Is Organic Reach Dead on Facebook?

Late last year, Facebook announced on its blog, “Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.” In a related post on the same day, Facebook assured businesses that, “Pages still matter — a lot,” and for emphasis, added, “In October, for instance, nearly a billion people visited Facebook Pages.”

So what should your Facebook strategy be? In our latest article we interviewed Ben Dillon, Chief Strategy Officer at Geonetric and a frequent contributor to eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. We asked Ben to expand on his comments on the SHSMD listserv about Facebook and brand strategies. Confirming Facebook’s predictions about organic reach, Dillon says, “When a brand just posts something out there, whereas 60 percent of the followers would typically see it in the past, now that might be 15 percent.”

Dillon identifies certain types of health organizations that are still seeing great results in spite of Facebook’s new algorithms. “We see children’s hospitals absolutely soaring in this space,” he says. Veterans are another highly engaged audience. “The vets are out there, and they’re posting on the organization’s page, sharing things, liking things,” says Dillon.

Dillon predicts that some brands may back out of Facebook entirely. “I think brands are feeling a real shift there, and I think hospitals are no different,” he says.

But in some cases, Dillon believes Facebook may still be a huge winner.

For more ideas on how you can successfully navigate Facebook’s changing landscape, read our latest Ask the Expert column, with Ben Dillon, Facebook Pages: Should Health Systems Consolidate or Create Multiple Pages?

Best regards,
Jane Weber Brubaker
Editor