Why you shouldn't stop posting over the holidays

Ah, the silly season is well and truly upon us. I don't know about you with but this comes the end of year rush to wrap up projects, prepare for leave and get your ducks in order. Maintaining your presence on social media is probably not even on your list right now. 

If you've been working hard on your social media presence this year (or at least pumping out posts consistently) and you've been getting some engagement with likes, comments, and shares, then now is the time to NOT let this hard work go to waste. I'm about to get a little techy here but bear with me. What you've essentially done, is tell the social media algorithm gods that your content is worthy of being shown in news feeds. This is no small feat, my friend so props to you. With organic reach declining more and more, giving the middle finger to the algorithm gods is a dead social page sentence. 

When the frequency of your content (and quality) suddenly declines, and you blink and suddenly it's February 2018 and you're ready to rock it online, you'll be met with crickets. All your hard work has gone down the gurgler and you're left feeling like the unpopular kid picked last for the volleyball team. 

So how do you know if the algorithm gods have shunned you? A telltale sign is that your organic reach has declined on Facebook. Head to your page and check out how many people you've reached. You'll find this in blue under each post:

Compare this number to the number of people that like your page. Reports vary on the percentage of people you should be reaching with good content on an engaged page but I like to use 10% as a guide. So if you have 1000 page likes, then reaching 100 people isn't bad. This reach percentage usually decreases as the size of your following grows (I know, unfair right?!). 

Once the algorithm gods have deemed you are not worthy, it can be a hard slog but to engagement heaven. It's a situation where prevention is better than cure but if you do find yourself in this predicament, a little ol' boost of some top-notch content will help you get back on track.

Merry Christmas!

Sonya