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VICPrint
06-17-2013, 11:07 AM
Hi,

Ive been trying to build business and likes using facebook for the past three months. My boss told me to sign up for a bunch of forums and do like trading, with some success. I don't intend to do that here however, because I'm looking for advice. We've tried advertising on facebook, but he decided to pull the plug on it after the first week because we weren't turning enough results in his opinion. We tried to give away a free banner, as a like & share contest, but that barely worked as well. We have a solid page, thats well maintained and has interesting content, however, we cant get anyone on it? We are a printing and signage company, based out of Mobile, AL thats trying to get more business. Do you have any ideas on how to kickstart this campaign?

Thanks,
Carter

vangogh
06-17-2013, 01:16 PM
I'm not sure what your boss expects, but you really need to give it more than 3 months. You also need to give any kind of advertising more than a week. Facebook is not a marketing cure all. It's just another channel to reach a lot of people. It takes time to build a following that's genuinely interested in your business.

What kind of content are you posting to your page? If it comes across too promotional then people aren't likely to pay attention. Something you could try is simply posting images of interesting signs, regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with your company. Find some of the more interesting or nicer looking ones in town and post images. You could search the web and find others outside of Mobile and surrounding areas.

Free banners and contests might get you some likes if done well, but they aren't likely to lead to an engaged audience. You'll attract people interested in the giveaway who stop paying attention the moment the contest is over. You're better off focusing on what kind of content to post. No matter how good you think the page is now, it can always be improved. You might have to try a variety of things before hitting on what brings people back to the page. Are you promoting your Facebook page through other channels? Do you link to it on your site? Are you other social profiles connected to the one at Facebook? Do you have other social profiles?

Wozcreative
06-17-2013, 01:17 PM
Who are your ideal customers? I'd figure you should market to designers who have higher levels of printing for their clients, than the moms sitting on Facebook.

dianecoleen
06-17-2013, 06:07 PM
Hi,

Ive been trying to build business and likes using facebook for the past three months. My boss told me to sign up for a bunch of forums and do like trading, with some success. I don't intend to do that here however, because I'm looking for advice. We've tried advertising on facebook, but he decided to pull the plug on it after the first week because we weren't turning enough results in his opinion.

Thanks,
Carter

I believe Facebook advertising has some sort of targeting feature. You can target what specific age, location, interest, etc. is in it. And also as vangogh says, you wont see leveraging result from the first week as it is just the starting of the adverts to go viral. You should compare after at least 3 weeks. You may also do a survey on how your existing clients use the social networking sites, so you'll have an idea to what social media or interest they have in using such. Also, you might want to go over the fan page of your competitor and see what new strategies they have and you might somehow come up with a good strategic plan without copying the same strategies they have. That would be all I guess. Hope that helps :)

ericw
06-18-2013, 10:54 AM
How many facebook likes do you have, and since you've done "like trading", I have to ask how many of those are real people that are interested in your company?

The reach of some forms of facebook advertising is dictated by your current follower base.

patrickprecisione
06-19-2013, 09:32 AM
Wow! It only takes your boss 1 week to figure out a Facebook page isn't working? He must be a social media genius! Or perhaps he has no idea what he's talking about and has unrealistic expectations.

What did he expect to happen after 1 week? I'm sorry this is just so typical. A boss knows nothing about any of this stuff and expects it to deliver instant results. And when it doesn't it must be because social media doesn't work for businesses.

rcalie
06-22-2013, 07:05 AM
VICPrint,

Have a look at some of these articles (http://robcalhoun.com/blog/category/social-media/) on Social media. Facebook is not the silver bullet that too many think it is or make it out to be. In fact, it can be a huge time suck if that's not where your audience is. The first thing you need to do is assess whether your target market is even on Facebook before you jump in the pool. You could end up just getting wet. You have a print and signage company. Do you do more b2b or b2c work? If it's b2b, perhaps LinkedIn would be a more suitable platform.

If you're set on making Facebook work, you've got to understand the nature of the platform and the people.

The platform is geared toward advertising. Facebook doesn't even show all of your audience your posts even if they genuinely want to see them unless you get them to do what I said in the post "It’s Not Enough For People To Like Your Business" at the link I provided.

Understanding the people is another matter. Vangogh touched on my next point when he said:

What kind of content are you posting to your page? If it comes across too promotional then people aren't likely to pay attention. Something you could try is simply posting images of interesting signs, regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with your company. Find some of the more interesting or nicer looking ones in town and post images. You could search the web and find others outside of Mobile and surrounding areas.

When you're trying to build engagement with the people who genuinely want your content and they've done more than like your page, you can use the pictures. But you need to combine those pictures with something that gets people engaged. You need a call to action if you want people to take action.

Here's a strategy you can use whether your audience is comprised of business owners or the public:
Post a picture of signage with a call to action:
"What do you think?
Funny= Like
Needs updated/changed=comment
Cool= share"

This gets the business exposure and you have something to use for a sales call. "X people think your sign is funny, Y people think it's cool enough to share, but Z people think it needs updated/changed..."

You're essentially doing market research for these companies, while at the same time building engagement with your audience. That has real value. When you can add value, you are not just another business shouting "Me too" or "We do that too."

billbenson
06-23-2013, 12:24 AM
Carter, your boss obviously doesn't know much about online marketing if he expects results in a week or two. Unless you are an expert, you probably won't convince him otherwise.

I would view this as a learning opportunity. Both on your own time and on company time study SEO, Adwords, Facebook etc online marketing. Although your boss will probably give up long before you, many bosses will view someone running with the ball in a positive light. Also, you will walk away with a valuable skill.

You are walking into a several year learning curve and you never can stop studying because it's an ever changing field. But if you go for it, you can become reasonably knowledgeable within 6 mo to a year.

Just my opinion.

patrickprecisione
06-24-2013, 08:43 AM
Carter, your boss obviously doesn't know much about online marketing if he expects results in a week or two. Unless you are an expert, you probably won't convince him otherwise.

I would view this as a learning opportunity. Both on your own time and on company time study SEO, Adwords, Facebook etc online marketing. Although your boss will probably give up long before you, many bosses will view someone running with the ball in a positive light. Also, you will walk away with a valuable skill.

You are walking into a several year learning curve and you never can stop studying because it's an ever changing field. But if you go for it, you can become reasonably knowledgeable within 6 mo to a year.

Just my opinion.

I agree with Bill here. If you can convince your boss that these are valuable skills for someone at the company to have, that is.

rcalie
06-24-2013, 02:22 PM
I agree with Bill here. If you can convince your boss that these are valuable skills for someone at the company to have, that is.

Seeing what it costs to hire a professional will go a long way in convincing an employer there's value in having those skills on staff.

rcalie
06-24-2013, 02:40 PM
We have a solid page, thats well maintained and has interesting content, however, we cant get anyone on it?


This just hit me with a bit more weight than before. You have "interesting" content. Who's idea of interesting, yours or your target market's? Too many business owners get caught up in what is interesting to them. When it comes to what's interesting in marketing, the opinion of anyone on the selling side of the transaction is irrelevant.

It needs to be all about the prospect and that should come from the best possible source: asking them.

If you have a like campaign set up, I'm assuming you're using some type of "like gate" to deliver the coupon for the free banner. While you have them there is when you ask them your single survey question or have them opt-in to your marketing funnel. Otherwise with Facebook's edge rank hiding your posts from them, you may never get a second chance.

billbenson
06-24-2013, 07:32 PM
Seeing what it costs to hire a professional will go a long way in convincing an employer there's value in having those skills on staff.

That seems to make a lot of sense.