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The 2024 Guide to Facebook for Libraries: Updated Tips To Get the Most Organic Reach

Two women in pantsuits sitting at a table outdoors on Fountain Square in Cincinnati in the 1970s, selling books.
Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

This is part of the 2024 series of social media guides for libraries. It includes posts on:

We’ll cover Twitter/X on Dec. 18. Stay tuned!

Facebook for libraries

Once again, Facebook remains the single most popular social media platform for libraries. In fact, the percentage of library staff who use Facebook for library marketing rose by 7 percentage points this year, to a whopping 97 percent, according to the annual Super Library Marketing Survey.

I believe part of that rise can be traced to the turmoil at X, formerly known as Twitter. I’ve talked with libraries who shifted their focus back to Facebook this year because they could no longer rely on Twitter/X for reach.

And overall Facebook organic engagement rose this year for the first time in a while. It appears that Meta took advantage of the chaos at Twitter/X by adjusting their algorithm to boost organic reach, and that’s good news for all of us.

According to Statista, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with 2.9 billion monthly active users. 70 percent of Americans log on each day, and 74 percent of Canadians log on daily. Canada, by the way, has the highest daily log-on percentage for Facebook in the world!

How are people using Facebook right now?

Here are some statistics to consider from SocialPilot.

  • Facebook users spend an average of 19.42 hours a month on the platform.
  • Most Facebook users (nearly 82 percent) use the mobile version of the platform. But that percentage has dropped from last year. Interesting, right?
  • 31 percent of Americans use Facebook to get their news. 🙁
  • And here’s the whopper stat: Facebook use among teens in the US has dropped significantly this year, by 39 percentage points, to just 32 percent. So… don’t use Facebook to try to reach teens.
  • However, people between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the largest audience on Facebook. That one took me by surprise!

How much success can we see on Facebook?

These engagement statistics come from Hubspot and SocialPilot.

  • The median engagement rate for Facebook is 0.060 percent. Ouch.
  • Facebook photo posts get the highest engagement rate, at 0.12 percent.
  • The average Facebook user likes 11 posts every month.
  • Live videos on Facebook get 26 percent higher engagement than live videos on other platforms.
  • Almost 50 percent of the time people spend on Facebook is spent watching videos.
The Margaret E. Heggan Library received high engagement from this post introducing a new staff member.

The Facebook algorithm for 2024

Here are the ranking signals Facebook uses to decide who sees your posts.

  • Facebook prioritizes content from friends and family members over content from business pages. For libraries, this means that it’s important to get people to comment or share your posts. When they do that, the friends and family members of your engaged users are more likely to see your content. And those engaged followers will see more of your library’s content.
  • Facebook prioritizes posts based on both the number and length of comments.
  • Facebook prioritizes posts that have a higher number of reactions and a variety of reactions.
  • Facebook prioritizes the type of content that people like. So for example, if your Facebook videos are the most popular type of content posted from your library’s page, Facebook will show people more of your videos and less of your other types of content like photo posts or plain text posts.

Here are four ways to get the best organic reach for your library’s Facebook posts in 2024.

Create a formula that emphasizes entertaining posts and encourages meaningful interaction.

People are coming to social media to connect with friends and for entertainment, according to data released by Oberlo earlier this year.

I heard this at the Library Marketing and Communications Conference too. Facebook users are increasingly using the platform to fill time and fight boredom. (That’s why video is such a big deal on Facebook–it’s fun to watch!)

To keep our Facebook audience engaged with our posts, we need to make them entertaining. Experiment to create a formula to balance posts that build your library’s brand and raise awareness of your library offerings. That might look like this:

  • Entertaining posts including memes, GIFs, fun library-centric videos, and conversation starters: 70 percent
  • Sharing other people’s content, including library users and partners: 20 percent
  • Promotional posts: 10 percent

Create a formula based on your audience and your library’s overall goals. Then experiment with it for a month. Check your insights. If your audience engagement is steady, or growing, you know you’ve hit on the right combination! If you haven’t seen any growth in engagement, you can try adjusting your formula.

Each library’s audience is unique, so your formula will be different than the formula used by the library in the neighboring town.

This purely entertaining post from Dickinson County Library has high engagement numbers.

Share links in the comments, not in the post.

The reach of link posts continues to decline. According to Social Media Today, views of Facebook posts that include links have declined by as much as 50 percent in the past two years. This is because Meta is turning away from news and informative content. Now it’s more focused on entertainment.

Click on the post below to see how Champaign Public Library uses this technique.

If you are trying to drive awareness of an event or promote an item in your collection, share the link to your event calendar or catalog in the first comment after you publish the post. For those of you who use scheduling apps to manage your posts, that means you will have to go to Facebook after the post schedules and add the link. Yes, I know it’s a pain.

