Have you noticed a drop in your customer’s engagement on social media over the past few months? Are fewer people seeing your event or venue’s posts than ever before? Whether you’ve realized it or not, the unfortunate reality is your business Facebook page is likely suffering from both of these issues. In December, many brands saw an average 44% decrease in organic reach to their content and engaged users dropped over 35% from 16% to 3%.

Regardless of how many fans have “Liked” your business page, Facebook has implemented an algorithm to determine how many of those fans will actually ever see an individual post from your event or venue in their news feed. They test whether it’s a “good” post by showing it in a small fraction of your fans’ news feeds and see what their engagement is.  If the post receives lots of likes, shares and comments, then they’ll increase the number of people who can see that post by continuing to place it in other fans’ news feeds. The more engagement it receives the larger the audience it will reach.

So what’s a business to do? Here are some tips for this new world:

• Mimic what your audience is already talking about. If your fans are talking about the Super Bowl, mention your favorite ad. If there’s a new development in your city or county, get involved in the conversation. Having a lot of content is good, but these days, context is king. Your fans will be more engaged if you’re talking about the same things they’re talking about.
• Share “jabs,” non-direct to what you sell. Aim to hit an emotion so hard that the customer wants to share it because it will say as much about them as your event. We think of jabs as continuous ongoing blurbs to stay relevant in your fans’ news feeds, so when you deliver the “punch” of an actual marketing message, they’re already used to seeing your event or venue’s brand, and are more open to hearing what you have to say.
• Be a real person, like a friend. Share things that will make them laugh as well as useful information they can utilize. Leverage pop-culture by sharing the music you’re listening to and the shows you’re watching. These can easily transition to the artists performing at your events.
• Advertise. In today’s new world of Facebook, it is becoming a necessity to pay to have your posts seen. There are lots of options for boosting your posts, be it individual posts or every post.  We strongly suggest you consider devoting a small budget a day to increase the number of people seeing your posts to increase the chances of engagement. Even $3/day to boost all posts could go a long way.  

So how does email fit in the picture?  Unlike social media, you own your email lists. Facebook will continue to regulate the type of interaction you can have with your fans in their environment, but via email, you’re able to control your own destiny. You determine how often your most loyal customers hear from you, and what message they will receive. Social media will continue to be a mainstay of your marketing plan, but we don’t want anyone to lose sight of this valuable tool.  Checking work and personal email remains the number 1 activity on mobile devices, so hit your customers where they are. Cross-promoting between social and email is also crucial. Include an email sign-up option on your Facebook page, and link your emails to your social sites. Increasing awareness between the two will continue to boost your fans engagement.