Facebook for Advertising

Initially websites 'ruled the roost' as the essential online business presence but social media changed the game plan. By pushing content to its users it has an obvious marketing potential.

A huge number of Businesses and Groups have created Pages and are looking to get noticed online. If your page is incorrectly set up and you are using a personal page as a business be warned that like others locally you will eventually get 7 days notice from Facebook before the page is frozen.

However, Facebook is an interactive marketing tool and also a business in it's own right and it is not mine to fully control.

If you've read the previous social media article about Facebook's Missing Friends it will leave you unsettled. You've probably just realised that Facebook decides who will see your posting. However, just like a website, a user can look up your page to view recent postings but that's not how users generally use the App.

The greater the 'Reach' the more likely you are to gain customers. It's a growing market with 41% of Ireland yet to be engaged so most businesses and groups will have a dedicated page.

You would expect that with an increase in Page Likes and Followers that your reach would be increasing. However just like personal pages are 'Missing Friends' the same is happening to our business and group postings.

To date Facebook has also allowed you to enjoy having what it calls free Organic Reach. It will even count how many users you reach who are not page followers. With competition for reaching users becoming so high there will come a time where Organic Reach will become so close to zero that you might decide that an alternative App would suit you better.

This isn't a new prediction with many distraught and angry page owners having discussed it online over the past few years.

It's more annoying since you have likely paid to promote your business page to gain likes and followers. The current offer is to 'Pay per Posting' with a selection of choices to chose you audience. Will we soon be faced with paying to reach followers each and every time we post if we want to reach a significant portion of even our own followers?

There does however appear to be 'a honeymoon period' where everything is encouraging and booming. Eventually this comes to an end and it's quite a dramatic, sudden and alarming experience.

It's been reported by some online that you can lose 97% of your page reach overnight. If for example you had 1k followers and a posting reach averaging 1k then don't be surprised to see it drop to 50 or less.

Surfing blogs and news sites doesn't reveal golden nuggets of proven wisdom. There are plenty of tips which have positive effects on improving engagement with postings but these have all been explored, copied and exploited. Facebook Inc also reads this advice and by constantly tweaking their App they can keep one step ahead with these changes to suit their needs.

Perhaps we should reconsider the benefits of websites which are under the owners control. Perhaps we should promote these more to be less under the control of social media companies.

Change your Content

Producing engaging and unique content is becoming more and more challenging and what becomes obvious is the saturated effect of postings.

Post more/less frequently

The accumulated affect of posting more often might reach more people but it's a drip feed process in an already over populated Facebook News Feed. Posting less often might trigger Facebook to promote these more but only you will discover which works.

Produce something Viral

Typically this is the Like and Share promotion and gaining reach by users tagging others. It has a good foundation for reaching those people named but we're competing against a computer program or algorithm that can identify what we're doing.

If your posting isn't generally being seen by others freely then no matter how much those few users engage it will no longer go viral simply based on likes, comments and shares alone. It is also highly unsustainable to achieve.

Collaborate.

Group promotions are very rare on Facebook. Look at 99% of the business pages and you'll see an introverted set of self promoting postings. Owners don't tend to share others even if their not in competition with them. This is understandable but there's a marketing benefit by working collectively.

This is where the Johnstown Times Magazine has been effective producing postings involving multiple business or activities at a time. Tagging was explored last month and it has an effect in promoting a posting. Prize Draws are the easiest examples where it has resulted in over 400% increase in mentions, reach, and engagement than individual postings. The October edition was even better with up to 800% increase from the Halloween Photo Competition.

It's not however guaranteed and for it to remain sustainable it must both appeal to and engage with the audience.

Unpredictable

Knowing that every Facebook page can experience an end to their 'honeymoon period' we've identified a significant overnight drop in our posting's reach even though page followers has increased. Post Engagement has however increased for those who do see the postings.

To add to the confusion there has been no significant change in the number of magazine readers based on Facebook links.

However, just like most businesses we use Facebook as a tool to engage new customers in the hope that once reached they'll become repeat customers. Had our posting reach been higher then perhaps the number of magazine readers would have too.

Unsurprisingly Facebook are inviting us to Pay.

The Navan area has 36k users according to Facebook. When you check the Boost Posting option but they only offer a reach of between 3.7k to 9.6k individuals in the €430 example I looked at.

There's no option to briefly reach all the users but how much is it worth to your business or group?

Are paper door to door flyers cheaper, more reliable or even more effective at getting results?

If you have a business or group page and wish to find out more about having an article then get in touch.

Media References