Trying To Explain Social Media Algorithms

A client asked about putting some money behind some concert announcements on Facebook. Here is my response about how they should look at it all. Maybe it can help you as well. (And some names and identifying details have been removed.)

ORGANIC REACH

First, any public Facebook page, whether it is for a band, a company, an actor, etc., will have its post reach limited by the algorithm. They do this because they want you to spend money. They are a for-profit business.

However the algorithm will let more people see a post the more that people interact with it (shares, comments, etc.). This has led to people trying to game the system by doing things like asking questions in every post. That gets real annoying real quick though. And people are tired of that stuff.

As a reader, there are ways around the algorithm. You can make lists, set alerts for specific pages, etc. I know that some of your fans just go directly to your page every day to make sure that they have not missed anything.

When it comes to organic reach, you are already doing better than the average band. You have 64,000 followers. However, your post reach this week is at 117,000 people. The (details omitted) post on December 29th has reached almost 37,000 people on its own with no money behind it.

Another way to measure is with the PTAT stat (people talking about this). Again, you have 64,000 followers and right now your PTAT is at 3,423. By comparison (band 1) has 70,000 followers and a PTAT of 1,300. And my favorite go-to: (band 2) have almost 2 million followers and a PTAT of 2,054.

PAID REACH

From my experience, when putting money behind posts, the best is to do what are called dark posts. These are shown to people NOT already following your page. And yes, it is best to target them based on location, interests, etc.

It is also best to set these so that they only run in the newsfeeds of desktop and mobile users. Most people are so used to ads running on the right side of the page that they don't see them anymore. It has become a habit for people to not look over there. Also, many people now have plugins on their browsers that erase those from the page entirely.

We did some dark posts for shows you had back in July, putting (dollar amount) behind each one. Attached are the stats showing the number of people who clicked on those to go to the ticket pages. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing whether these people actually bought tickets once they got there.

So if you like, we can do similar ones for the (location) shows. Just let me know.

And sorry for the long-winded answer, but it is a messy topic. In fact, there is even more to it, but we don't need to get into every nuance here. - Cris