The alternative option is to use visual elements or video to explain the action you wish the public to take, rather than adding the link to the comments. In other words, create a graphic carousel with words that convey the action you wish your followers to take. Just be sure to add alt text to your images so viewers with visual impairments can also interact with your posts.

Try simple text-only posts in the feed.

Katie Bulloff of the Indianapolis Public Library uses this method to great results. She usually asks a question or posts a prompt to get the conversation going.

Just be careful with the backgrounds and text provided by Facebook. They’re not always accessible. Use a color contrast checker to make sure you’re in compliance with accessibility standards.

Clermont County Public Library also uses this technique.

Post videos to Facebook, including Reels and Stories.

The ability to cross-post your Instagram Reels to Facebook makes it a no-brainer to use this feature. Meta is highly focused on video content and continues to add more features including A/B testing, creating Reels from existing clips, and more.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated. Here is a Reel that Plainville Public Library created from a series of static photos. As of this writing, it’s gotten more than 300 views. Their service population is less than 17,000 residents!

Facebook (and other platforms) are focused on video because that’s the kind of content that increasingly gets attention from followers. It’s entertaining. So, here’s the plan.

  • Post to Reels.
  • Share your Reel to your Stories.
  • Share your regular Facebook Feed posts to Stories.
  • Post original content directly to Stories.

Stories are extremely popular with users. My Gen Z daughters never look at the Feed. They only look at Stories. So it makes sense to devote library marketing energy to that feature.

Maybe also try…

Facebook Groups: I’ve heard libraries talk about the varying degrees of success using the Groups feature. I really think it depends on your specific community. But certainly, if you haven’t experimented with Groups, now might be a good time to do that!

Groups are not for promotion: rather, they’re a community-building tool. However, if you can build an engaged Facebook Group, it goes to reason that the members of that group will see more of your regular Feed, Story, and Reel posts!

Messaging your followers: Social Media Today says many Facebook pages are switching to private messaging groups to share their latest updates, as opposed to posting publicly. Your messages would be outside the influence of the algorithm. It’s worth experimenting with!

When to post on Facebook

  • Post once a day on the Facebook feed, either early in the morning, around lunchtime, or around 8 p.m.
  • Post at least one slide to Facebook Stories every day.
  • Post a Facebook Reel once a week.

P.S. Want more help?

It’s Okay To Take A Break From Social Media! Here Are the Benefits of a Pause for Your Library

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It’s Okay To Take A Break From Social Media! Here Are the Benefits of a Pause for Your Library

Watch this video now

#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 213

The holiday season is fast approaching. And I want to give libraries a gift this season. The gift is…

A break from social media. 😮

Wait, what? Am I advising you to stop library promotions on social?

We’re gonna talk about why it might be good for your library to take a break in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.

Plus someone will receive kudos!

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching!

Miss the last episode? No worries!

Will I see you soon?

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:

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There’s New Advice for Libraries About Posting to Social Media but… Should You Actually Take It?🤔

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The Library Marketing Show, Episode 176: A marketing agency has done the research and is unveiling the best days and times to post on social media. But is this the advice your library has been searching for? Or will you end up being less successful on social media if you take it?

We’ll unpack the results and how to interpret them in this episode.

Kudos in this episode go to the Milton Public Library.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.

And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.

Thanks for watching!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.

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Security Threat! Twitter is Hot Mess Right Now: Four Steps to Lock Down Your Library’s Account

Watch now⬆️

The Library Marketing​​​​​​​​ Show, Episode 167: This episode is a must-see for any library that posts on Twitter.

Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform has put accounts at risk. I’ll explain the threat and the four steps your library can take right now to reduce the chances your library’s account will be cloned or hacked.

Kudos in this episode go to the Dayton Metro Library.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments. And subscribe to this series to get a new weekly video tip for libraries.

Thanks for watching!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.

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My Most Controversial Episode Ever: Should Libraries Quit Facebook?!

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The Library Marketing​​​​​​​​ Show, Episode 120

In this episode, I’ll lay out a three-point argument for why it may be time for libraries to consider moving away from posting on Facebook. I know this feels likes it’s in opposition to my post about Facebook best practices, but hear me out.

I know you’ll have a lot to say about this topic, so share your thoughts in the comments.

Kudos in this episode goes to Morrisson-Reeves library. Watch the episode to see why they’re being recognized.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments. And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week.

Thanks for watching!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.

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Conquering Social Media for Your Library: The Seven Decisions You Need To Make Before You Create Your Next Post!

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

I love libraries. I work with libraries. I talk to library staff every single day. I like, share, and comment on library social media posts.

But every time I open my app for any of the platforms, I NEVER see content from libraries.

Why?

The odds are never in our favor, thanks to algorithms.

It’s a daily battle that libraries face. Social media is free and easy.

But it’s also not free and easy.

