The Best Way to Increase Your Facebook Reach // Social Media

There aren't a ton of things I consider myself an expert on, or even better than the average person. What I do know, though, I want to share to help other people out. I will warn you in advance that this post is for small business owners with Facebook pages...it won't make much sense if you just have a personal page! Also, completely different rules apply to personal vs business pages, so consider yourself warned :)

The beauty of being a photographer is that we can befriend our clients. This extends to so many different areas - we get to make new friends and meet new people. It's also awesome to be able to show off your bride's or family's gorgeous pictures from their session, and tag them so their friends can see! I love when someone looks their best, and they can show their friends and family so quickly through social media.

In the last few years, Facebook has changed a LOT. Even the average user who doesn't have a business page knows this. But the changes have hit businesses hard! Where we used to be able to show virtually our entire audience what we've been up to, now it's hard to get even 10% of the people who 'like' your page to see a post. And that's frustrating!

I run social media pages for my photography business, as well as two other local businesses. From experimentation and a TON of reading, I've learned a lot about how to make your post the most visible to the most people. It used to be that a picture was the BEST way to show your work to a lot of people. So my strategy before was to post a picture with a link to my blog.

Now, because of the growth of Twitter and a whole lot of other factors (such as the new Facebook ad network), Facebook likes links. They like high quality links. In fact, they like them so much your reach will increase dramatically if you simply post a 'link share.' This is when you create a link to your blog, and when it automatically pulls up an image from the blog/website, you upload one in its place.

In all honesty, sometimes I upload the same thumbnail that Facebook did. This signals to Facebook, however, that I am creating not only a compelling link, but a fantastic, social media ready image that will draw my audience in to click on it. Here's how to do it, if you're lost:

Click on Upload Image and simply choose the one you want! The dimensions of that box are 484x252 pixels (source: Jon Loomer), but I find that horizontal images generally work just fine. 

And now for the evidence - let me show you a picture (with my clients tagged) vs a simple link. Look at the difference in audience reach! If that doesn't convince you, then I don't know what will :)

Here's a single picture:

And here is the link! Even though it didn't get nearly as many 'likes,' the reach was way higher (more on that later!)

Do you have any social media struggles? I'd love to help! Comment and let me know if you have any questions, or want to know how to do something specific.

Click here for more social media tips!

My Sunday-Monday Switch // Business

I've come to appreciate consistency and constancy so much over the past few years. I used to be completely fly-by-the-wind in my approach to everything. The only thing I was consistently good at in high school was showing up late. I'm not joking when I tell you that the guidance worker did not even turn around to greet me anymore - she would just say hi to me by name, and ask me to sign in. My how things have changed!

One step I took this year was to blog at least once a week. There are some photographers and creatives that blog every day, but I do not have the time to write quality blogs on a daily basis, and I'd rather deliver something I'm proud of than deliver a lot of somethings that I had no inspiration for. In 2015, I would like to blog at least twice a week, and hopefully even more!

That said, one important thing I learned this year was to take a day of absolute rest and doing nothing. That has become my Sundays - in the fall and winter I spend time watching football, and in the spring and summer I bake or go to the pool or whatever I feel like. I originally chose to post a weekly blog on Sunday because I knew I had time to write it. Now that I make sure to finish it on Saturday rather than writing on Sunday, though, it doesn't make much sense to continue with this schedule. I want to completely relax and let go of business ideas on Sundays so I can be refreshed for another week by the time Monday rolls around.

Because of that, I am now changing my weekly blogging time from Sunday afternoons to Monday mornings. I also plan to blog at least one other time during the week, so keep an eye out for that! And I need a new name for my blog. Spady Sunday worked well before, but I need something exciting for every Monday!

So here's the giveaway...come up with a fun name for my weekly Monday blog and if I choose yours, you win a $10 Starbucks gift card! Just comment on this blog with your idea and your email address, and I will be in touch with the winner when I choose someone. Thanks so much for reading each week, and I look forward to an even better year of blogging!