As the world’s largest social network, Facebook has 1.49 billion global active users and has become a major part of its users' daily lives. So, the social media network can be an effective way to extend the reach of your brand in a more personal and unobtrusive way.

Facebook offers its own analytics dashboard that provides insight into post performance. The site is a source of rich demographic data about followers, including identity, activities, interests, and location, which is helpful for understanding their target market.  And it can also help brands to deliver targeted communications, which increase the effectiveness of online marketing efforts.

For example, personalized emails, which you can create using information that customers share on Facebook, have been shown to have a 25% higher open rate and a 51% higher click rate, according to an Experian study.

Even in the face of algorithm changes, here are some tactics that still work on the platform:

1) Optimize Your “About” Section

Make sure to use relevant keywords in the About section for search engine optimization (SEO).

2) Funnel Traffic from Elsewhere

With Facebook's "pay to play model, organically building an initial audience on the platform is difficult. But one of the easiest ways to increase traffic is to consistently remind your customers about your Facebook presence. Make sure visitors, customers and followers know where to find you on Facebook by placing links to your page in your other social media profiles, email marketing campaigns and on your website (a click-to-like Facebook button on your homepage could help push traffic there).

3) Use Mentions

Mentioning other Facebook pages and users in your posts to build relevance and signal influencers is one of the best ways to amplify posts and attract new followers. Not only will everyone you mention be notified when you do so, other users, companies and brands will be more likely to engage with you or share your post with their audience. The theory is, the more shares and engagement, the better the reach and the more potential for driving quality traffic and backlinks.

4) Collaborate with Influencers

Another effective tactic to get more traffic is partnering with social media influencers and power users who can drive targeted traffic to your Facebook page. According to MuseFind, 92% of consumers are more likely to trust a social media influencer over advertising or a celebrity endorsement. The downside is most influencers have a price tag for their work, but this could still turn out to be organic way to increase traffic with the right influencers.

Some influencers collaborate in exchange for perks like sponsorship brand recognition on a website, through link exchanges or receiving no-cost products for review.  Influencers can be found using search tools such as BuzzSumo..

Influencers could be bloggers, journalists, publications, companies or regular social media users interested in your field who have large or highly engaged followings. It’s a good idea to start following influencers before reaching out to any of them to show genuine interest before making a pitch.

5) Monitor Your Page for Questions and Customer Issues

Today’s customers often turn to social media when they have an issue, rather than contacting a company by website form, e-mail or phone. Not responding is the equivalent of not answering the phone. 42% of consumers expect an answer to a social media inquiry within 60 minutes. You can’t afford to risk a bad review by letting these customers slip through the cracks.

6) Incorporate Video Content

It’s definitely time to jump on the video bandwagon, since video tends to attract more engagement than any other form of content across platforms. Facebook is no exception. In fact, Facebook itself has said video content drives higher engagement and interactions from users compared to any other type of content on its social network. Video is the ideal conversation-starter that almost never fails to keep users’ attention.

Video content doesn't require big-budget production values. Simple short-but-sweet video clips are engagement magnets, whether they are brief how-to tutorials (60 seconds) or a quick behind-the-scenes look at your brand or business, video is a powerful medium to use. As a bonus, Facebook’s Boomerang app could even be used to create interesting loop-style videos in seconds.

7) Don’t Overdo Things

Of all of the major social media networks, Facebook is one of the few places users don’t like companies and brands to be too active (no doubt because of the sheer volume of FB content they see each day), so there’s a fine line between being engaging and being spammy on the platform. CoSchedule’s research culled from 10 studies found the middle ground for posting to Facebook is only once a day. Sprout social discovered that 29% of baby boomers will unfollow brands they feel are too spammy, which is why you have to be aware of the pitfalls of over-posting.

8) Post at The Right Time

Buddy Media analyzed more than 1,800 brand and company Facebook pages over a two-month period and found that the following:

• Posts published between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. received 14% higher interaction than posts published between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
• Brands that post once a day see 19% higher interaction rates.
• Pages that post more than seven times per week see a 25% decrease in interaction rates.
• Interaction rate for weekend posts is 14.5% higher than for weekday posts, yet only 14% of posts are published on weekends.

Conclusion

There you have it: A few strategies for increasing engagement and traffic on Facebook. Although it takes more than a little time and persistence to build your brand on the platform, these tactics provide a good starting point for boosting your reach without  using paid advertising on Facebook.