 Q. I want a divorce from Facebook.
A. Recent developments have caused a lot of folks to want to part ways with Facebook and join other social media groups. But they are finding it much like ending a relationship that they, for the most part, enjoyed and profited from. Remember, Facebook started about 16 years ago. Over that time, we've shared information with hundreds or even thousands of people. We've reconnected with old friends and classmates. And, Facebook has collected enough information on each of us to know exactly what our preferences are politically, religiously, and whether we prefer chicken over beef or a meatless diet. In other words, they know us as well as a spouse knows us. And leaving them might mean leaving the "friends" we've gained as well as the followers of our business and social life. Other sites have started up causing many to join without actually abandoning Facebook. From a business standpoint, the new sites haven't existed long enough to gather the data used to zero in on our target market--and many of them are designed specifically to avoid such invasions. Algorithms take time to develop, so expectations of these sites to generate sales or other engagements should be low for now. Most likely, Facebook is keeping track of anyone that posts that they are joining Parler or MeWe and will add that information to their growing list of what they know about you. They're like the ex that kept stalking you even after you said, "We're done." From a purely economic standpoint, Facebook will continue to provide a high ROI. The other sites will gain traction as more people move or add this platform to their marketing menu. Time will tell whether the new sites will be able to monetize quickly enough to stay afloat or become a viable option for business use. Stay tuned! We are keeping a close eye on the best options for business owners!  Q. Do I need a website since I have Facebook?
A. Posting photos of a meal is one of the most common social media posts. It's fun to share with family and friends when your plate is especially photogenic. In fact, some business owners think as long as they use Facebook or Instagram they don't need a website. Social media sites can be a great way to drive traffic to you if your posts are designed to do so. However, the social media platforms are not designed to close the sale or tell your company's whole story like a website can. It's better to pair social media with a quality website so potential customers can take action and engage with the business to buy what they have to sell. Using social media limits the interaction to "likes" and "shares." Posts on social media need to be designed to pique the interest of the reader to search for more information. That information is on your website. How many times have you seen something cool on Facebook once and then not be able to find it again? That doesn't happen with a website! Let's chat about combining your social media posts with a website that closes the sale. 775-544-6612  Switch Back to Classic Pages From the New Pages Experience:
Check out these resources created to support you in your advertising: - Small Business Hub for tools on how to build your business on Meta - Ads Guide for design specifications for every ad format - Meta Page verification to verify your business on Meta - Instagram verification to verify your business on Instagram - Account Issues to appeal a disabled ad account or Business Manager account - Developer support for general support for all developers Learn more about our program If Facebook ads and Print ads were in a competition, Facebook ads would win almost every time. **The following is a conversation I had with a tourism based community about bringing more traffic to their town.** We can target people on Facebook who are fans of "Explore Minnesota Tourism." Just in the last week we have reached 3271 people in the United States who have expressed interest in "Explore Minnesota Tourism." From August 27-September 6 we reached over 5000 people. We have received engagement (a Like, Comment, Share, or Click-through to the website) from over 900 of those people. The hard Facebook ad cost of reaching this captive audience was just: $49.86.  We have the potential to reach 180,000 people on Facebook who are interested in visiting Minnesota. The circulation of the Explore MN magazine is only 32,750 households. Our daily reach is estimated at 300-1700 people, based on effectiveness of the ad and the ad budget. As you can see in the graph, interest is now waning in this ad that has attracted over 5000 people:  It takes more than just the Facebook ad budget to make an ad successful. Each ad requires: copy, a graphic and photo, and a Call to Action. Each ad also needs to be carefully watched each day. Fans need to be engaged with. Questions need to be answered, etc. Fans also need to be invited to become permanent fans of the page. This takes time and resources. Not every ad is successful. But it only takes a few dollars or a few hours to see if an ad is working or not. The most exciting thing about Facebook ads, is that putting money into it is like putting money into an investment portfolio. Every time we run an ad campaign, we see a gradual increase in Page Likes or Fans. Once we have a Fan, we can more easily reach him/her with organic posts and paid posts. We started the summer off with 10,500 Fans, and increased that number by 100 each month--June, July and August--we're winning people over for years to come!  The Facebook Page's Fan base is roughly 1/3 of the Explore MN Magazine Ad circulation.
