A while ago, I wrote an article entitled Small Business Owners Guide to Creating Engaging Content on Facebook Pages that offered lots of great tips about the type of content a business should post on its Facebook page. It’s still quite relevant today and I recommend you read it to get ideas for your own page, whether you’re in insurance or a different industry.
But then Facebook changed its News Feed
Since that time, Facebook changed its news feed algorithm, and many business pages have seen a drop in the number of people who see their page posts. This is called reach, which is defined as the number of unique people who saw your content. This is old news, but still valuable in the context of this post. So, although the tips I shared previously are good ones, the news feed changes didn’t help most small businesses as they attempted to use their Facebook pages for marketing purposes.
So I experimented with ways to increase our Facebook page reach
Once I saw that fewer people were seeing our page’s posts, I continued to experiment with creating posts that would hopefully get seen by more people (although there’s some science involved, there’s a lot of experimentation as well. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.) Yes, I boosted posts and even ran ads.
My discovery- Make Posts Personal
But I noticed that the best performing posts (without benefit of boosting or turning into an ad) were those that were personal. Not insurance sales-related, not even tip or risk-management related. The ones that showcased my office, staff or various community/social events we were involved with were seen and engaged with by the most people (and here’s a big one folks- engagement on your page is a big factor in helping your page posts get seen by more people).
Real-life example that proves the way to increase Facebook page reach is to make your posts personal
I posted a picture of my mom (who works at my insurance agency) for her birthday. I did NOT pay to boost this ad. I simply took a picture of my mom and posted to our page. I took the screenshot about halfway through the day. I was completely bowled over by the response. Never expected this kind of reaction.
The number of likes, the number of people reached, but most of all the engagement (over 50 comments) told me I had a winner. Final stats were 1,531 people reached, 104 likes and 50 comments. Not too shabby for a simple post without the benefit of boosting or advertising.
Why this post works to increase Facebook page reach
- It showcases an actual person at our office. People like to see other people. It lends personality and humanity. And lord knows the insurance industry needs a good shot of that.
- It emphasizes our family business. Her husband started the agency, her daughter (me) now runs it. And when we welcome new customers, we say “welcome to the family.”
- Everyone loves birthdays. It’s a happy occasion. Heck, we even mention cake!
- There’s nothing sales-y about it.
Of course, if your insurance agency Facebook page is a wasteland with little to no activity, then one personal post will not a Facebook page make. But, once you dive in and start to really use your Facebook page, this is a great example of a post that will only help you reach more people as you continue to explore ways to use your Facebook page for marketing. Please feel free to visit our agency Facebook page for lots more “personalized” examples.