The decline in Facebook reach is no longer debated; it is established. In June, Facebook published a detailed explanation, and its main conclusion was that free reach will not return. The relevant question has therefore become a practical one: what should a business do each week to manage its page effectively?
We have supported dive operators in Bali with social media for several years, and a clear pattern has emerged. A small number of practices keep pages effective; most other tactics have little impact. Last month, Facebook also announced measures against click-bait headlines in the News Feed, such as "you won't believe what happened next." Each of these changes points in the same direction: post content people genuinely want to see, pay for reach, or ideally do both.
Which posts should be boosted?
Boost the posts that already perform well organically. The Boost Post button appears under every post, and many owners use it on the wrong ones: the announcement of a new package, the promotion, or whatever they most want people to see.
This approach is counterproductive. Facebook's system rewards posts that generate reactions. Boosting a post that attracted no interest means paying to promote content the algorithm has already judged unengaging, which yields poor results for the money spent.
The effective approach requires patience. Post as usual, wait a day, then review your Insights to see which post received the most likes, comments and shares without assistance. Boost that post. Your fans have already indicated their preference; the budget extends the most popular post to a wider audience.
Some owners find it counterintuitive to spend money on a sunset photo rather than on the offer. The sunset post, however, encourages people to follow the page, and the page is where the offer is presented. After a few weeks, promotional posts also perform better, because more of the right people are following the page.
How should a boosted post be targeted?
By interest and location rather than by age. The default boost audience is "people who like your page and their friends." This option is convenient but often ineffective for a tourism business, since most of a guest's friends at home are not planning a dive trip to Indonesia.
We recommend building the audience yourself. Facebook allows targeting by country, by city and by interests. For a dive centre, this means people in the markets your guests actually come from, interested in scuba diving, travel to Bali or Southeast Asia, and possibly a particular dive magazine or training agency. Age is the least useful filter, since divers range from teenagers to retirees.
The other audience worth building is your past guests. Facebook allows a customer email list to be uploaded as a Custom Audience and shown selected posts. Past guests who enjoyed their experience are the most likely to return or refer a friend, and a small budget directed at them is highly effective. Before uploading any list, review your privacy policy and what guests have consented to.
What does an effective setup include?
- One saved audience per main market (for most centres, two or three countries).
- Interests closely related to what you sell, rather than broad ones such as "travel."
- Past guests as a separate audience.
- A small daily amount, run for a few days, followed by a review of the results.
This setup is deliberately simple. More complex configurations tend to lose money.
When should you post, and which settings are often overlooked?
Page Insights shows when your fans are online, yet few owners consult it. For a business in Bali with fans in Europe, the best time to post is often late in the Bali evening, when Europe is at lunch or finishing the workday. Owners tend to post when they have a moment, usually in the morning after the boats leave, which is the middle of the night for half their audience.
Scheduling resolves this issue and is built directly into Pages. Write the post when you have time, and schedule it for when your audience is awake.
The basic settings are also frequently neglected: the About section with correct hours, address and website; the phone number; a profile picture that is a logo legible at thumbnail size rather than a group photo; and a cover image that shows what you do. These elements are the first thing a new visitor sees, yet many pages leave them incomplete.
Why does response time to messages matter?
Messages are becoming the new phone line. People who would never send an email will send a Facebook message at 11 p.m. to ask whether there is space on the next day's boat.
Centres that reply within the hour secure the booking. Those that reply two days later receive a polite message stating that the guest has booked elsewhere.
Guests notice response time, and it strongly influences whether they trust a business before meeting its team. A business that cannot answer a message promptly will find it harder to earn the trust of guests who will rely on it forty metres underwater.
The practical solution is to designate who responds: one person, with notifications on their phone, and a backup when that person is diving. A few saved replies for the questions asked every day reduce the response time from five minutes to ten seconds.
Where can the details be verified?
Facebook frequently moves its settings, and its advertising tools change every few months. When a feature is no longer where expected, the Facebook for Business help pages are the quickest way to locate it.
The underlying practices remain constant: boost what works, target it precisely, post when people are awake, keep the page complete and respond promptly. Businesses that prefer to delegate this work can rely on professional social media management. Those that prefer to manage it themselves should begin with messages, since prompt responses deliver the fastest return of all these practices.