White Paper

Organic Reach on Social Media

The Uphill Battle for Nonprofits

By: Mikayla McCormic

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Abstract

The goal of nonprofit organizations is to reach as many

people as possible with their mission, and hope it will make a

difference in the corporations life. Recently, Facebook has

changed the way its News Feed generates content for users,

and incidentally causing nonprofit posts from reaching

around 16% of their followers organically to only reaching

around 2%, if they are lucky. Many web analysts have

already tried to tackle this reach scare, but they have all

come to a similar conclusion: destruction is imminent.

However, this does not mean the death of nonprofits on

Facebook. Despite its (possibly intentional) algorithm that

almost requires organizations to pay money for a larger

outreach, there is light at the end of the tunnel when it

comes to Facebook post engagement. As long as posts are

focused and easy for followers to engage, a lot of

organizations can still consider Facebook to be an asset. As

long as they are not putting all of their eggs in one social

media basket, nonprofits like United Way of Central Ohio

can continue to thrive; they just might have to pay a little

extra first.


The Beginning of the End

My research into the decline

Thousands of nonprofit organizations use social media,

like Facebook, to spread the word about campaigns,

events, needed donations, and even animals in need of

adoption (in the case of animal shelters). With so many

people in the world staying constantly connected via

smartphones, laptops, tablets, and so on it is a strong

tactic for these organizations to use social media to

spread the word and reach their fans effectively and

efficiently.

On average, there are 1,500 stories that could appear in a persons News Feed each time they log onto Facebook. For people with lots of friends and Page likes, as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time they log on. -Brian Boland, VP of Advertising Technology for Facebook1

The Problem

Facebook developed an algorithm for the News Feed that

filters out any posts that might not appeal to a user.

Typically, a nonprofits post would reach about 16% of its

followers. However, beginning in 2012 Facebook has

changed its algorithm in such a way that only roughly 6%

of followers will see an organization s post. This means

that for every 100,000 people who like/follow a nonprofit s

page, only 600 people will actually see the post without

the organization paying to have the post boosted.2 The

question is then, how do you increase organic reach

without paying a Facebook fee and costing the

organization money? Is this the death of nonprofits on this

social medium?

.

1 Boland

2 Zeigenfuse

FIG. 1 Example of unboosted Facebook post by United Way of Central Ohio

3

Key Words

These are a few key terms that are important to know

throughout this paper:

Organic Reach - the total number of people who were

shown an organizations post through unpaid distribution.

Paid Reach the total number of people who were shown

an organizations post through boosting.

Boosting the act of paying a fee for a post to be

broadcasted across a larger Facebook audience.

3 United Way Facebook


Tackling the Issue

United Way of Central Ohio, just like any other nonprofit organization, has been

feeling the sting of Facebooks new algorithm. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the

constant decline of organic reach since Facebook announced its new News Feed

algorithm. There is even research on the different types of posts an organization

can make and how well they have done between September and October (Figure

4).

During my time there, I noticed a drastic difference between boosted and

unboosted posts. Any of my unboosted posts averaged about 400-700 people

reached (Figure 1), with the exception being Goodwill Columbus hitting over

1,000. I did notice that my more popular posts had pictures of young, smiling

children prominently displayed on top of the link to the United Way web page, so I

tried to implement that tactic as much as I could. Unfortunately, it is hard to fight

fate.

However, when a post was boosted the average reach went from the hundreds to

the thousands. One post about the Champion of Children event reached over

16,000 people, with over 15,000 of those followers reached because someone

paid for it. Many web analysts, such as Ogilvy, believe that the best way to

survive on the new Facebook algorithm is to adapt and reach as many fans as

possible through four major strategies:4

1. Focus on engaging content.

2. Diversify your social platforms.

3. Make the case for paid media support.

4. Weigh the cost/benefits of Facebook participation.

The basis for the first suggestion can be found in figure 5. Despite the constantly

decreasing organic reach that organizations are facing, engagement has remained

surprisingly steady. TechCrunch continues to suggest focusing on publishing high-

quality content. Dont post too often and dont cram marketing down peoples throats.

