Promoting Your Business with Facebook Ads

All Posts, Branding, Events, Marketing, Social Media

There are over one billion people on Facebook.

Crowd of PeopleJust about everyone on the planet knows that Facebook has become the go-to media strategy for business promotion.  Using Facebook provides businesses one of the best opportunities on the Internet for targeted advertising. This is key because Facebook users provide pertinent information such as their age, gender, location and interests, which allows you direct access to target your audience. These Facebook ads can be used for lead generation, traditional brand advertising, and more all to promote your  business – FOR FREE!  Here are just a few ways to leverage Facebook advertisements for your business.

1st –  Know How It Works – When you run your ad or sponsored posts/stories you are charged for the number of impressions (CPM) or clicks it receives. The amount that you pay can be restricted by your daily or lifetime budget and there are no additional fees associated with running ads or sponsored stories on Facebook.  Facebook suggests you name your campaign, select your budget and set the time schedule for running your ad. When multiple ads are running in a campaign, Facebook automatically allocates more of your daily budget to higher performing ads. You can use the Ads Manager feature to monitor your campaigns performance, to measure its success and ultimately determine if you are spending your Facebook advertising $’s in the best way possible.

2nd –  Consider Psychographics vs. Demographics in the Setup – Psychographics study and measure attitudes, values, lifestyles, and opinions versus demographics, which provide quantitative data based on geography, age, gender and the like.  Psychographics give a true, life-like portrait of the targeted audience and consumer base for your individualized marketing purposes.  Facebook gathering this key information allows advertisers to target & pinpoint their audience in a very precise and henceforth successful way.
Leader & her team3rd – Always Use Effective, Eye-Catching Tools & Creative Options – We know that we “eat” with our eyes first.  What catches our attention through imagery certainly opens the door leading us to the relevant information. So smart use of imagery in your Facebook ad will make a significant impact on the success of the advertising and marketing campaign. And there are various forms of these eye-catching options to consider.

  • Infographics are a great way to grab the reader’s attention especially when you add imbedded links to your page to promote key information about a product or service being provided.
  • Video Ads – For those who prefer to watch than read, video ads are a great way to convey pertinent healthcare information or solicitations to the masses.  For example, there are sports companies like Nike that use ads like Nike’s Football: The Vapor Trail to create amazing & captivating video ads to entice their target audience and promote their products.
  • Job Opportunities – In need of more sales associates or another CPA for your growing accounting firm?  With over 1 billions people on Facebook, it is no brainer to use ad space to market career opportunities within your business.
  • Free Services & Apps – Nothing attracts new customers like the words FREE and even more so when they can actually obtain something.  What better way to entice a consumer than offering a limited service for free?  What about creating engagement via a free app offer as you lead consumers to your own website.  Use Facebook the way Facebook uses you – to get new subscribers i.e. new consumers.
  • Emotional Response Ads – Emotions are one of the most powerful influences we have. Emotional Response Marketing & Advertising works wonders in the various forums such as healthcare because there are emotional attachments to health concerns, issues and supportive causes such as Shriner’s Hospital Love to the Rescue.
  • Hosted Event Ads – Events promoted on Facebook have a greater chance of success than any traditional marketing method. Business exhibitions and conferences, trainings, and career events can have a much higher participatory turnout when advertised through Facebook.

So are Facebook advertisements worthwhile for your business and particular industry?  Only you know who your general audience is comprised of.  But if there are more than 50% that you believe are online and use Social Media – than the answer is YES.  Especially if you look at the IMMENSE EXPOSURE opportunity versus the amount of money spent on the campaign.  Using Facebook creates unlimited opportunities to attain new customers, host successful  events and bring global awareness to your company’s product or service. Facebook Thumb Up

 

Promote Your Peer Blogs More! (instead of celebrities)

All Posts, Marketing

BlogWhen you think of some famous blogs that you frequent during the day, I’m sure many names come to mind. Some of those blog authors have followers and readers in the thousands if not more. We all follow them, waiting to hear some tidbit about the next big thing, or some advice on how to do something you already heard elsewhere. They’ve been around for some time and so we trust their judgements and opinions. All of that is fine and dandy, but what about some peers you may have met recently at a local networking or social event? I’d like to challenge you to read on to see a different perspective on this topic.

With all the mediums for sharing content and social media, I’m sure you have many connections to people you’ve met or network with. In person these people can tell you a great deal about their products, services, insights, and tactics to what they do best. Of course not too much data, but still some really informative stuff. Check to see which of them has a blog or some type of frequent distribution of content. Read a few posts and see if what they’re talking about makes sense. See if it sound relevant to your current business needs or hold some great tib-bits you can use in the future.  If you’re not already signed up, I suggest you do so now.

Why Your Comments Are Important: With the various types of publications, there are also many ways for a reader to comment on his or her thoughts. This is a great option because it allows for a conversation. This gives you a voice to either compliment or challenge the content given. Nothing stirs up multiple reply comments on blogs more than when different people have different views on a topic and continue to weigh in to try and prove their points.

Share and Promote: If you found the post thought-provoking, share it with your peers and associates. This is where social media is at its best. Use the Tweet or Facebook buttons to share the post.  Coming from you, it will seem like a good and relevant read to your associates. Get them to weigh in or validate the discussion.  Think of it as community building. We all know word of mouth is the best form of advertising, so the same benefits apply here.

How Much Time It Really Takes: You may think it’s a painstaking process of hours when really it isn’t. You’ll be able to tell within the first paragraph whether or not the rest of a piece will be worth your read. Once read, take 5 minutes to write a comment. It can be a short as a few words to a paragraph if you feel led to write more. Most blog sites have their comments section ready to go without the need for you to sign up with some service before you’re able to post. Sharing on the internet is takes about 30 seconds with the help of pre-installed social media buttons.

What’s In It For You: Think of the “Golden Rule” here. If you’re already blogging for your business, wouldn’t it be great to hear from people within your community whenever you publish a post? I’m not going to set a false expectation that for every comment you place, or post you share you’ll in turn receive the same for your own.  However it does make for good recognition when you are at networking events where these other bloggers are attending also. It’s a great ice-breaker for striking up a conversation. Aside from being a part of the conversation and that warm fuzzy feeling, you have a few things to look forward to. You’ll also get a track-back to your own website or blog if you entered it into the fields when submitting your comment.

No time like the present, so start now by commenting below. Our blog even has this cool feature where it will mention your latest blog post if you check the “Comment Luv” box. And of course if you have something of value to add to the conversation, we’d love to hear it!