Stop whining and start ‘wining’ your way to winning…
Do you remember the days when you only used Facebook to check into your favourite coffee shop with your friends and post photos of your beverages set up like a still life art piece? Well these days are long gone! While you’re perfectly welcome to carry on using the platform as a form of social media, it seems that it is now so much more and we must embrace it. However, first we must accept is has changed.
For businesses, it is essential to accept the fact that Facebook is a publisher, and as such they require payment if your content is to get to your target audience. Facebook have described themselves as a “marketing platform”, and they now make it clear that success for businesses is largely dependent on what they are willing to spend on advertising, or boosting posts. Indeed, Facebook has potentially become the most effective platform for online advertising.
While we note that Facebook can still be social, the advantages it brings to marketers, in terms of segmenting and targeting your audience and gathering insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns, are second to none. Facebook Insights offer businesses the opportunity to track their advertising performance to a truly remarkable degree.
Is Facebook the most effective platform for online advertising? Only if you use it properly and you correctly interpret the results. One good example of this is the popular misconception about Facebook ‘Reach’, of which there are three types:
Organic Reach – This refers to the number of unique people’s News Feeds that your content appeared in.
Paid Reach – The number of unique people’s News Feeds your paid content appeared in.
Viral Reach – The number of unique people’s News Feeds your content appeared in from an action by a friend, including liking, commenting, sharing, tagging, responding to an event, answering a question, checking in, etc.
‘Reach’ (organic or paid) only means it was delivered to a News Feed and does not determine how many people saw it. Only when they engage (viral reach), does ‘Reach’ have any real measurable value. Too many people still chase after increased ‘Reach’ when they should be concentrating on increased engagement. It is also worth noting that focusing on engagement is the only way to make Facebook an effective tool whether you pay for advertising or not, and that increased engagement ultimately makes paid advertising more effective.
In the interest of increasing engagement, we suggest considering your audience when posting content. Different people are encouraged to engage with different types of content according to their own individual preferences – and believe us they will have a preference!
Like a wine drinker who loves a glass of red but turns their nose up at a Sauvignon Blanc, many people will take the time to view photos within a post but may then be less likely to watch video content. And, like those who would choose a glass of rose over anything else, some people are more likely than others to click on a link you have posted for further information. Consideration for your audience is therefore extremely important to increase engagement, in the interest of organically growing your community.
Remember to acknowledge your audience as soon as they take an interest and engage with your content and likewise, take an interest in theirs and create an affinity with them – after all, you wouldn’t let a friend drink wine alone would you?
This is also, where your community’s expertise in check-ins and photo sharing may come in handy, if you can encourage them to tag your page in their post, creating a visual recommendation to others in their online community. And just like a keen wine drinker, each individual in your audience will have specific preferences so make sure your audience is relevant and aligned with the content you are producing by considering their general interests and behaviours. The Facebook analytics tools are a great way to track where and when your community is engaging with your content.
It is important to note that organically growing your community by encouraging viral reach will take time, but with a bit of patience, a relevant audience, and a good quality of content, you should find that engagement increases – and then, you may even be able to consider yourself a connoisseur of Facebook Reach!
If you would like to find out more about increasing your engagement, please give call Gordon White or Kyle Murdoch on 0141 427 0727, or drop us an email at hello@fatbuzz.com.