Want to advertise online on a platform that reaches approximately 1/7 of the world’s population; craft a stunning ad targeted to your customers in 140 characters; or even send out ads customized to a person’s location or employment rank? It’s all happening right now on social media and you can be a part of it!
FACEBOOK – Works Well for B2C and Increasing Content Engagement
Yes, Facebook is more useful than just getting Likes and interacting with your followers! Facebook offers a sophisticated platform for reaching potential customers in a meaningful and impactful way by creating and tracking your social ads. This is even more important with the recent news that your businesses unpaid organic reach on Facebook is about to plummet to a measly 1-2%!
Are Facebook Ads Really Worth It?
- They can reach as many people or more as radio or TV, in whichever country you choose.
- If your company can afford $1 a day and is on Facebook, then you should definitely be running Facebook ads!
- Once you have identified who your target audience is, then you can effectively isolate consumers who fit your niche with a sophisticated system similar to Adwords.
- Increase engagement and grow your audience with Boosted Posts (not to be confused with ads) that will put your post content in front of new eyes.
Word to the Wise
- Watch out for what David Horn of Business2Community, calls “decay” or a drop in your ad’s performance. Make sure to monitor your Facebook ads daily to stay on top of their performance and make edits to the text and/or image accordingly as you go.
TWITTER – Great for B2C and Brand Loyalty
Who doesn’t love Twitter for its 140 character snippets of pure gold? I am sure you’re wondering how you advertise on a social media platform of 200 million users that all seem to have an attention span of three seconds? Here’s how.
Really? Twitter Ads?
- Set a budget and bid to put your message at the top of your target audience’s feeds with paid advertising in the form of: Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends.
- Promoted Tweets are put in front of your target audience, which you choose with a combination of demographics and keywords. Remember the narrower the group, the more likely they are to be interested in what you have to say.
- Promoted Accounts are a great way to increase relevant followers and will appear in the “Who to Follow” section on mobile devices.
- As per Twitter, you only PAY when “follow your Promoted Account or retweet, reply, favorite or click on your Promoted Tweets”.
Word to the Wise
- Twitter advertising is a great opportunity for brands to engage with their customer base BUT companies need to be aware of what specific demographic they are seeking out and if their product or service is appropriate to them!
LINKEDIN – Good Fit for B2B Advertisers and Working Professionals
LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network is just the place to build and engage your professional network.Wait! It has created a sophisitcated interface for coralling customized pools of professionals to see your ads. Also, we are talking about a platform that has over 259 million users worldwide, so imagine the possibilities.
LinkedIn Ads? So, do they work?
- Like Twitter, LinkedIn ads work on a bidding system where you set your daily budget on what you are willing to spend.
- Narrow your pool of advertisees by: Geography, Industry, Job Fuction, Roles, Skills and Interests. This way you can create a select group of people who fit your customer base.
- To ensure a better ROI, you can create up to 15 different ads within one campaign so that you can edit the text, call to action, and images to fit different segments of your audience. This is valuable when taking a look at your campaign’s KPI and analyzing what ads did well and why.
- Sponsored Updates allow company pages on LinkedIn to promote their content to professionals based on their industry of employment and interests.
Word to the Wise
- If you are looking to market a product or service to an audience that is not made up of working professionals looking to network and increase their leads, then LinkedIn probably isn’t for you.
Remember you get what you give. If you aren’t willing to put the time or money into ads ($1 a day people!), then you cannot expect the results I know your business is looking for on social media. You could wait to see how this whole social media thing plays out, but word to the wise, engaging the right people with the right content will increase ROI. Every time. Good luck with your campaigns and let us know how they do. We are always ready to lend a helping hand and ignite the conversations surrounding your business online.