Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM Feb_Mar 2019 | Page 40

BUSINESS MARKETING
LEEANNE LOWE
President & CEO of Empire Creative Marketing
www.empiread.com
MARKETING ON FACEBOOK:
What’s it all about?
I
n the modern world of online social networking,
Facebook dominates as the platform with the
largest user base. According to Facebook’s 2018
Fourth Quarter reports, the website boasts 1.52
billion active daily users; and 2.7 billion people
per month use their family of services, which include
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
With such a portfolio, it makes sense that advertising
on such a platform would be an opportunity for many
businesses. But what does marketing on Facebook
entail?
There are two primary ways to market on Facebook:
free, organic marketing through postings on a business
page, and advertising through paid campaigns.
Facebook Business Page
Setting up a business page is free and easy to do. It’s
a great way to get your brand out there and connect
with your existing and prospective customers. In order
to benefit the most from a business page, it’s important
that you build a page that promotes your brand, post
regularly and engage with your audience in order to
grow your follower base. Your Facebook business page
should also be optimized for search engines, in order
to help your business rank in Google and Facebook so
your customers can find you easily.
While creating an optimized business page and
posting regularly is a start, it doesn’t guarantee that
you will be seen by your customers. Facebook has a
complicated, ever-changing algorithm that ranks your
page based on things like activity, number of followers
and how many times your posts are shared. So it’s
estimated that, without paying for any advertising, fewer
than 10 percent of your Facebook followers actually see
your posts.
Every business can benefit from Facebook business
page when they use it consistently. While Facebook may
not bring in direct sales, it provides a way for businesses
to establish a presence in their community and nurture
relationships with their audience. It also provides
businesses with insights into who their customers are
and what their interests are. These insights can be used
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to identify new prospects when developing audiences
for paid campaigns.
Facebook Paid Advertising
In order to get your content in front of a wider
audience, Facebook offers two paid options to extend
your reach. The first way is to boost your posts. Boosting
posts is quick and simple, and allows you to select your
target audience and budget amount. Using this method,
it’s possible to get your posts, images and videos in
front of hundreds, if not thousands, of people with a
relatively small amount of money ($10 or $20 can often
do the trick).
The second option is promoting your ads through a
campaign in Facebook Ad Manager. This method offers
a much more comprehensive environment for creating
your ads, developing your audiences and tracking
your results. When running campaigns it’s important
to have defined goals, strong calls to action and key
performance indicators. Campaigns are most effective
with larger budgets that are spent on an ongoing
basis over a long period of time. It’s vital to monitor
campaigns closely and rotate out ads on a regular basis,
to ensure effectiveness.
Facebook Management
Social media marketing requires an investment of
time and money in order to yield the best results. The
amount of effort required to manage a successful page
will depend on the goals of your marketing strategy.
Knowing how to cultivate a substantial following and
create engaging content is a valuable skill. When
choosing whether to manage your social media in-
house or hire an agency consider the costs vs. the
time savings and results that expertise will bring you.
Consistency and good content are key.
References:
https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_
financials/2018/Q4/Q4-2018-Earnings-Release.pdf
https://www.causely.com/blog/why-only-ten-percent-of-
your-facebook-followers-see-your-posts