It’s not new anymore to use social media as a channel in an
overall marketing mix. Look around the web, and there’s a plethora of social
networks available, from the general and ubiquitous (Facebook) to the niche
focus and exclusive (Spotify).
So when you’re considering how to add social media to your
own marketing strategy, it’s important to consider what networks are going to
help your brand the most.
First off, I’m going to tell you that social media marketing
isn’t free, and it takes more time to do well than most people think. You can
do it in-house and pay the salary of that person, or you can hire a freelancer
or agency to help you manage it. It’s time consuming, because it’s a variant on
content marketing, which means generating lots of content, hopefully good
content.
So let’s consider the major networks for social media, and
how they might help your business. Today, let’s look at the elephant in the
room
This is the big one that people think of when they hear the
phrase “Social Network.” It’s huge, everyone knows about it, it’s integrated
into every corner of the Internet and it’s heading for its IPO.
Marketing on Facebook can take a few different avenues to
reach an audience of potential consumers:
Pages: Previously
called “Fan Pages,” these are similar to the individual profile pages of users,
except that they can be controlled by more than one Administrator. Pages
feature a profile image, a cover photo, and a timeline of the company or
organization. You can post pictures, links, and status updates to a Page.
Facebook Ads:
Like display ads, Facebook ads appear alongside a user’s News Feed and in other
relevant locations. They feature a thumbnail and a few lines of copy. You can
tailor the content to an audience that is broad or narrowly targeted. Facebook
ads have a notoriously poor ROI in terms of clicks, but they are visual and
infinitely customizable. Costs for Facebook advertising have also recently
risen precipitously.
Working with Pages
Most marketers know what to expect when they buy a print ad
to run in the Business section of the New York Times. You’ll get a specific
block on a specific page, that you can completely control the creative for
(within publisher’s terms, of course), and it will be seen by the people who
purchase the paper that day. It’s a very regimented process.
Facebook is anything but regimented. Let’s start with Pages.
Like anything else on Facebook, a Page is a living, breathing section of the
site, and it requires you to constantly monitor what’s up there. If you don’t
put up any content at all, no one will visit the page, or interact with it. So
first of all, you have to put up a cover photo, and write in some information
about your company/cause/product. In traditional advertising, this would be the
end stage, where you’d sit back and measure. But in Facebook, you can’t let
anything sit for too long.
If someone “likes” your page, any information you put on
that page will show up as an item in that person’s news feed. Depending on how
many friends/pages that person subscribes to, your update will be part of a
flood of information. Studies have shown that after the initial “like,” most
people interact with brands via the news feed updates, rather than returning to
visit the page. It’s important to remember not to flood your subscribers with
updates, but also not to leave the page completely alone. In the 24 hour cycle
of Facebook, leaving a page without any updates for over a few days gives the
impression of abandonment, and often users will flee, like rats off a sinking
ship.
When using Facebook Pages as part of your marketing mix,
treat it as you would your email program. Set up a schedule for posts (some
social media tools like Hootsuite even let you schedule posts for the future,
automating the process), and also consider what types of posts you will make.
Keep your content focused on your brand/product—those are the most effective
ways to engage your users. (Stay away from “How was your weekend?” prattle.
Users will already hear this over and over from their friends and
acquaintances, and doesn’t give them any value from your page.)
A 2011 study found that posting 5-7 times per week on your
brand’s Page will only reach 16% of your fans. Remember to keep your content
current and on-message.
Working with Ads
Building a Facebook ad is simple, and can be done in
minutes. These ads can be hyper-targeted, but are not very customizable. As
pictured here, ads are limited to a small square of text and thumbnail image on
a white background, in Facebook’s branding style. So you need a picture that
will look good in a tiny size; compare the Pop Salad “video” shot with so much
going on it’s hard to make out the context with the bright red, simple image of
the Dansko clogs in the Zappos ad.
I pulled this screenshot from my Facebook profile, so you
can take a guess at what these advertisers are targeting. Elizabeth Warren
already knows that I “like” her page, and is hoping to get me to join her
campaign on a more active basis. I don’t shop at Zappos.com, so more likely
those shoe ads come from targeting women in their early 30s, possibly in the
US. The “Approachable Paris” ad most likely targets people who have listed
Paris in their interests. (I also have an app listing all the places I’ve been
in the world that has Paris tagged.)
So when you are building your ads, and you consider who totarget, think hard about who your audience is. Facebook offers a truckload of
information about its users: the site could tell you that I’m married with no
children, two advanced degrees, live in Boston, MA, and I love bicycling. It’s
hard to get so much data on your email list recipients.
That said, Facebook ads can be very expensive, and aren’t a
good match for every business/product. I work for a domain registrar, and I spent
half a year tinkering with Facebook ads before realizing I was just wasting my
budget. I didn’t get any more clicks that I did from just having a Facebook
page in the first place. And also, those ads get expensive very quickly. If
your budget is small, you might want to skip Facebook ads and focus on the
content development for a Facebook Page instead. Even big budget firms have
begun pulling Facebook ads, citing poor return, like General Motors, who yankedtheir $10 million budget for Facebook ads last year. And keep in mind that half of Facebook users never even click on ads at all.
Deciding How to Use Facebook
Like any marketing channel, Facebook has to be carefully
examined for your audience in order to be used effectively. Start with the
basics:
- Define your audience (age, location, gender, interest)
- Is your audience on Facebook? (Even if you don’t buy any ads, you can use the Ads tool to estimate the size of your targeted population on the network.)
- What kind of content does your audience like? (Look at past efforts to see if they respond more to sales/offers or information or something else)
Once you have this information, start building a plan for
using Facebook, first with a Page, and then, if you want to spend the money, on
display ads. Make sure to watch those ad campaigns very carefully to make sure
you’re not wasting your budget!
