Facebook introduced promoted posts back in May, but many brands still aren’t fully realizing how spending a tiny amount of money here can translate into sales! Promoted posts allow certain pages to pay a small amount in order to ensure that the information they’re putting out there is making it into the news feeds of the customers they are trying to reach. You may have even noticed the new metric that appears at the bottom of some pages posts, which displays how many people the post has reached. Zo, if you’re skeptical, give it a try, and you can quantifiably analyze your results.
1) The first prerequisite for Facebook‘s promoted posts is that the page must have 400 or more ‘Likes’, in order to be eligible. Honestly, if you have not yet achieved at least 400 plus ‘Likes’, your team’s focus should be on generating better content and getting the word out about your brand. If your brand already has hundreds of ‘Likes’, chances are that you’re doing something right. Promoted posts will provide a way for you to be sure that your awesome posts are getting the reach that they deserve.
2) To get started, you simply need to click on the promote button; but not all posts are created equally. If you want to promote the content you’ve generated, keep in mind that your posts must be 3 or less days old. The campaign will promote the post you’ve selected to fans for 3 days. This allows your customers to be sure that if they are seeing a post from you, it is relevant and recent.
3) Just because you’ve clicked ‘promote’, paid for the service, and started the campaign, doesn’t mean that you’re locked-in and trapped. You can always cancel the campaign, edit it’s duration, or adjust your budget. To do all of this, you must take many complicated steps. The first action you’ll need to initiate is clicking ‘promote’ again; then use the wheel to adjust what you need!
4) Zo the campaign is started, you’ve decided on your budget, time, and post to promote; now you might be wondering if you have to hope for the best, and wait for the campaign to end in order to view the results. Worry not, you can monitor the performance of the post after AND during the campaign. You will be provided with metrics that will give you insight into the reach of your post, the budget that has been used, the number of likes it has generated, the number of comments it has received, and the amount of unique views.
5) Just as you can edit your timeline, editing promoted posts after they have already happened is also possible. If you go to Facebook campaigns, you have the power to rename a promoted post. This can be important as you promote more posts; in order to keep them organized for both yourself, your employees, and your customers.
“Promoted posts help increase the people you reach for any eligible post. It’s an easy and fast way to reach more of the people that “like” your page and your friends,” says a Facebook spokesperson in an explanatory video.
6) The ultimate goal of promoting your posts is to increase the engagement between your brand and its fans. If your posts are already getting 30%-40% reach, then promoting your own posts in the right way; paying to promote them will likely be a waste of your already well utilized time and money. If your posts are achieving less than 10% reach, this idea is for you. The information you can derive from promoted posts is two fold. One, you will gain insights into your customer base’s needs and interests by ensuring that people are seeing your post. Two, if you’re still not getting much traffic, the problem is your content; zo let’s work on that.
7) A tip to keep your content moving and engaging, specifically when it comes to promoted posts, but really in regards to all posts on virtually any social network, is to mix it up. Meaning, that your posts should cover a broad, but targeted, spectrum of information. Posing a question will invite responses, sharing company info will inspire awareness, and creating sales promotions will drive purchases.
Social media is revolutionizing the marketing effort by putting the customer in the driver’s seat. Do you think that brands will be able to utilize these tools, and take back control; or are consumers finally realizing their individual power in determining the success of brands?
Zo for it! Our wiZOrds are always here to help.
