Facebook may have started out as a community app but that idea is long gone. These days, Facebook is a business, first and foremost.
The two big changes that have happened recently are:
1. Choking reach by limiting how many people see a particular post
2. Changing the view settings by automatically switching members of groups to receive “HIGHLIGHTS” instead of “ALL POSTS”
Add those two together and it means:
* For Group Owners: Most posts made to a Group will get almost no views.
* For Group Members: You will see less than 1 in 10 of the posts made to a Group
What Can You Do To Reclaim Your Posts?
luckily, all is not lost. the facebook algorithm can be affected by group behavior.
As a Group Administrator, encourage (ASK!) your members to 'LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE' (LCS).
These three actions are called 'Social Indicators' and they are monitored by Facebook to measure the social worth of any particular post.
If a post gets shown to 10 people and all of them do some combination of LCS, Facebook will notice that something positive is happening with the post and they will show it to more people. If those new people interact with the post (perhaps commenting on other comments etc.), Facebook distributes the post a little wider. That's how viral posts are born.
If a post gets few LCS interactions, it dies a death in the facebook desert of abandoned and unwanted posts
Do It And Do It Fast!
Another factor that Facebook looks at when it determines what it wants to promote is how fast as post gets interaction.
Facebook has named this factor 'Velocity'. When a post gets a burst of activity in a short amount of time, this triggers Facebook into thinking that it is something 'share-worthy' and shows more people.
In summary...
if you have a vested interest in a post being shown to as many people as possible then you must LCS and do it quickly.
Furthermore, go back to the post regularly and LCS on other peoples contributions and comments.
Take back some control of what facebook shows you and other people in your group.
Nick Warrilow
CFO Coaches Business School
Nick oversees all of the tech for Coaches Business School
Founder of Coaches Business School and Sacred Changemakers Podcast