It’s incredibly, insanely difficult to figure out what works on social media when the rules are constantly changing. If you don’t have time or staff to keep up, it can be exhausting and demoralizing.

But like it or not, libraries must use social media to promote their services, collection, and events. We must do our best to work with the algorithms, for better or worse.

Starting next week, I’ll begin my annual six-part series laying out best practices for the top platforms used for promotion by libraries.

I chose these platforms because of a survey you, dear readers, so graciously answered. Nearly 300 library staffers let me know which social media platforms your library uses for promotion.

Before the platform best practice series begins, it’s important to set your library up for success by creating a social media style guide.

This is different than a social media policy, which lays out guidelines for how your staff will use social media to communicate with the public and sets rules for how the community interacts with you and others on your library’s social media accounts.

A social media style guide will ensure your posts are clear and consistent, no matter what platform you post on. It will take the guesswork out of many aspects of posting and make your work more efficient.

A social media style guide has seven parts. Here are the key decisions you should make now to ensure future success on social.

Make a list of all your social media accounts

Include your library’s handle on each platform. This will give you get a clear picture of the naming conventions you’ve used for your accounts.

Are the names consistent across channels? If not, choose a style and note it in your style guide.

Then, the next time a new social media platform is launched, you can claim and name your new account in a way that will make it easily discoverable for your existing fans.

Identify your library’s demographics for each platform.

Look at the insights for each of the platforms. Who is interacting with your posts? Your audience will be different for every platform. Make a list of the different audiences.

Because of the algorithms, you have very little control over who sees your post on any given platform. But you can get to know your available audiences and create content that will engage them.

If you are struggling with time management and you want to cut down on the number of social media posts you do, you can look at your lists of demographics. Identify the platforms with the audiences that will help you achieve your overall library and marketing goals. Post to those platforms and put the rest on hold.

Create a mission statement for each platform.

Look at your library’s goals for the year and what you know about each platform. Then write a one or two sentence mission statement for each of the social media platforms, lining up your library’s goals with the currently available audience for that platform.

For example:

  • LinkedIn: Discover career advice, business tips, and free resources that will help you succeed at work.
  • Twitter: Get regular updates on our collection, library events, and the literary and entertainment world.
  • Instagram: Photos tell the library’s story, one snapshot at a time.

These platform-specific mission statements, combined with the demographics you identified in the previous step, will help you visualize your audience every time you post. You’ll be able to connect with them because you’ll know who they are, and what they expect from you.

Decide the voice and tone you’ll use for each platform.

You want to use the same language and tone across platforms for consistency. The goal is to make sure your audience recognizes your posts no matter which platform they are on. Some things to consider include:

  • Whether your library will use formal or conversational text.
  • The words, phrases, and names that are specific to your library and can be used in posts. For instance, does your Maker Space or your Bookmobile have a specific branded name? Include that in your list.
  • Make a list of the acronyms your library commonly uses internally, along with the full spelled-out versions of what they stand for. Decide whether it’s appropriate to use the acronyms on each social channel, or if the full terms should be used.
  • Include parameters for inclusive language that will be standard for your library. For example, will your library remove the use of pronouns to be inclusive to all genders? How will you refer to people living with disabilities?

Choose an expert to make grammar and punctuation choices for you.

You can define whether you’ll use an existing style guide, like the Associated Press Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style. Or you may decide to rely on add-ons like Grammarly.

This decision will take the guesswork out of your library’s use of serial commas, headline capitalization, dash style, dates and times, and more.

Define the aesthetics.

This section will lay the groundwork for the visual portion of your posts. Decisions to be made here include:

  • Will you use your library’s defined brand colors?
  • Which fonts will your library use in images, cover photos, and for short-form social media posts like Instagram Stories and Reels?
  • How will your library’s logo be used on social media? Will it be used as the profile photo for your platforms? Can it be added to images? If so, where will it be placed and how large should it be?
  • Will you use emojis, GIFs, and memes? Which ones? How many? On what channels? How often?
  • Will you include a call to action in every post? What kinds of action words will you use in your call to action?
  • How often will you include links in your posts? Will you use a URL shortener?
  • Which hashtags will you use? How many hashtags are acceptable on each platform?
  • Will your library use filters and effects in your posts?

Formalize curation

Your library can share the blog posts, infographics, case studies, and interesting posts created by other organizations on your platforms. This is a great way to add value for your available social media audiences without creating new content of your own. Some key decisions to make around curated content include:

  • Which sources will your library share from?
  • Which sources will you not share from?
  • How will you cite third-party content?

You May Also Want to Read These Articles

Three Design Tips For Creating Beautiful Social Media Graphics for Your Library

Why It’s OKAY for Your Library To Pull Back on Posting on a Social Media Platform!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.

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What to Do When Someone Tells Your Library to CALM DOWN on Social Media!

