Posting to a Facebook business page reaches a small fraction of the people who follow it, and that has been true for years. What still works is groups, local community reach, events and reviews. If you are spending time on page posts and getting nothing, the platform is not broken and neither are you.
Facebook remains genuinely valuable for local and community businesses and largely a waste for everyone else who is not paying.
Why the page does not work
The feed prioritises posts from friends and groups over posts from pages, which is a deliberate product decision rather than a temporary change.
The practical result is that a page post reaches a small share of followers, and that share falls further when the post contains a link out.
Keep the page, because people check whether a business exists and whether it is still trading. Just stop treating it as a distribution channel.
What still works
Four things, all of which involve people rather than broadcasts.
- Local community groups, where a helpful answer reaches people actively asking
- Your own group, if you have a genuine community rather than a customer list
- Events, which still get distributed and still produce attendance for local businesses
- Reviews and recommendations, which people ask for constantly in local groups
Groups, without getting thrown out
Community groups are the strongest remaining organic channel and the easiest to get banned from.
The rule that works: answer questions in your area of expertise without mentioning your business, consistently, for weeks. People check who is answering, and that is where the enquiries come from.
Posting promotions is the fastest way to be removed, and most groups have a rule against it that is enforced by members who resent it.
Running your own group
A group works when there is a reason for members to talk to each other, not just to you.
A group for customers of a product with no shared interest is a support queue with extra steps and it goes quiet. A group around the thing your customers actually care about can sustain itself.
Be honest about whether you have the second. Most businesses have the first, and a dead group is a visible negative signal.
If you are going to pay
Paid reach on Facebook is still cheap relative to most channels and the targeting is still good, particularly locally.
Start with a small budget on a single well defined audience and one clear offer. Measure to a cost per enquiry you can defend rather than to reach or engagement, both of which are easy to buy and mean nothing.
Boosting a post is the least effective way to spend it and the most heavily promoted button in the interface.
Who should not bother
Business-to-business companies selling considered products. The audience is present and not in a buying frame of mind, and the targeting available cannot fix that.
And anyone whose customers are not local and not a community. Without one of those two, Facebook is a page you keep updated for credibility and nothing more, which is a legitimate outcome and worth about fifteen minutes a month.
Common questions
- Does organic reach on a Facebook page still work?
- Barely. The feed prioritises friends and groups over pages, and that is a deliberate product decision rather than a temporary change. Keep the page for credibility and stop treating it as a distribution channel.
- What still works on Facebook for small businesses?
- Local community groups, your own group if you have a genuine community, events, and reviews and recommendations. All four involve people rather than broadcasts.
- How do I use Facebook groups without getting banned?
- Answer questions in your area of expertise without mentioning your business, consistently, for weeks. People check who is answering. Posting promotions is the fastest way to be removed.
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