--- name: share-on-facebook description: Use when asked to write a Facebook post (personal profile or Group, effectively unlimited length but written short) announcing a personal project to busy professionals — generating interest, asking for help/advice, and inviting shares in a humble, personal voice — as distinct from [[share-on-bluesky]], [[share-on-instagram]], [[share-on-linkedin]], [[share-on-mastodon]], and [[share-on-threads]] (same announcement, different platform conventions), or [[press-release]] and [[copywriting]] (formal/persuasive registers this deliberately avoids). --- # Share on Facebook Facebook's ranking ("Meaningful Social Interactions") favors posts that generate comments and shares between people who already know each other over ones that only collect likes, and it has for years shown reduced organic reach to posts carrying an outbound link versus native text, photo, or video. The feed also truncates a post behind "See more" after roughly the first few lines on mobile — the exact cutoff varies by device and font size, so treat the opening line as the whole hook, not a lead-in. The audience on a personal profile is friends, family, and acquaintances rather than industry peers, which makes this the most non-specialist audience of the platforms in this family — plain language matters more here than technical precision. ## What works on Facebook - **Groups are the real distribution mechanism.** A personal profile post mostly reaches people who already know the author; a relevant topic Group (the project's subject area, a professional community, an alumni or local group) is how the post reaches strangers who'd actually care — post there too, following each Group's self-promotion rules. - **Comments and shares outrank likes.** The ranking algorithm weighs a comment or share between connected people far more heavily than a like, so a post that only invites a like is optimizing for the wrong signal. - **Native photo or video outperforms a bare link.** A post with an attached image (or Reel) gets materially more reach and looks better in the feed than a plain link card; if there's any project screenshot or short demo clip, attach it directly. - **Outbound links get less reach.** Facebook has consistently shown lower organic distribution to posts with a link in the body; putting the link in the first comment (and saying "link in comments" in the post) is the common workaround, though a personal-profile post with a bare link isn't penalized as visibly as a Page post is. - **Tagging people or Pages who're actually relevant extends reach** into their networks too — a collaborator, a mentioned tool, or an organization involved — but only when it's genuinely relevant, not as a reach tactic. - **A warmer, more casual register than LinkedIn is normal here**, including occasional emoji — this is the "friends and family" platform, and a post that sounds like a LinkedIn post reads as slightly out of place. ## Hashtags Hashtags carry essentially no discovery weight on Facebook — there's no meaningful hashtag-browsing culture the way Instagram has one, and the algorithm doesn't use them as a ranking signal for the main feed. Skip them by default; they add clutter without adding reach. ## Structure for a post (written short, even though the limit is huge) Facebook's character limit is effectively unlimited, but nothing about that helps reach — short, native, comment-inviting posts consistently outperform long ones, and a long post still lives or dies on its first line before "See more." 1. **First ~140 characters — the news itself, plainly stated**, in language a non-specialist friend or acquaintance can follow with no prior context. 2. **One honest, personal line.** Why it exists, what it took, or what's still uncertain — the detail that makes it a person posting, not an announcement. 3. **A photo, screenshot, or short clip attached natively**, since that's what the algorithm and the audience both respond to more than text alone. 4. **One specific ask.** A particular kind of feedback, an introduction to someone who'd find it useful, or a direct "if you know someone this would help, a share genuinely helps" — not a vague "thoughts welcome." 5. **The link** — bare if reach matters less than clarity, or noted as "link in comments" if maximizing organic reach matters more. 6. **Also post it to one or two genuinely relevant Groups**, adapted to each Group's own self-promotion norms. ## Key components - **Plain, non-specialist language** — this is the broadest, least professionally-filtered audience of the platforms here, so jargon that would be fine on LinkedIn needs translating. - **Humble framing over hype** — "I built this and I'm not sure I got X right" fits the friends-and-family register better than an achievement announcement does. - **A concrete ask** — specific enough that a friend with five minutes can actually act on it, rather than just liking the post. - **An explicit, low-friction share invitation** — said plainly, since this audience responds to directness rather than a growth-hack tone. - **Group-native distribution**, treated as a separate step from the profile post, not an afterthought. ## Common pitfalls - **A bare link with no native photo, video, or context** — this gets the least algorithmic reach of any post format on this platform. - **Posting only to a personal profile** and skipping relevant Groups, which is where most of the actual stranger-reach comes from. - **A LinkedIn-toned post** — achievement-announcement phrasing reads oddly formal to a friends-and-family audience. - **Burying the news in a lead-up line** before the "See more" cutoff, losing most people who scroll past without expanding. - **A vague ask** that produces likes but no comments, shares, or actual help. ## Learn more - [[share-on-bluesky]], [[share-on-instagram]], [[share-on-linkedin]], [[share-on-mastodon]], and [[share-on-threads]] for the same announcement adapted to each platform's own norms and character budget. - [[copywriting]] for persuasive-copy technique this style deliberately underplays in favor of a plainer, personal voice. - [[content-calendar]] for coordinating the announcement's timing across all platforms. - [[branding]] for keeping the personal voice here consistent with how the project is described elsewhere.