Be entertaining and informative, follow analytics closely, consider hiring experts that

can help, and refine the strategy an organization takes.5

TechCrunch continues to suggest focusing on

publishing high-quality content. Dont post too often

and dont cram marketing down peoples throats. Be

entertaining and informative, follow analytics

closely, consider hiring experts that can help, and

refine the strategy an organization takes.

4 Zeigenfuse

5 Grant

Fun Fact Ogilvy has created its own white

paper on the same subject. If

you are interested in a similar

study, click here for the full

white paper. I used a decent

amount of their finding here, but

they also have more extensive

thoughts and are much funnier.


By diversifying social platforms, it allows an organization to remain media neutral

and not become totally dependent on one form of social media for all of the

organizations needs. If there is some sort of campaign that requires constant

updates, dont overload a Facebook page; use Twitter as an always on platform.6

United Way of Central Ohio was really smart about balancing their social media

platforms and catering to each media norm. I often found my Twitter posts to be

much shorter (partly due to the 140 character limit) and punchier than their

Facebook counterparts. However, my pictures were not as important on Twitter and

served me far better on Facebook.

Suggestions 3 and 4 go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. There is no avoiding the

decreased organic reach that Facebook provides, so organizations have to ask

themselves whether or not Facebook is worth the pursuit. Despite the fact that this

could be a money-making scheme on Facebooks part, it is still a potent social

media platform for organizations to spread campaigns. United Way of Central Ohio

continues to use Facebook for that very purpose.

Final Verdict?

It seems like there is no real way to win the battle with Facebook. Despite their

claims that organic reach remains at manageable levels, statistics show that it is

continuing downward on a graph and will soon approach 0% organic outreach.

Whether or not this is intentional on Facebooks part, organizations need to adapt

if they want to continue to have that option. This isnt to say that a nonprofit cant

survive without Facebook by any means, but my research has lead me to

understand that it can be very valuable to maintain the strong engagement and

one-on-one follower connection that Facebook provides. So, my greatest

suggestion is to adapt to this change, embrace it, and continue to produce

engaging content that no follower could pass up. Facebook is a business before

anything else, and should be treated as such in any future endeavor.

6 Ogilvy

Charts and Graphs

FIG. 2 - AVERAGE POST ORGANIC REACH 10TH AUG 2ND NOV, BASED ON 41,051 POSTS MADE BY 274 SAMPLE PAGES IN THE PERIOD.7

AVERAGE POST ORGANIC REACH 10TH

AUG 2ND

NOV, BROKEN DOWN BY PAGE

SIZE, BASED ON 41,051 POSTS MADE BY 274 SAMPLE PAGES IN THE PERIOD.8

7 Grant

8 Grant

FIG. 4 AVERAGE REACH OF DIFFERENT POST TYPES BETWEEN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 9

FIG. 5 - AVERAGE POST ENGAGEMENT RATE 10TH

AUG 2ND

NOV, BASED ON 41,051 POSTS MADE BY

274 SAMPLE PAGES IN THE PERIOD.10

9 Grant

10 Grant

Works Cited

Boland, Brian. "Organic Reach on Facebook: Your Questions Answered."Facebook for Business. Facebook, 5 June 2014. Web. 02 May 2015.

Grant, Robin. "Facebook Has Decreased Page Reach, And Heres Why."TechCrunch. We Are Social, 16 Nov. 2012. Web. 02 May 2015.

Manson, Marshall. "Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach." Social@Ogilvy. Ogilvy, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 02 May 2015.

"United Way of Central Ohio." Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2015.

Zeigenfuse, Emily, and Sarah Van Velsor. "Abstract: Overcoming Facebook Zero for Health: Strategies for Managing the Decline in Organic Facebook Reach." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, n.d. Web. 02 May 2015.

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