Facebook is not intuitive to most business owners. The terminology of this social media platform might seem esoteric at times. However, Facebook can be a gold mine for business owners looking to expand their online presence. One of the most common questions is “what is more important, Facebook post reach or post engagement?”. The answer depends on the kind of interaction that you are trying to encourage. They are both important metrics when it comes to creating a holistic social media strategy. Here are two quick tips to help you decide what metric is best in your case:

1. Facebook post reach helps you increase your brand awareness. Although merely appearing on the newsfeed of many of people is not an ideal strategy, Facebook reach can help you improve your brand awareness if you target the right audience. Focusing on Facebook reach is like advertising in a popular magazine without the ultimate intention of helping people connect with your brand directly from the publication. Facebook reach is an excellent tool for general branding and to keep your audience aware of your product or service. This expanded scope is the reason behind many big brands releasing content without a clear call to action or a particular commercial intent. When you focus primarily on branding, your intent is not to make thousands of people buy your product directly. Branding is a tool for customer loyalty and awareness which are often the first steps in finding new clients and helping old ones remember your business.
2. Facebook post engagement is like inviting agreeable people into your company. Facebook tries to optimize for post engagement when it comes to likes, comments, and shares. This is an excellent tool if you have a particular piece of content that has the potential of “going viral”. The biggest misconception, however, is that simply having more likes or comments on a post is a good sign of a return on investment. Not everybody who likes a post does so because they “like” your brand. Sometimes people just ‘like’ to acknowledge they saw a post or simply to create a positive self-image online (for example liking a post from a charity without ever donating money to that charity). The real power of post engagement is from “second-hand engagement”, basically people engaging from your post because of a friend who liked or commented on the post.

Although there are no black and white rules when it comes to Facebook marketing, it is important to keep in mind how Facebook segments a particular audience under the specific campaign objective. Facebook will always try to show a post or ad to people whom they think are likely to resonate with that particular piece of content. This might or might not align with your overall business goals, and that is why is crucial to experiment with different objectives to find the perfect recipe for your company. The best approach to Facebook marketing is a mixed approach where you take into account user behavior on the platform while keeping a laser-targeted focus on your greater marketing goals.