10 Hacks to Boost Your Facebook Reach and Engagement

Reach doesn’t just include followers of business pages — it also covers regular users who stumble across your post while browsing through the platform.

Types of Reach

Organic reach is the total number of unique users who saw your post without any paid promotion.

Paid reach is the total number of users who saw your post through paid distribution and promotion services.

So-called viral reach is when any Facebook user can interact with your content — sharing, liking, and commenting — and those actions show up in their friends’ news feeds like a chain reaction.

Total reach is the number of unique users who viewed your post, regardless of where they saw it. If a user sees your post through either organic or paid reach, they’re counted in all three reach categories.

The combined totals of each reach type don’t equal your overall reach. Pages can reach users not just through posts but also through other materials. For example, if someone lands on your page via a search engine link, that visit is counted toward total page visits rather than post reach. Similarly, if a user views multiple posts on your page, that counts as a single view in the overall reach total.

Engagement

Post engagement is the total number of actions users take on your post — likes, comments, shares, and even negative feedback. All of it counts.

Engagement is the most important metric after reach, showing how many people are actually interacting with your content.

There are plenty of ways to improve both of these numbers. Here are the key ones.

Develop a content strategy

The material you share is of primary importance. Your followers won’t share or like something just because a new post appeared in their feed. You need to give people a reason to care. Experiment with different topics and post formats, and draw your audience in with content they’ll actually find interesting. Analyze user reactions to different types of posts and double down on what works best.

Allow followers to post on your page

When Facebook users post something on your page or tag it in their own posts, that activity appears in their friends’ feeds and helps boost your viral reach. If you’re worried about spam, you can always block messages containing certain keywords.

Track your posting frequency

Something is always happening on Facebook. You should keep pace and publish new posts at least once a day. Keep in mind that weekends and evenings tend to see higher Facebook activity than regular weekdays. Figure out the optimal posting frequency for your audience.

Find out when your followers are on Facebook

The best time to share updates is when your audience is most likely to see them right away. Facebook’s news feed shows content in real time, which means if your followers are offline, there’s a chance they’ll miss your post — especially if they don’t scroll back through their feed. You can check when your followers are most active (based on likes, comments, and shares) in the Insights section at the top of your page: Insights > Posts.