As many of you may know, the rules changed in January 2015 with regard to what social content on Facebook will show in the newsfeed for people who “Like” a Facebook Page. If you think that simply creating great, sharable content is enough to gain popularity and, subsequently, reach, you may want to reconsider your strategy.
Each of the big social networks — Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (not to mention Google+) have shareholders they need to make happy. How do they do that? Answer: through advertising.
After composing yourself now having had your heart break, it might make sense now why none of your fans or followers are interacting with your content… they may simply not have actually SEEN it!
There’s no need to worry, however. You can, with a modest budget, make big wins in social media with social interactions and website click-throughs.
Experiment
Try this:
If you have a Facebook Page (if you don’t have a Page, get one), go to www.facebook.com/ads, and set up an account including adding your credit card. I’ll write a more extensive post later on running some more successful campaigns for gaining “Likes” and website clicks, but, for now, let’s just simply “Boost” a post.
- Go to your Page.
- Go to your website, and grab the URL (link) for a good page on your site.
- Write a small blurb about 10 words or so on your Facebook Page Wall about that page, and then add that URL at the end (I’ll write more later on how to properly track your campaigns).
- Add a picture to your post if one doesn’t automatically show up from the link (I’ll also write more later on formatting images for social content – hint, images with lots of text is a “no-no”).
- Post your content.
- Notice that there is a blue button you may never have seen before asking you to “Boost” the post. Click that.
- In the window that pops up, choose the radio button for people who like your Page.
- Choose a budget of about $10-$100 depending on what you like.
- Choose to boost for 1-3 days.
- Then commit.
What you will notice within a few hours is that you’ll have more activity (reach, likes, shares, comments, and clicks) than you ever had with your unboosted posts. Pretty cool, huh?
You can try similar experiments with Twitter and LinkedIn, and there are various ways you can choose to better target your audience. I’ll write more about the specifics of my favorite social ads platform, LinkedIn, in a later post.
If you’d like to learn more, leave a comment below, or feel free to contact me.