, but if it means
paying with limited organic reach later on, it’s not worth it.
Plus, it just makes your post look like spam.
So, these are just a few bad practices that can really hurt your organic reach on Facebook.
Instead of using shortcuts to try to outsmart the Facebook algorithm, it would be a better
idea to spend that time thinking of how to share content in a way that will get people
talking.
Or get inspired by looking at examples from brands that are doing this really well — which
we’ll do in another video.
Anyway, that’s it for now.
If you have any questions or something to add, feel free to let me know in the Comments
below.
And if you found this video helpful, don’t forget to Like, Share and Subscribe to our
YouTube channel where I will be explaining how you can do even more in social media & digital
marketing each week.
Thanks for watching!
I hope you learned something new, and I’ll see you next time.
Bye!