Social Media Reach is reaching all-time lows.

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"Reach" meaning, when you post something for your business, how many different people will see it?

For brands and businesses, the social media platforms know you want to sell things, and they have paid advertising to do that. That is why they keep turning down the dial on the amount of people your posts will reach.

The days of having your commercial announcement go viral are over. (Anyone telling you they can do it are lying to you.)

And before someone writes me back to try to explain that Squatty Potty had 1.6M views or some other example, let me tell you this. They PAID for those views. Sure it was shared, but algorithms limit sharing on paid promotions also, so you're getting the screws put to you either way.

Besides REACH, the other consideration is DISCOVERY.

"Discovery" meaning, "When you post something is it shown to anyone you are not already connected to?"

For most platforms, the answer to this is also no.

So if you can't grow your following, and you can't reach new people, what's the point of organic posting on social networks?

Staying in touch with the people you already have - announcing events, tagging people in photos, live streaming, video posts, are all still great ways to stay in touch with the followers you already have.

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck is the strategy on organic social, but it should be more like Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook in 2021. A "jab" being "add value" and a "right hook" being "ask for something."

I would be remiss not to mention the Business Builder Throwdown Podcast is coming out this week. "Business Builder Throwdown: 7-Minute Jabs." Titled in part after the strategy above, and part from the hitchhiker in There's Something About Mary who's business aspiration is to make a video called 7-minute Abs to compete with the popular video store rental 8-minute Abs.

The reason places like FB and IG can dial down the reach of your commercial posts is that they have more posts created than they have users to look at. There is more content than needed to show in the feed. They can pick and choose.

We have determined that discovery and reach are essentially dead and we have to pay for advertising to sell things at this point. But wait! There is still a way...

Four Places To Get Discovery and Reach

1. LinkedIn - If you sell anything to businesses or consumers and you aren't building a Linkedin content strategy right now, you are not answering the door while opportunity is knocking. The decision makers are on LinkedIn.
2. Tik Tok - just reached 2 Billion downloads. If you're still telling yourself Tik Tok is for 15 year old girls, and you're a B2C business, you're missing the boat and time is tick-tocking out.
3. Instagram Reels - This is Instagram's Tik Tok clone. They are providing excellent discovery and reach right now because they are trying to turn Instagram from a photo-sharing app into an entertainment platform.
4. YouTube - video on YouTube is still growing and it's essentially a TV channel for people now. Just like Netflix is on every device these days, so is YouTube.

With the exception of Linkedin, you're going to be required to create video. This is a tool every marketer and business should have in their toolbelt. The ability to make short videos with reasonable lighting and sound.

Get a mic and a ring-light. Spend a couple bucks on a decent web cam. Upgrade that old smartphone. Test out some video creating apps.

And don't spend all your time on it! Do what makes you money first, then carve out a little time to spend on getting your video marketing going.

The only thing you you have to lose is the ability to reach new customers.

~Matt