Social media has been beneficial to many people all over the world. Plenty of people join these social sites to socialize with each other and even communicate with their friends no matter the distance. We have even heard couples who have met over the social media and fell in love. But this is just one of the many uses that social media can support. Another trend that is coming up is social advertising.
Social media has been beneficial to many people all over the world. Plenty of people join these social sites to socialize with each other and even communicate with their friends no matter the distance. We have even heard couples who have met over the social media and fell in love. But this is just one of the many uses that social media can support. Another trend that is coming up is social advertising.
Most of us these days work with project managers who specialize in social community advertising such as Facebook and Twitter. This is because social media has proved to be an appropriate way to advertise your products since there are plenty of potential clients in social media (with Facebook alone holding about 1 billion visitors per month).
Another reason is that it is an easier method of advertising rather than the normal mode of advertising that is very expensive though effective. Startup companies cannot afford media advertising due to the high fees and also they are not sure if their product will even hit the market as they project. It is a gamble either way for them and are not sure if their investment will reap profits.
The power of Social:
That is why they have turned to social media to try and capture the wide client base available. The benefit of social media advertising is that it is cheaper, clean and the owner of the product can advertise the product him/herself instead of hiring someone else to do it. In case the owner does not have the time, and wants a professional to handle the job, there are plenty of people who have specialized in this type of marketing.
Social media marketing can be a tricky exercise. The most notable social media that is used to market business products is Facebook. Ever since Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg, it has amassed a huge following over the years creating a huge client base. Then companies identified this niche for advertising and tapped into it. The first few companies’ sales went through the roof which made other companies join in this current year and decade, it has now become apparent that there is the need to conduct Facebook marketing.
“Ever since Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg, it has amassed a huge following over the years creating a huge client base.”
In 2013, Facebook announced that out of all those fans you have; only 3-5% of them organically see your posts. In an example, out of 100 people who visit your post, on 3 or 5 of them are naturally seeing your posts on Facebook. This is a low number putting in mind the effort you have put in this and the intended target.
Let’s boost it (says Facebook)
That is why Facebook introduced the ‘Boost button’ service. This is a service where the clients pay Facebook a certain wager for them to help you reach a wider target. The operations behind this targeting are based on the specifications of the client. The client can either choose to boost the post among your friends and the people who like your post which will also expand to their friends. The other way of doing this is by choosing the area you want to target and the kind of people you would want to target. This means that if you live in USA, you can choose a target area of a certain state or city, target population who are within a certain age bracket and the kinds of interests they should have to enjoy this product.
“The client can either choose to boost the post among your friends and the people who like your post which will also expand to their friends.”
Targeting Tip: Try targeting friends of people who already ‘Like’ your Page to reach a more relevant audience and… http://fb.me/Vc0gLXnh
See AlsoWhy Boosting Posts is a Waste of Money — and How You Should Spend Instead - Social News Desk— Facebook Ads (@FacebookAds) April 14, 2011
This kind of service can work well for a local business but not for an e-Commerce business. This is because, without the target location, it would reach over 20 million viewers which a wide spectrum and it would require thousands of dollars to sustain the ad. The disadvantage of boosting your posts is that they might not reach your intended target since it just generalizes the type of people that you want. This may make your ad to falter since it only reaches a handful of people thus the sales might not even pick-up. Some may even see it but they will not even share it or pass it on to another friend though it has good content. Then, only one boosted post can be run at a time within the same specifications thus it might not be perfect when advertising.
Check out the full info-graphiccourtesy of visual.ly
The best way when trying to market your products or services via Facebook is to promote your posts. This can be done through Facebook Ads manager. It can be done through visiting Facebook.com/ads and selecting the ‘Create an Ad’ icon and click “Page Post Engagement”. After this, you can select the post that you would like promoted. It is easier to promote your recent post since the program will be automatically be promoting all of your posts without need to set up again and again.
The benefit of promoting the ads is that it offers a wider targeting option than boosting. Apart from what boosting offers, promoting your post even allows you to poach clients form other pages such as those of your competitors and even add those who like and do not like you and many more. According to some pretty impressive figures from Facebook, the mobile reach of promoting your content can easily lead to an 8x+ engagement from news feed (not too bad considering the news feed is where it is at! Trust me do, do well here and you’ll do well in the world)
Take a look at this awesome info-graph that Facebook has provided for us, sounds rather promising doesn’t it?
The other benefit is that you can be specific to the kind of audience you would prefer to ensure more reach. The main aim of advertising is to improve your sales and this offers a better chance of doing so than boosting which just generalizes. One can also use Power Editor, an advertising tool by Facebook that is used by many big brands.
“The benefit of promoting the ads is that it offers a wider targeting option than boosting.”
One of the most important things people forget in all of this is that your ad has to be rich in content and not just anything out of your mind. A picture can say a thousand words so make yours say a million. One of the reasons why boosting also fails is what you are advertising does not make sense to the target audience. As I conclude, do not go through the hassle of boosting a post even if it is easy since it might not reap any fruits. Sit down and find out the best ways of social media marketing (aka which ones are more likely t work for your specific target market and audience?) and then make top dollar. Personally i love following this guy, Neil’s advice and guides are truthfully one of the most useful tools out there, he speak from personal experience only and is one of the most engaging writers out there, much respect!
If the whole learning out of the internet seems a bit of a daunting task at this moment in time, you are always free to check out our onlinemarketing courseand social media workshop. Both of these offering a wide range of skill which will allow you to finally jump the physical barrier into the virtual realms, a market that will never slow down but just get bigger and bigger!
As a last note, it is extremely worthwhile pointing this is a new platform of advertisem*nt. Things get updated and change very often , new techniques and tips are developed every single day. A very important part of becoming a good online marketer is to know where to get you news and updates from, in my case, I follow the twitter (I know its kinda ironic this, but I like it like that ) ads page Facebook keeps there, its great, filled with tips and it updates constantly… Awesome!
Looking for tips to improve your Facebook Page? Visit the link below for a few easy ways you can upgrade your… http://fb.me/y8iFTY5W — Facebook Ads (@FacebookAds) March 25, 2011
