By limes I mean likes! Whoops! That would be a lot of limes!
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Hmmm. It is interesting. Maybe donāt promote just yet and have a few days or so of posting like this maybe? See if the reach starts to increase?
I might give that a go! This is my second post without promotingā¦ I feel theyāre punishing me! 
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I have found that the day and time at which I post on facebook can have a massive effect on how many people see my posts. If I post on fridays or mondays it seems to get buried very quickly so not many people see it (too much discussion about what is going to happen/ happened at the weekend perhaps) but lunchtime/ afternoon on wednesdays/ thursdays gets me good exposure. Try posting at different times on different days to find out when your likers are about - if you are targetting mums try posting at likely nap times when they are free to keep half an eye on FB.
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Thank you @SashaGarrett 
Iāve tried that, and also used the insights to see when the majority of my likers are online (starts to increase at 3pm with a peak at around 9pm if I remember rightly!) But it still doesnāt make a difference. But thank you for your advice and input, much appreciated!
Sorry to impose on your thread @SamanthaStanley !
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Hi Sophie.
I donāt know for certain that FB limit your organic reach on how much you post. I know from my own experience that posting once a day was beneficial and the negative feedback (such as unlikes or āhide this postā) was damaging. I have some anecdotal evidence (no statistics) from somebody else I follow on FB who has a very popular page that indicates to me that boosting every post does limit organic reach and also that posting more than once a day might (I stress the might, as I donāt have access to his stats) limit organic reach too. In addition, I can second Sasha that the time of day you post has the biggest measurable effect. The āsweet spotā is 2 pm for most people, but you can tailor it to yourself by looking at when the majority of your followers are on FB. Ideally you should release your post an hour or two before the peak on the graph.
I donāt mind you posting at all because all evidence and strategy is welcome on this thread. If we can work out how best to play the algorithms then that is useful information for everybody.
Love Sam x
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I read somewhere that midweek is the best time to post- Tues, Wed and Thurs afternoon/evening as itās apparently the time when most people are sort of just randomly browsing the Internet. Weekends people are supposedly busier so arenāt really interested in engaging and Friday/Monday people are busy with other things- back to work/looking forward to the weekend.
I have found that I get less likes/shares if I post on a weekend. So this statistic does actually work out best for me.
I donāt post every day. Sometimes just once a week if that; and sometimes even less. But my reach and likes are always pretty good for the amount of page likers I have.
I find short videos get the most interest by far. And I never post without a photo as just posting words doesnāt get me anywhere.
Just little things Iāve noticed over time.
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I dont understand facebook and have a love hate relationship with it!
I have tried all sorts of ways to get more views, but it seems to be so random, I dont get it.
My husband can post something on his page - his latest new painting for instance and get over a 1000 views, from just a few shares and a hundred likes, if I put it on my page as a new post or a share I might be lucky to get about 80 people see it!
We have the same amount of likers almost about 1050, it doesnāt matter what time of day we post, or even what we say, although Mark tends to go for a more softly softly approach and just says stuff like āthought Iād just show you my latest now its finished Iām off to walk the dog nowā or something like that. I might post something like " this is Marks latest, I will sort out cards and prints soon".
I have tried boosting 2 maybe 3 times and yes I do get more views for that post, but then the next one will get a very low number.
Mark swears its because he has people who are genuinely interested in what he posts (other artists etc) where as I have done the dreaded like my page if I like yours - in the early days. I also did groups, but got fed up of telling people there stuff was ālovelyā because I had to like and put at least 3 words on 3 posts. When clearly it was just a bit rubbish!
Some people seem to have the knack and swear by it, personally its just something that is there for me and its my duty as a business to put something on it no matter what!
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Another thing which Iāve read recently about FB is that itās best to only post 1 photo per post, as FB doesnāt like multiple pictures on 1 post. And as far as Iām aware hashtags donāt really work on FB, as FB sees them as spam.
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Itās certainly possible. Iāve noticed that 1 photograph posts do slightly better, although I wouldnāt have thought it was significant if it was just my own stats. I have noticed that FB often arranges multiple photos strangely and so the impact of what ought to have been a good image can be completely ruined that way. Food for thought!
