You have a Facebook Page, you post on it, but you just aren't pleased with the number of people you are reaching... I've been there. Read on for 6 easy steps to increasing your Facebook reach, WITHOUT paying for Facebook ads! You are going to create an online contest. 1. Think of a product or service that you could give away, for free, that is related to your business.

If you have a business with homemade products, perhaps you could give away one of your products. If you run a service-type business, perhaps you could give away a couple hours of your time. Pick something that people will get excited about! 2. Come up with a way to ENGAGE people in a Facebook post. More people will see your post on Facebook if you can get people to like, share and comment on your post - preferably all three! Here's some wording from a contest I did recently for a client:

3. Create a highly-engaging photo collage to go with your wording. Your image should evoke emotion. What does that mean? It means that when someone sees your image, they should feel something. Maybe they smile, maybe they laugh, maybe they feel excited! It should not be a "blah" image, if you know what I'm saying. It should also contain a picture of YOU, the business owner, smiling. It should show the item that you are giving away. And maybe it should have some clear and concise wording explaining (at a glance) that this is a contest with a prize! Here's an example of one that I used (to go with the above wording):

4. Schedule your post so that it hits Facebook at the right time! Publishing a post to Facebook at 11pm on a Friday is not going to bode well for the post. The best time for a contest post, in my opinion and according to my research, would be at about 7:30am on a Tuesday morning. Why? Well, I could write a whole blog on that. Let's just say that a lot of people check their Facebook with their morning coffee and not many people are online over the weekend. 5. Be ready to share, share, share!

Once your post is published, be ready to share it to many, many places! This works best if you share it in the first hour when it is published. The more places you share it to, the better! Here are some suggestions for groups/pages/personal profiles to share it to: -the local "buy and sell" or "community info" groups... these often have thousands of members! Make sure to follow the groups' rules, though. -the local "news" pages (send a message to the FB Page and try to convince them to post it on their main page) -send messages to your friends (preferably the friends who have many friends) and ask them if they wouldn't mind sharing your post onto their personal Facebook feed

-encourage anyone else who works for the business (or any of those raving fans) to also share it

6. Watch as your contest post reaches thousands!

If you look at the above pic, you'll see my contest post reached over 6,000 people in less than a week. And I did not pay any money for Facebook advertising. Make sure you follow through and choose a winner! Bonus points: Announce your winner on Facebook, tag them in the post, and also share the winner announcement onto their personal Facebook Page. (this only works if you are friends with the winner) Bonus bonus points: To choose the winner, enter all the names in a random name chooser such as www.namepickerninja.com , then make a Facebook Live video of yourself choosing the winner! This works best if you set up the random name chooser on a computer, have another tab open that has the original contest post in it, and use your phone to film the FB Live video. Be excited! Point the camera at the computer and talk about what you are seeing! Be yourself!