Is it bewildering to you that you may have 2000 page likes on your Facebook business page, but when you review the analytics your post views dropped to the double digits? Now that’s a head scratcher. Chances are you are feeling discouraged, you’re spending many hours keeping your page updated and no one is listening!

When I contacted Facebook, here’s what they said “Facebook’s engineering team makes changes to the News Feed algorithm to help make Facebook more engaging for people.”

Squeeze

Then I read an article from AdAge where Facebook openly states that business page owners should expect their organic reach to continue to decline over time… and the best way to get your content seen is to pay for reach.

It is obvious that Facebook is training us to buy ads or boost posts.

I can understand that, Facebook is a business. However, for those of us that are not a mega company like Target or Lexus that are selling a tangible product, though, you are supplying free content; a recipe, advice, photo inspiration and a blog; this becomes costly. Call me crazy, we’re giving free content that we have to pay for.

But there is something you can do. Facebook also states: Organic posts from friends that people did not initially see can reappear near the top of News Feed if the stories are still getting likes and comments. This gives the best posts a greater chance of being seen by more people.

Then I dug deeper…

In Amy Porterfield’s 2015 Guide to Facebook Engagement

#48 The Facebook Definition of Engagement

Facebook defines engagement in one way and one way only: fingers clicking specific buttons. If a fan doesn’t engage with your post in at least one of four ways—like it, leave a comment, share it with others, or click on a link—it’s not considered engagement by Facebook standards. Period. So what does non-engagement look like? Here are things that your Facebook fans may be doing that do not count as FB engagement:

Read your update. Kind of makes you rethink how much time you spend crafting the perfect status, doesn’t it?

View your image. Photos, infographics, inspirational quotes, etc. are great ways to grab attention, but simply having them seen does not constitute engagement.

Click on a photo. If your photo is not linked (via OpenGraph or some other plug-in) to a specific site, all that will happen is that the photo will open in a bigger window. That’s an opportunity to giving your reader yet another chance to engage…but in itself; FB doesn’t count it as fan engagement.

Like your page. You heard right. People liking your page doesn’t affect engagement; it only counts when they like specific posts.

Engagement from a Purely Relational Perspective

That’s how Facebook sees engagement; let’s explore what engagement might mean to you. When someone interacts with the content you have posted, they are expressing interest in you. That means your WHY, your meaning, your purpose. What do you do, and how do you do it?

Don’t sell yourself short. Your why and how are powerful stuff to people out there. Knowing about you is reward in itself.

If you are message driven, sharing what you care about in a true attempt to educate, entertain, or inspire people, and those people communicate back to you or push it out to the world… that is a reflection that you are doing something right!

So Why Does Engagement Matter? This is where mindset enters the picture. Mindset is what will connect the dots for you between fan engagement (likes, comments, shares, and clicks) and exposure to your business (such as getting your posts into your tribe’s News Feed).

The equation is simple: Boost your engagement (likes, comments, shares, & clicks) and get rewarded.

See, the more often your fans engage with you in the ways listed above, the more often your posts will be pushed out into their News Feed. This is how Facebook helps your business–by noticing that people are interested in what you have to say, and giving them more. Therefore, in each and every status update you post, you’ll want to influence your audience to engage in at least one of the four ways that count: liking, commenting, sharing, or clicking a link. This is where your mindset is critical. When you’re creating a Facebook post, it’s not enough to be clever, or even thoughtful.

When you create a Facebook post, you need to come at it this way: “How can I thoughtfully construct this post to ignite the action needed for my fans to engage?”

Remember, if there is no engagement, Facebook simply thinks your audience is not interested. And they’re not going to promote something that they think people aren’t interested in. On the other hand, the more people take action on one of your posts, the more your posts will show up in their feed. Not just that one post they liked, but all your posts.

Say you’ve been getting lots of “likes” on a particular photo you posted, or had people commenting throughout the week on a status update…and then, later in the week or month, you post something about a specific promotion you’re doing. All those likes and comments are what will take your promotional post straight to your fans’ News Feed.

Simply put, an increase in fan engagement also = an increase in the exposure of your promotional posts.

Are you beginning to understand the roadmap? As you consistently offer high quality, valuable content that captivates your audience and motivates them to engage, through an indirect process you will increase your sales.

It’s important for people to engage (like, click, comment, share) with your business’ posts to regularly see them in News Feed.

So, engage your fans by:

• Ask Questions- Questions are a great way to spark dialogue with fans. It is probably the easiest way and one of the best methods to get people to respond to your posts.

• Photos- Photos stand out better compared to status updates or posted links. Pictures are clear and concise and are easily palatable to the mind.

• Contests- Contests not only reward loyal fans, but also it creates excitement and will get users to visit your Facebook page frequently to check if they have won.

You need to build that trust, and doing things like sharing valuable content, news articles, and information on the latest and greatest in your industry will prove that your fan base can trust what you say and will come back again & again.

And if all else fails, add the Facebook Join My Mailing List App on your business page

The App makes it easier for you to collect new contacts directly from your Facebook fan or business page to use with Constant Contact, Mail Chimp etc.