Love Sam x
Iāve been reading this thread avidly hoping to find a way to āworkā Facebook but to honest Iām more confused than ever!
My last few posts have been at peak times, with no āselling wordsā used and only one pic and guess what? Yes the āpost reachā has been ridiculously low, yet the most recent post that got a really high reach was posted late on a Sunday evening and without a photo!
I totally give up and am resigning myself to the fact that I am truly at the mercy of Facebook. Iām now living in hope that Iāll fair better at the Instagram āgameā.
Who knew social media could be so complicated?!
Sonia.x
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I donāt normally post multiple photoās either, Iāve done it the past few times just to see if the reach was different. And I probably post a few times a week, so I just donāt understand! I think Iāll stop with the hash tags as Iāve definitely not seen an improvement, and if Facebook seeās them as spam Iām probably doing more damage!
Iām the opposite, when I post a status rather than a picture I tend to get more views, but this doesnāt help when Iām trying to show my items!
Iām going to keep uploading and not boosting (if I can hold off!) And see how I go. But if I want more than a couple of people to see something that Iāve put hours of work in to I may just have to 
Ah yes, @TandMArtsandCrafts I would imagine those sorts of things would affect your page, as if your only reaching 80 people you definitely want those to be genuine fans as opposed to someone thatās just liked to get a like back! Thatās how I feel about it anyway!
Before the change over, I had around 1,000 likes and I honestly used to get around 1,000 views! It was great. Ahh, the good old days!
Good luck with all your pages, and thanks for all the advice. Of I stumble across the magic formula Iāll post it here!
P.s I would definitely recommend instagram, I love it!
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Oh, one other thing! What do people feel about posting things that arenāt related to your business? Like an occasional animal video etc? Iāve seen other pages doing this which get quite a few likes, and Iām wondering itās worth trying as it may help bring the reach up?
Might be something else to consider?
I think itās really important to have a mixture of posts on all of your social media pages, in order to make your pages interesting. If all people are sharing is what they are making, it does get boring for the reader.
I think the golden rule is that 30% of your posts should be āthis is what Iāve madeā and 70% should be other things, such as sharing articles, wip, what inspires you, asking your readers for feedback etc. But I also think that itās important that the 70% other posts are still āon brandā with your business, so if you sold dog coats, the odd video of a dog would fit perfectly with your brand. Or if you own a dog and it comes to work with you and youāve shared photos of your dog āhelpingā in your studio, a cute video of someone elseās dog, would fit with your brand
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I think thatās it to be honest.
Itās also funny what will catch peoples imagination - I posted a couple of photos of a holly leaf skeleton that I found whilst gardening and a lot of people liked that! Iāve decided to just try and relax a bit on my page and put more of my personality across - as crafters we are unique in what makes us tick.
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I think the key to FB is to mix your posts up, so if someone lands on your page itās not post after post of the same type of thing. I sometimes post without pictures and sometimes they do really well, sometimes they donāt. I donāt think there are any fixed rules on what the best type of post should be, the best thing to do is create interesting posts so that readers will interact with them
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Ah ok, this all sounds promising! I think I may start trying to mix things up a little.
@BigBirdLittleBird I feel the same! I want to start relaxing and showing a bit more personality! I used to worry people would think it was unprofessional but I think itās much more interesting. Perhaps that is the magical formula!
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Facebook continues to amaze me and I canāt get my head round it so work with it as best I can.
Examples of recent posts and reach are
REACH 72
Both posts about my work last night within 30 mins of each other.
Does Facebook like musical notes ? Object to dinosaurs ?
Who knows.
I shared a sweet dog video a few hours earlier and have
REACH 1408
and a silly wedding vow video this morning now has
REACH 348
Iāve given up trying to work out what Facebook likes.
I know from experience what it doesnāt like : anything with any commercial words or phrases and posts with multiple photos and post with links - I put those in the comment when I need them.
Donāt know about hashtags which I use every now and then as my Facebook posts are automatically tweeted as well - the evidence of the Moon post which has tags as well as musical notes would indicate Facebook likes them. ??
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Perhaps FB didnāt like your dinosaur joke @JOYSofGLASS I long suspected a lack of a sense of humour!
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I agree that it was not the best of jokes so you are probably right. Best Google could find Me
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