If we could use the magazine budget of $925 for their smallest ad (1/6 page), we could potentially reach as many as 9000 people A DAY. With their largest ad budget of $3300, we could potentially reach 32,000 people A DAY. [These are estimates from Facebook] Going into Fall and Winter, this is the time to build our Fan Base, so we can remind them monthly to start planning their Summer Vacation in Rainy Lake!! Let me know if you want to reroute your Print Ad Budget to more Facebook Ad Campaigns!  Many business owners run into some confusion when it comes to setting up and managing their Business Fan page. Let's break it down into easier to understand concepts! Your Facebook account is like YOU. It's unique to you, and no one is supposed to use your identity except you. Just like your face and signature give you power over many things in the real world (your bank account, your kid's school, the DMV)--your Facebook account acts like your personal, verified signature and can give you access to many different online accounts. Your Business Fan Page is something completely different. It might belong to you, you might have the ultimate say over it, but--teachers, nannies and other individuals can manage it. Yes, it's just like your child. But this is a child you can hand off to a nanny without any guilt. Because let's face it--this stubborn child DID come with a manual, and Waking Girl has read it! :)  When giving access to your Fan page, we don't need your personal account information. That's like giving away your social security number--and should only be done in dire circumstances!! Waking Girl handles Business Fan Pages for many of its clients. Just like with a baby-sitter, there is a protocol for assigning responsibilities to care for your kid. Give us the keys to your house, NOT the rights to your identity. We are not looking to adopt your baby.  Often times we learn that a client has two Personal Facebook accounts. That is the Facebook equivalent of masquerading with a stolen identity and fake ID. This can get BOTH of your accounts shut down, and can even alert child protective services to remove the rights to your metaphorical kid!!!!!! Who knew? Should I be panicking right now?! You might be asking ^. Nah, it's just Facebook. It's not THAT serious! Steps for Facebook Success:
  Question: How can I expedite my online marketing through blogging? We received this question from a client that writes hefty proposals for multi-million dollar government contracts. When we realized that the client is an avid writer (they write proposals that dwarf most John Grisham books), we gave them the instructions on how to get writing, and GET RESULTS! Here is an idea task list to expedite your marketing efforts: Blog like a crazy person (blog as much as you can, as much as you want, every day and night)
DON'T WRITE DIRECTLY IN WEEBLY. Because technology.
BLOG CONTENT BANK (feel free to add your own key phrases!):
SOCIAL MEDIA BLAST
Now that you have your content ^, you can send it out to the masses. To post on Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin: Click on the Blog Title of your post. It should look like this: http://www.wakinggirl.com/business-proposal-writers/business-proposal-writers-in-san-francisco-ca NOT: http://www.wakinggirl.com/business-proposal-writers/ Copy & paste the link and include your opening thoughts. NOT just the link. You can include the opening paragraph or two: We are a content consulting company specializing in new business proposals. Our staff of writing, graphic design, and subject matter professionals work side by side with you to craft and price winning solutions. Or say something like: I had a lot of fun writing this article on the Top 10 Tips for Talking Trash. Somebody dared me to do it, and I did. And it was awesome. You'll never believe #7. Or: This is a must-read for business owners in the construction industry. Tag your construction owner friends (or just print it out and mail it to them, because they're not on Facebook). START THERE- and let us know how we can help!  There's nothing more frustrating than putting together the perfect blog post, and then excitedly sharing it to Facebook only to find that a funky image appears. Maybe it's a distorted version of your logo, or a random image from your footer--whatever it is--it's NOT an image that will beckon folks to read your blog.
So what do we do? Facebook does its best to pull a relevant image. It looks for the first image that is over 541 pixels wide. Huh? Pixel-what? Is that like an inch or a mile? Or a magic fairy? 541 pixels is just over 7.5 inches. Don't have a ruler handy? It's about the length of an iPhone 6 (the regular, not the mega). You said over 541. Does that mean I can just use images that are 3000 pixels wide and hope for the best? No. Facebook has mass amounts of data to store, so it's going to go for the realistically sized image and will ignore anything that is so big it should be a background image. Do I have to figure this out every time I want to blog? No. Figure it out once and use this image every time you blog. Will people get bored? Yes. But few business owners have blog-itis, so if you're only blogging once a quarter (or worse--once a year), the consistent visual messaging will be welcomed by your fans. Can't I just make my logo show up there? Yes. Plug your logo into a graphic that is 541x541, save, and upload into your blog post. But I don't want to deal with this every time. Ok... depending on your website platform, you may be able to upload your logo at the 541 size. Test this out by posting to your mom's timeline before telling your fans. Anything else I should know? Facebook has a good memory. It stores stuff. You may need to re-create your blog post if you make a mistake. And Facebook is fickle. If things don't look right, do a Google search to see if the Facebook Share Image dimensions have changed! Google: Facebook Dimensions. |
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