How to Hugely Boost Your Facebook Reach For Free! *Updated September 2019*

There's not a day goes by that I don't receive a message bemoaning Facebook changes or chat to a fellow blogger who has decided to toss in the towel on that social media platform altogether. Many blame Facebook algorithms and, to be fair, they are unfairly biased against those that don't shell out a fortune for sponsored ad placements. Well what if I told you that you could multiply your Facebook reach exponentially in just 3 simple steps without paying a penny?


Before I lay out this simple yet gob smackingly effective technique let me say this; I have nothing against bloggers or businesses ploughing their money into Facebook advertising. Nothing. The simple fact of the matter is, Zuckerberg favours that method of using his platform (naturally) so you will see that those that do invest weekly or even daily will amass huge numbers of Likes and engagement in a relatively fast time frame. Those that invest in Likes by other means are not going to have any engagement at all. 

For me though, if I can explode my outreach with just a few steps and more importantly make my Facebook platform an entertaining page to engage with daily, then you best believe I have more important (& shiny) things to spend my hard earned eurobux on. That's just me but I have a feeling it might be you too. 

Here's my latest Insights for my page with 15.1k 'Likes': You can see that 106k is pretty much my base line. It can be WAY higher. 

See my Facebook Page in real time HERE

Second point to note, these are not trade secrets, they're merely a way for me to pay it forward in the blogging community because that's what we are, a community. I'm a firm believer that a rising tide raises all boats and since I began blogging almost ten years ago I've been working every single day to rise that tide for all of us. Of course I'm not alone in that but what I'm saying is that if you can help a fellow blogger out, please do. I don't get less because you get some and you don't get less because the next blogger gets some too. 

Remember, when it comes to Facebook 'likes' mean nothing without reach. I could buy 100k worth of 'likes' for sheckles in the morning but not one of those bots are going to come visit the blog that I've been crafting for years. Likewise, most savvy brands and agencies will disregard huge numbers of blue thumbs in favour of meaningful engagement and actual human reach. And this is how you get that:

Step One: What do your audience want?

Finding out what your audience want really IS that simple. Just as with blogging you should always keep a tab on your analytics to see what people are responding to. On your business or blog Facebook page those analytics are called Insights. 

In order for this Facebook method to be its most effective you're going to want to know at what times people are visiting your page most. That way you have a baseline as to when to post and get the most outreach for your work. Makes sense, right? 

Most pics here are screen grabs so bare with me, ja?

On your page: Click INSIGHTS ~ Click POSTS ~ Check the Peak Viewing Times

Find the highest peaks in your visitor numbers, they'll correspond to times and jot down your top three times. If you don't want to do this step, Breakfast (8am), Lunch (1pm) & Dinner (6pm) are always a good start too. 

You can see my audience is predominantly online during the working day. If you, like me, have a full time, full on job that could be an issue, right? Read on... 

Step Two: What do I post?

Always stay true to your tone and your blog content, so always share posts that you feel are relevant to you and your audience. Keeping that in mind we're going to choose our posts using:

'THE RULE OF THE 3 Cs' :

• Your OWN Content
• Curated Content
• Community Content

You can post any multiple of the three types of posts daily (3, 6, 9, 12) but it's best to concentrate on your most active times first. 

1. Your Own Content:

We'll leave this 2017 pic as is: It demonstrates the point nicely. 

First up, your own blog content should be your number one priority. I use NetworkedBlogs to automatically post my blog posts to Facebook. New posts are automatically shared. Since I hadn't been posting to the blog due to real work being so nuts, I regularly post evergreen content. 

Even if readers don't click your link at first, they will have seen your post on their timeline. This ups the chance of them tagging or sharing posts that are relevant to them too. That's zero effort outreach juice. 

Evergreen Content ~ The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Try to remember that new likes to your page and your blog might not have seen a post you worked your tuckus off for in the past. Evergreen content is content that is always relevant; take this post on SPFs for example, always relevant and popular in summer months. 

Look how many people saw that in one day of reposting! Always try to work smarter, not harder so allowing those older blog posts to bring home the bacon too makes sense. If you are resharing your evergreen content (say once a month), choose a different picture and caption each time. It helps to draw new attention & keeps your page content looking fresh. 

