Facebook has received a lot of bad press over the past few years. With people questioning their policies on privacy and information control, many people believe Facebook to be an outdated dinosaur in the world of big tech.

It’s perhaps this sentiment that has led people to believe that organic reach on Facebook’s platform is dead, meaning that it’s harder for the typical Facebook user to find a business’s page. And for businesses that use social media to spread awareness of their product or service, the very idea that Facebook organic reach has kicked the bucket definitely sets off alarm bells.

However, people can be too quick to jump to this conclusion. Organic reach isn’t dead – it’s just evolving. Whether the end result of that evolution is a positive or negative for a business hinges entirely on how that business responds to change.

What is Facebook organic reach?

As mentioned above, organic reach represents how easy it is for a typical Facebook user to find a business’s page. Small businesses or charity organizations without an excess of money to spend on their social presence will rely on organic reach to spread the word of their existence.

The opposite of organic reach is paid reach which entails running paid ads. When browsing through your own feed, if you’ve ever seen a seemingly out-of-place Facebook ad for Coca-Cola or the Xbox, this will be the result of those companies employing paid reach.

Organic reach has undeniably dropped over the past decade. Mark Zuckerberg claims that this decline is due to the very purpose of Facebook itself – connecting with friends and seeing their posts. If a Facebook feed is clogged with dozens of business posts, users will be less likely to use the service in the first place.

However, a lot of people think this change had more insidious motivation. Indeed, without the ability to reach people organically, a lot of organizations and businesses have had to turn to paying Facebook to display their posts.

So is organic reach dead on Facebook?

While there may have absolutely been a substantial drop over the years, this doesn’t mean that organic reach is gone for good. It just means that you have to play the game more effectively in order to be seen.

In its adolescent years, Facebook was a bit of a free for all, and the more a company posted, the greater the possibility that its post would achieve a high level of organic reach. However, now that organic reach has become more restrictive and Facebook is perfecting its algorithms, it’s actually the case that occasional (but consistent) posting is one of the best ways to boost organic engagement.

Since less frequent posting is the way to go, these posts will need a bit more consideration. For example, you’ll want to make sure you’re posting at a good time for Facebook traffic. Posting at 3AM won’t help you very much, while posting at 9AM, when people are logging on for the first time, or 1PM, when people are scrolling through their phones during lunch, are going to net you a lot more organic traffic.

There are no concrete rules when it comes to a post’s quality. You can definitely play around with what you’re posting and when, using the insights and analytics provided by Facebook or a social media management software in order to record and maximize your engagement.

There are dozens of “rules” behind keeping your posts organically fresh – like not coming off as too salesman-ish, or lacking variety in your posts – so always keep your eyes on your engagement and insights to see what’s clicking and what isn’t.

The future of Facebook organic reach

While organic reach has been on a downward trend for the past few years, it’s starting to plateau. While it’s easy to view the decrease in organic reach as a universally bad development for small businesses or organizations, it’s also possible that it will lead to a higher standard of business-based content for the platform.

While Facebook’s content regulation leaves a lot to be desired, this increased competition between brands for the limited amount of organic reach will inspire and push each brand to create better, more relevant content, that users actually care about.

This means creating content that doesn’t sell, but rather engages, inspires, and intrigues people which ultimately leads to more organic shares. Also, instead of conversing like a traditional business would:

You can instead come across in a more conversational manner, like a normal user: 

Which Tweet would you rather see on your timeline?

If you are consistently publishing easy-to-share content, there is a high chance your content and your brand will reach more people organically. 

However, it’s worth noting that acquiring this organic reach will not happen overnight, even if you create amazing content and post it during the perfect window of time. One of the reasons for these limitations in the first place was to push brands into creating consistent, reliable, and high quality content, and a reputation like this can only be earned over time.

If you’re starting a social media campaign for your business and notice a discrepancy between your Facebook presence and your presence on every other social media platform, don’t let that prompt you into giving up on Facebook. As long as you put in consistent effort, the organic traffic will come.

About the Author: Duncan is an Australian-born writer for Tech.Co. His articles focus on software that allows small businesses to improve their efficiency or reach, with an emphasis on social media marketing. In his free time, Duncan loves to deconstruct video games and spend quality time with the family.