tallyED Blog

🤑 Want to reach voters with your Facebook content? You will likely have to pay

It seems like forever ago, but Facebook used to be a beacon of hope for publishers trying to get their message out to users on the platform.  

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All of that has changed — and now, publishers are largely deprioritized in Facebook's Newsfeed, meaning there are plenty of Pages that get minimal organic engagement. There are, of course, pages that still get plenty of organic reach and interactions, but there aren't many in the political space that are succeeding without putting money behind their content.  

At tallyED, we wanted to put this to an A/B test. Over the last few months, we have taken different approaches to posting content, including various topics, post types and timing.  

We then put some money — and by some, we mean very little money — behind a post to see how it performed.  

The post we selected, which was related to Florida voters having to request new Vote-By-Mail ballots for 2024, was boosted to a targeted audience for $1.99 over just a few hours. In that time, we had 38 engagements, which was exponentially more than any organic post in recent weeks. 

We are explaining this process in full transparency to share this message with you if you're running for office yourself or managing a Facebook Page for a campaign/candidate/organization: There are some organic things you can do in order to rank in the algorithm, but you will need to put money behind your content if you want people to see it this election season. 

Speaking of ranking in the algorithm, there are some things you can do. 

Hootsuite, a social media management platform, wrote a blog in February breaking down the latest iteration of Facebook's algorithm. The algorithm is constantly changing, so things that recently worked might not be as effective now.  

Hootsuite recommends Facebook publishers should "engage with their audience." That seems basic — and really, it is — but most Pages, especially political candidates/campaigns, do not do this. 

"The algorithm prioritizes posts from Pages that a user has had meaningful interactions with in the past. This means that bumping up your reply game is key," Hootsuite writes. 

If you're looking to put some money behind your social media content this election season, one of the most effective strategies is to boost your content to a Custom Audience of voters you're trying to reach. Check out this blog for more information on how to buy voter-targeted Custom Audiences on tallyED.