Watch Now

The  Library Marketing Show, Episode 58

Angela is back in her outdoor work space. She answers a question from a viewer who said: “We have gotten a lot of criticism recently for posting too much on social media. We’ve even had people reach out to us and tell us to ‘calm down!’ How do I approach this? I have decreased the amount of posting (1-2/day on FB, 2-3/ week on Insta and Twitter), but I have noticed a plateau in our engagement on social media. Help!!!”

Angela talks about what to do!  

Kudos this week to Mandel Public Library for an amazing post, which you can share if you give them credit.  

What did you think of this episode? Are you struggling with marketing and promotion right now? Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments. And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week!

Thanks for watching.

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Should You Post Non-Library Content on Your Library’s Social Media Accounts? The Answer is…

 

Watch Now

The Library Marketing Show, Episode 50

Angela answers a viewer question from a viewer who asked, “Is it okay to post non-library content on your library’s social media accounts?”

Also Kudos to Starkville Public Library in Starkville, Mississippi. See why Angela loves their storytime videos.

What did you think of this episode? Are you struggling with marketing and promotion right now? Do you have a nominee for the Kudos segment? Drop a comment below!

And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week! Thanks for watching.

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The One Social Media Shortcut That Can Tank Engagement and Cost Your Library in a Pandemic–or Anytime!

I know work is hard right now. But there is one time-saving social media marketing technique that libraries should avoid at all costs.

Libraries should avoid cross-posting on social media. Cross-posting is when you post the same text and graphics in a message across multiple social media networks.

I get why many libraries cross-post. Cross-posting is easy. It saves time and energy. And library staff have a lot of work to do. Even when there is no pandemic to deal with, librarians are often asked to take care of marketing along with their regular duties. But the detrimental effects of cross-posting outweigh any time you might save doing it.

Why cross-posting is a bad idea

Cross-posting is a bad idea because social media platforms are different. They have different standards for post length, image size, hashtags, links, and captions.

For example, LinkedIn is more copy-heavy and formal. Instagram is more visual and informal. Twitter is more suited to short quotes, threads, and GIFs. Pinterest is graphic-heavy. One post with the same text and photo can’t be all those things.

An image you post on one platform may not be sized for another platform. It may end up stretched, pixelated, or squished. This will hurt your ranking and engagement.

Speaking of engagement, the metrics are different for each platform. On Facebook, you’re aiming for likes, comments, and shares. On Twitter, you want retweets and replies. On Pinterest, you want comments and re-pins. One post can’t generate all those things.

Your followers are also different depending on the platform. Twitter users are overwhelming between the ages of 18 and 44. LinkedIn users are more likely to have a college degree than users of other platforms. 70 percent of Pinterest users are women. Every platform has a unique demographic with different needs.

When you cross-post, you risk looking inauthentic and spammy. Your posts will feel like they’re auto generated and robotic. It may look like you don’t care about what you post on your account or worse, that you don’t know you to use social media.

Your audience will respond negatively by not responding at all. That hurts your standing in the algorithm. It can have a negative effect on your reach.

What to do instead

Cross-promotion is better! Take your message and adjust it slightly to suit each social media platform. It’s much easier than it sounds.

First, you need a base message. What is the basic info you wish to convey? What is the action you want your followers to take? Answer these two questions in a two or three sentence nugget. This is your base message.

Then take that base message and adjust it for each of the social media platforms you wish to use. A tweak of a word or phrase here and there, an adjustment of an image, and a unique call to action are all you need to be authentic.

Westerville Public Library in Westerville, Ohio did a great job of tweaking this promotion for Twitter…

…and Facebook.

Here’s another good example of cross-promotion from Barlett Public Library District in Illinois. This is their Twitter post…

..and the same message tweaked for Facebook.

Decide how much time your library is willing to invest on social media. Smaller libraries will want to concentrate on the platform or platforms that will give their library the most benefit. If you are pressed for time, pick the platforms that perform best for you or the platforms where the audience you wish to target is using. If that means you only post on one social media network, it’s okay. Quality is better than quantity.

Use a scheduling tool. There are plenty of free scheduling tools that will help you to share your social media messages without cross-posting. I have used the free version of TweetDeck for my personal social media for years. You can schedule lots of posts in advance and the metrics are great. I recommend it for libraries without the budget for scheduling software.

At my former library job, we had a paid account with Sprout Social. It was easy to use and had more cross promotion capabilities than TweetDeck. I recommend it if you have money for a paid scheduling platform.

More library social media advice

How #COVID-19 is Impacting Social Media Marketing and What That Means for Libraries

Self-Care for Library Social Media Staff in the Midst of a Crisis like #COVID-19

What Metrics Demonstrate Your Library’s Social Media Marketing is Working?

How to Reverse Engineer Your Library Marketing Social Media Audiences!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on the “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

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