How To Increase Reach On Social Media (without spending money) ?

The secret passageway to Shares starts with creating posts around people’s identities.

–Jerry Potter, Five Minute Social Media

How can we increase our reach on social media?

I mean, without spending money, because that’s the obvious solution,right? Are we a victim of the algorithm or are there things we can do to massively increase our reach?

Truth – spending money will always help you reach more people. I want to let you in on another little secret around spending money, whether you’re doing it now, or you might do it in the future. If you do these additional things to increase your reach, your spending money will actually go further. 

All social media platforms reward posts that have good content – even if someone puts money behind a lame post the platform is like Santa – THEY KNOW. 

Read on for four ways to increase your reach without spending money. 

1. Get more engagement. This is literally the most basic way to increase the reach of every post you ever put up because the engagement tells Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and (everywhere else) that people like this post. You could make an amazing video, write an amazing caption, take the most beautiful photograph on earth but it doesn’t matter unless people like it. The platform doesn’t know how long you put into your post, all they know is whether or not people stop scrolling and actually engage with it. Do they leave comments? Do they leave reactions? Do they like it? Do they heart it? Do they share it? Do they save it? Do they bookmark it? You know, these are all terms that vary from platform to platform. Do they watch more than three seconds of it? If it’s a video, do they click to read the comments? Do they click see more? If it’s a longer caption on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook, all of those things are signals to the algorithm that people enjoy this post, therefore the platform will immediately show it to more people. Now, it used to be that the amount of people each post would reach was limited by the number of people that you had following you or connected with you on LinkedIn or whatever term it is on each platform. Due to some amazing changes in social media over the last couple of years, the platforms are now showing us content from people we’re not following. Why? We want to see good stuff, even if we don’t know the person who made it. Specifically on TikTok and Reels on Facebook and Instagram. LinkedIn has kind of been doing this for a long time. They show you the best possible content. They think you’re going to like whether you’re following the person or not. So now, if your content is highly engaging, you can actually reach more people than you have following you.  

As an experiment, I’ve been playing with Reels on one of my Facebook Business Pages. I think this page has about 2000 followers. I had a Reel go up and reach like 7,000 people – 7,000 unique people who at least 5,000 of are not even following that Facebook Business Page. Now odds are, it probably didn’t even reach all of my followers and reach more of the non followers in that situation but the point is you get more engagement on a post.

How do we get more engagement?

In my Five Minute Social Media programs, we go deep on lots of ways to increase engagement, but an easy one is to ask questions. Have you ever been on a date with a monologuer? They just keep talking and don’t ask you ANYTHING. That’s the same feeling we occasionally get on social media – remember, it’s meant to be social. Sometimes the only thing standing between you and your posts, getting engagement is actually asking for it. Ask questions in your posts. Second quick tip – tease the end. If you have a long written post or a photo gallery or a video, then tell them what’s coming up somehow at the beginning, foreshadow what they can expect by the end result list. You know, some of the most compelling videos on the internet are watching people open the mail, which in principle sounds like watching paint dry, right? It sounds super dull, but there’s just that little tiny piece of, well, I want to see what’s in the package, especially if the person who got the package doesn’t even know what’s in the package, right? Because it was sent to them by somebody else, or they were shopping under the influence. The reason that format works is because they’ve teased at the end. And in the last tip, I want to give you here to get more engagement is stir things up, take a stance on things. It’s very boring to see posts that don’t take a stance on anything. Let’s say you said A or B, you give people two options. Maybe it’s two photos they’re choosing from. We’re not talking about the world’s most controversial political topics. Just take a stance and that will dramatically increase your engagement. 

2. This is one that a lot of people miss, spending more time engaging with other people so they’re more likely to see your posts. Fact – the person most likely to see your new post is the person who has recently engaged with you.

Spending time engaging with your audience, especially the people that you want to see your next post or all your posts will increase the chances that they will see your posts. 

3. This one’s going to be annoying because it’s obvious – create better posts. Think – would my ideal follower, my ideal customer or client who’s following me enjoy seeing this post mix in among the stuff they love about social media. Remember none of us open social media apps to hear from businesses. So if you post mediocre content, your audience will slowly stop engaging and the algorithms will stop showing your stuff in their feeds altogether. It’s not like an email list where you have to unsubscribe it. It’s all about quality over quantity. 

4. The fourth way to increase your reach on social media without spending money is probably the hardest of the four, but it’s to create shareable posts. Now, shares are one of the primary ways to get your content seen by people who are not already following you, right? If I see your post in my feed, and then I share it with all of my friends, that can be great. Sometimes if a certain person shares it, it could go viral. “Going viral” means different things to different people. If the Today Show is calling you about your post then pop the champagne. However, you can see success without that call. The pathway to Shares starts with creating posts around people’s identities. Create posts around who they are, if you look at the most viral posts on the internet and by these I’m talking about the ones that have been going around for like seven years now, they’re usually attached to somebody’s identity.

They did a big study in the New York Times and they basically asked people, why do you share stuff online? Here’s what the average person said. 1. To better the lives of others (OMG, my friend would love this!). 2. To spread the word about something that they believe in. (I’m a teacher and I believe that we should ____.) 3.They like the feeling of having others comment on it (they like me! they really like me!). 4.They want the content to reflect their online identity. (This is so on-brand fo me.) All of these reasons reflect identity. 

It could be tied to their identity for their profession, for their gender, for their location, for their hobbies, for their favorite sports team. 

Here’s an example, my ideal person is a business owner who wants to streamline their social media and then the rest of their business. Right? That is who I help in my programs Five Minute Social Academy and Social Media For Streamlined Entrepreneurs. If I were to try and create content around their identity, I would create content around entrepreneurship, small business owners, perhaps even parents or people who want to be location independent. You can do the same for your clients! 

Now, if at any time you want to learn more about increasing your engagement and your reach and your sales and streamlining and everything that we talk about, feel free to look into Five Minute Social Academy and Streamliners Club. 

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