2. Curated Content: 

Facebook LOVES curated content. That's sharing other peoples' posts. A great rule of thumb in choosing what to curate is to look for posts that you wish you'd written or you wish you'd shared yourself. That means it's already a great fit for your audience. To keep in with my blog schedule, on Tuesdays I try to curate travel related posts, on Fridays it's movies but every day it's positive and feel good content. 

Note: Embedded videos are Facebook outreach PAY DIRT! Specifically videos you share from others. Again I'd stress here the importance of remembering your blogging community so either share fellow bloggers' blog posts that you love or one of their uploads with a link back. LOOK how much Facebook likes 'em! (If you can record your own videos, even better! Upload them directly, not through YouTube & watch your numbers skyrocket.)

3. Community Content:

The third C is my favourite of them all. Community Content. That simply means getting people involved in what you're doing. The above meme I found on one of those Instagram aggregate accounts but do you see how I related it back to my page? 

Ask questions, encourage the chats and get involved yourself; your readers are real people and for the most part they're pretty sound ~ get involved and see what happens to both your outreach AND your outlook!

Unleash the power of the Gif! 

Without a shadow of a doubt the best posts to guarantee community engagement in 2019 are Gif Comment posts. Use a graphic to pose a question and ask your community to answer using the Gif function. Try to keep the questions relevant to your genre. I've yet to post a gif thread that's gotten less than 100 comments within 30 mins. People genuinely love to engage with them: 

Share the Literal Lols: 

Never underestimate the power of a timely funny picture, if you find yourself laughing at it on your timeline, your community will too. Share funny finds immediately, to bolster your scheduled content. 

So that's the 3 Cs ~ Your Own Content, 
Curated Content & Community Content

I can already hear you thinking you haven't got the time for this. That's Step Three. 

Step Three: Schedule Feckin' EVERYTHING!

Did you know you can schedule Facebook posts? Many people don't, and that's OK. If you're working in a relentless job, like mine, yet still trying to keep your brand active scheduling is your very best friend. When it comes to getting the most outreach juice for the least amount of time or effort. 

I post an average of 5-10 FB posts a day to keep my engagement at at least 100k - up to 350k a week, I also work in a front line Public Service job that literally doesn't give you a minute for up to 9 hours a day - not counting Overtime evenings and weekends. I also regularly spend my lunch breaks on national television screens and I run our home. How is that possible? Say it with me SCHED.U.LING. 

I set up my week's posts at the weekend,
then I can intersperse with more topical posts in the evening

Choose your dates and times according to your audience, as highlighted above

There's a click down right beside Publish where you can say hello to your little friend. Maybe take a quiet hour at the weekend and schedule the week ahead's posts to see what I mean. Then be pleasantly surprised as the notifications begin to pile up as if from nowhere several times a day!

And that really is it. Find your ideal times, use The Rule of the 3 Cs 

& schedule the lot - SIMPLES!

The Cherry on Top:

The cherry on top of my Facebook scheduling is the auto posting of my Instagram pictures to my page. Again, my Instagram has a theme specific to me and my particular brand. It's Bright, it's Beauty, it's Humour & it's ALWAYS positive. It's quite literally life with a cherry on top (Click HERE to see what I mean). 

Sticking with your brand's theme on Instagram will not only do wonders for your Instagram numbers (I could do a post on that too?) but once those pics are cross posted to your Facebook you multiply the reach of that picture including your mini-review/micro-blog attached exponentially! All without ever paying a cent. 

Having posted this info on Twitter (Itscherrysue) I was blown away by the response. More importantly, many of you got in touch with your own success stories having put 'The CherrySue Method' to work. Just LOOK at Jen's results below:

So c'est ca; you now have all the tools you need to skyrocket your Facebook and ultimately your blog outreach without ever boosting a post or cursing poor Zuckerberg again. I would genuinely love to hear if you've put my method into action, it took quite a while to tweak it down to just three steps having seen countless webinars and having read never ending content to get the answers I needed. 

But isn't that what blogging is about? Not having to reinvent the 'behind the scenes' wheel so we can concentrate on being the ridiculously creative folk we are and producing better and better content to raise all of our games in every aspect of our lives. 

Do please feel free to share this post on your channels or tag pals you think would find my Facebook method helpful for their blog or business pages. I can feel that tide rising already!

Any questions?

Pop a comment 

below or get in touch

on any of my platforms <3