Pract•ad•goal is a word host Heather Holloway created. It is the sum total of the words ‘practical advancement goal.’ Her intention with this podcast is to teach entrepreneurs how to advance their careers with practical social media marketing advice.
Facebook continues to be one of social media’s top platforms where friends connect and share online.
Facebook is far more than just a place for cat memes and status updates, it’s the best venue for businesses to interact with customers and self-promote.
So in this episode, I will teach you how you can use Facebook for marketing.
Whether you’re a big corporation or a small local biz, using Facebook to keep customers informed, develop brand identity, and broaden your reach is a powerful marketing tool!
Find Your People Using Ads
2.7 billion people use Facebook every month which means there are a lot of opportunities for you to reach a specific market through Facebook Advertising.
Facebook will show your ads to people who are most likely to find your ads relevant.
Here’s how to target your ad delivery with three audience selection tools: core audiences, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences.
Core Audiences: this is a group of people you define based on criteria like age, interests, geography, and more. You can adjust your target audience to be as broad or granular as you like.
Think about things like the cities, communities, and countries where you want to do business.
What behaviors do your best consumers possess?
Do you need to target your ads based on gender, age, job title, etc?
Custom Audiences: with this group of people you can get back in touch with those who have engaged with your business, online or off. Here you can create audiences from your contact lists, app users, and site visitors.
Lookalike Audiences: here you can reach new people whose interests are similar to those of your best customers. Your ads will then reach people with common interests and traits.
Types of Facebook Posts
Keep your audience engaged with the right type of content. Here’s everything you can do on your Page:
Text Post
First, you have the O.G. Facebook called a Text Post aka Status Update which is just straight-up text.
I’m talking just words here. No photos. No videos. No links.
No bueno.
Although these posts are direct and to the point, if your goal is to drive traffic to your website or convert a lead to a sale, text posts aren’t gonna do it for you.
Also, Facebook’s algorithm isn’t too fond of these bare-bones posts, and they usually don’t get much reach in the news feed.
Facebook photo post
In general, photo posts see much higher engagement than text posts. So an eye-catching photo, graphic or infographic is a great way to catch the attention of a potential customer scrolling through their news feed.
And if you’re a product-focused business, don’t forget to show off the goods in action which can be really effective.
Facebook video post
Video is incredibly compelling! Take it from a former television commercial producer. We live and breathe video at Holloway Media Services.
Video posts see higher engagement rates than photo posts do.
Use a mix of short-and-sweet videos for announcements and longer, artfully shot videos that have a narrative.
Videos play automatically in the news feed on Facebook, so you’re all but guaranteed to catch users’ attention!
Facebook Live video post
If pre-recorded videos aren’t your jam, try going Live.
Facebook Live video is a live-streamed broadcast, right on your Facebook Page. You literally can have your own show!
This medium is very, very popular.
Live video is an authentic and intimate way to connect with followers. Use these broadcasts for Q&As, product demos, behind-the-scenes tours, interviews and much more.
Linked content post (aka link posts)
Have you shared a link to your blog on Facebook? That’s called a link post. This is where you copy and paste a link to share a URL with your followers.
When you paste a link into the composition box, a preview of the website will automatically preview like magic.
You could share a link to your website or content from other sources. For instance, maybe you found a relevant and interesting article about your industry.
Just remember that whatever the content, make sure to add a few unique words of your own to the post before you click Publish so that your readers have some context or a takeaway.
Link posts get more engagement than plain text posts, however, they get considerably less engagement than photos or videos.
Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories are just like Instagram Stories, which are photo or short video posts in a vertical format and they disappear after 24 hours.
Photos appear for five seconds, and videos can be up to 20 seconds long.
More than half a billion people view Facebook Stories every day and the position of the Facebook Story on the News Feed may be why.
Stories live at the top of your News Feed and they’re immune to the mighty Facebook algorithm. Try adding Stories into your content mix for a boost in awareness.
Pinned post
Pinned posts are any regular Facebook post that’s locked in at the top of your Page. This means it’s the first thing people see when they visit your Page. Prime real estate here my friends!
Whether you created a text post, poll, or video post, click on the three dots in the right-hand corner of the composition window and you’ll have the option to “pin post.”
You can tell when a post is pinned because it’ll say “Pinned post” right above your post.
A well-executed pinned post is your chance to show potential followers exactly why they should like your Page.
Keep in mind you can change your Pinned post whenever you’d like.
More options
I just reviewed the most popular ways to use Facebook to promote your business and there’s addition options as well. You can also post job listings and special offers if you’re looking to recruit or build buzz about a sale. And if you’re feeling charitable there’s also the option to raise money for a cause with a Facebook post.
The Takeaway
So what did we learn? There are three great ways of building targeted audiences to grow your business using Facebook and you have a bunch of creative options for posting and keeping your audience engaged and entertained. What will you choose?
We understand finding the perfect audience and type of post for your brand requires a little bit of experimenting. If you’re stuck and want to delegate this task to a pro, give us a call. And right now, new clients will receive $250 off our Facebook and Instagram advertising service. Text NEW250 for a free discovery call to 717-288-9969.
Happy posting!
Tired of terrible Facebook Ad performance?
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Text MORE to 717-288-9969 to get started!
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