The number of small businesses on Facebook is continuing to grow at rapid rates. As of April last year, Facebook announced the number of active small business Pages on the platform was up to 40 million. For all of these small businesses on Facebook, limited reach due to Facebook’s algorithm is an ever-present frustration.

Before we start an algorithm bashing session here, we want to say that we do understand Facebook’s algorithm is a necessary evil. There are over 1.65 billion active users on the site. 1.65 billion! To put that in perspective, that’s bigger than the entire population of China. The Facebook algorithm determines what each of those people will see in their news feeds based off of who/what they’re following. Without the algorithm, our news feeds would quickly become bogged down with an overload of content from all the friends and Pages we follow. The algorithm works to prioritize certain posts, putting posts from friends and family first and following that with posts that it thinks will be of the most interest to you.

For small businesses on the platform, fighting to get their posts seen can seem like an uphill battle. Some posts perform well and garner heaps of likes, shares, and comments, while others languish in their sad secluded corners. What is it that causes some posts to do well and others to fail miserably?

A quick Google search for ways to boost organic reach will produce thousands of articles all touting their answers to this common question. More often than not, the answer is the same: Post high-quality content. While that is a true statement, it is also maddeningly vague.  High quality can mean different things to different people.  What works for one industry won’t work for another.

That is why we recommend testing out different practices for yourself. Sure, listen to the articles and follow some general guidelines but always, always test for yourself. The social media best practices of yesterday fade away faster than a 10-second Snapchat, so don’t feel like you’re restricted to the “rules”. Instead, tweak the rules so they fit your audience and your goals.

A great example of this is a recent discovery we had when we tested different posting times for a client. Their Facebook posts had been going live every day around noon. This seemed like an effective strategy since a lot of people scroll through Facebook during their lunch breaks. However, one day we started publishing their posts at 12:00am instead and the results were surprising. The organic reach on their posts instantly improved. Due to several different factors (an international audience, type of posts, and Facebook’s algorithm), this strategy worked well for them. When we tested the same practice on a separate client’s Facebook, the results were entirely different.  Social media is a constant evolution in what works and what doesn’t, and determining what those things are for your business takes time, strategy, and lots of testing.

The four most recommend tips for boosting organic reach on Facebook are:

• Figure out the best time to post
• Build engagement with your followers
• Post various types of rich media: photos, video, links
• Post consistently

All of these recommendations are a great basis for posting on your small business’ Facebook page, but testing, stretching, and tweaking them until you get the best results is the only way your page will continue to grow organically.