Facebook Post Fatigue: Why Agents Might Want to Slow Their Roll on Facebook

If you've been following our blog series on how to improve your Facebook reach (ahem—links to all of the articles are at the bottom of this post), you know that breaking through the clutter on Facebook and actually REACHING your audience is getting increasingly more difficult.

Every 20 minutes, roughly 1 million links are shared on Facebook, 4.86 million photos are uploaded and 763,000+ statuses are updated. And, on top of that, the average engagement on posts created by business pages has declined more than 20 percent since January 2017 alone.

So, what's a savvy real estate agent who wants to maximize his/her reach to do?

It might sound counterintuitive, but slowing your roll on Facebook may be part of the solution!

Slow my roll on Facebook... why?

Several recent studies suggest that limiting the number of times you're posting—and focusing on quality, interesting content—can help boost both your reach and engagement.

A Hubspot study found that if you have a smaller following (less than 10K followers), posting twice a day will actually result in 50 percent FEWER clicks per post. The study goes on to say that posting more than 60 times per month led business pages to receive 60 percent fewer clicks than business pages that post just five or fewer times per month!

Another Buffer study found that they were able to GROW their reach by 330 percent (not a typo) by REDUCING their posting frequency by more than 50 percent.

Focus on quality, not quantity

With so much talk about needing to be active on social media to build your online presence and reputation as an agent, you're probably breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of posting less on Facebook.

When you eliminate the need to post frequently (2+ times per day), you can focus on creating quality content that really resonates with your audience.

But don't experiment with this tactic blindly! Keep reading for some tips on how to slow your roll to reduce Facebook post fatigue—while creating quality content:

#1. Experiment with your timing

There are many, many studies that have researched the best times of day (and even the best days of the week) to post on Facebook. A study by Sprout Social suggests that Thursday and Friday around 1pm work well—but, experiment with this to see when your particular audience is paying attention.

#2. Vary the types of content you're sharing

Varying the types of content you're sharing is a great way to test out "what's working"—but it also allows you to really focus on providing more VALUE to your audience. Here are a few types to consider:

• Video content: Don't be afraid of video content! There are quite a few ways to share videos without having to be in front of the camera yourself. Check out this blog for more video ideas.
• Curated content: Curated content is already-existing content that you pull from other sources. Check out this blog for how to leverage curated content to save time.
• Infographics: These visuals are fantastic for capturing your audience's attention and are very "share-worthy" in the online space. Even market statistics do well! Check out this blog for more infographic ideas.
• Market reports: Consider creating a landing page where you can direct your followers to receive a free analysis of their home's value, etc. You're providing something of real value here! Check out this blog for other ways to leverage market data to engage contacts.

#3. Learn the 70/20/10 rule

Developed by the Coca-Cola content marketing team, the 70/20/10 "rule" means that 70 percent of your content should be types that are already doing well. Meaning, check your "Insights" page to see how things are performing and then leverage that content again. (See our recent article on how to boost your posts—it's perfect for this.)

Next, 20 percent should be iterations and improvements of the 70 percent. This is where you experiment with the language of the post, the photo that goes with it, the time of day that you share it, etc. to see if little improvements can push the post to even greater heights! Lastly, 10 percent should be completely new stuff you're trying out.

#4. Think about your end game

Let's face it—being active on social media will certainly help you establish your online reputation and make you look like the rockstar thought leader you are... but, you just want LEADS, right?

With that being said, make sure you're also focused on your end game. When a Facebook follower clicks on your post, where are you sending them? Are they going to your website? Are they going to a sign-up form for a free neighborhood report? Is there anything for them to click on at all? Once they're there, how will you capture their contact information or email?

Don't waste your precious time trying to create amazing, quality content only to send your followers to an uninspiring destination!

Catch up on the Facebook Reach series here:

This is part of our series on how to get more attention to your Facebook page. Here are links to the other articles you may have missed:

• Personal PROFILE or Business PAGE: What's the right choice for real estate agents? (Did you know there's a difference?)
• Have you fallen off the social media bandwagon? 6 ways to dust off your Facebook account and get back in the game
• Fewer eyeballs are seeing your Facebook posts: How agents can uncover their true reach
• Video is the emperor: 5 video options for agents to fuel Facebook reach
• Agents grow your Facebook reach: Trade your daily coffee habit for boosted posts

To view the original article, visit the Realtor.com Results blog.