You may have heard that Facebook announced major changes to their News Feed on January 11. If you have enjoyed using this free social platform to promote your business events and reach fans I’m sorry to say that those days are over.

These changes signal a shift back to Facebook’s roots where users shared meaningful experiences without the influence of advertisers. What is good news for users, is bad news for businesses wanting to reach their audience of fans without doing much paid advertising.

For those that have spent considerable effort to build your social audience on Facebook, there are things you can do to maximize your Facebook News Feed. Here are three good tips to make sure the posts on your business page get seen.

Publish really good content. I know, it’s easier said than done, especially for those that trying to think of creative ideas. Let me offer you this. Good content, according to FB’s new algorithms, sparks engagement between people. Getting likes is not enough. Facebook will give more weight to comments and conversation on posts that encourage interaction. Which means these posts will be featured more frequently in the news feed. Consider asking people’s opinion on which frame they prefer. Focus on writing post topics to get people talking.
Train your tribe to “See First”. Facebook users have the option for selecting up to 30 business pages they want to see first in their personal news feed. Ask your most loyal fans to check the setting “See First” under the Following tab on your business page. Send a email to your customers with instructions and a big thank you! For a quick video tutorial you can share with your audience, Click Here
Boost popular posts. Before you spend a bundle on promoting your posts, test them on your audience first. Try posting a topic that’s interesting and likely to get attention. Wait a bit and watch the engagement. Then boost the post after it’s gotten positive reaction. Remember, if you’re boring, your paid boots will cost more.

Facebook has been very clear on their objective to improve the user experience and we should all agree that will be best for everyone. One thing the changes will certainly do, is force businesses like ours, to offer improved quality content that is valuable to our audience. We’ll have to pay closer attention to what our customers want and offer more creative and interesting content. That’s good for us all.

So, you think Facebook is just a fad? Across the globe, there were over 2.1 Billion active Facebook users in June 2017 (Facebook MAUs) which is a 17 percent increase over last year. Five new profiles are created every second, yet only 7% of business pages advertise regularly. So in case you had any lingering doubt about the importance of Facebook, those stats should prove that Facebook is too big to ignore.

If you’re considering using Facebook to advertise your business and wondering how to make sure your content gets noticed, this article is for you. By understanding the four fundamentals of Facebook advertising, you can avoid common and costly mistakes.

Before you spend another dime on Facebook advertising, you should have a clear plan of action. If you don’t, you could be left fumbling with no clear idea of where to go. To get consistent results, identify where you can maximize the benefits from your Facebook ads. These four easy tips will help define your Facebook advertising strategy.

1

Know Your Objective

What is your goal for Facebook advertising? For example, do you want video views, email subscribers or page likes. Is your goal to generate new leads for your business? When you’re focused on a goal, you can choose the right type of campaign to achieve the best results. Facebook has three objective categories; Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. The objective you select depends on your purpose. If your goal is to send people to your website, choose the Traffic objective. If your goal is to increase sales, offer a discount to persuade them to purchase. Instead of giving away the discount code on FB, direct people from Facebook to a special landing page on your website where they must opt in before receiving the discount code. Since you want them to take a specific action, Conversion would be the correct campaign category.

2

Warm-Up Your Prospects

You should think of your social media strategy as dating your customer. You wouldn’t walk into a party, introduce yourself and announce to the group, “Hey, buy my stuff.” But that’s what I see happening on Facebook every day. You’ve got to warm up your prospects Beyonce-style and put a ring on it. Give away them something they value like free ideas and advice to entertain educate or inspire your prospects before asking for the close. You can use Live videos, photos, coupons or blog posts to show why your company is the best solution for what they’re looking for. And don’t be boring or you’ll have to spend a lot more on advertising.

3

Target Your Audience

You can build a custom audience of people who have engaged with your video content. When someone likes, comments or shares your video, Facebook turns that into a target-able audience. Use the information from Facebook Insights page to run an ad campaign directly to that group promoting your products and services. Your Insights page will give you clues to the age, gender, location and interest of your audience. Compare these statistics with each post to evaluate which topics get the best engagement. Since Facebook rewards you when your ad best matches the audience with lower ad costs, this valuable intel will guide you to make the right changes to maximize your content for getting the most engagement.

4

Engage with the Best Possible Content

With Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms, it’s getting hard to grow your audience organically. Without engagement, your posts will have less and less visibility in the news feed. To ensure your content is seen by your target audience it has to educate, entertain or inspire people. When they react, the reach of your post is expanded. This is why you continue to see older posts in your news feed. It’s not based on the time of the post, it’s based on engagement. So to generate the best audience interaction try Live video or a photo slideshow set to music. If you need help deciding on the right content, try asking yourself this question; why do people care about my product? Then select an image that answers that query. For example, customers care about preserving wedding souvenirs, so I might feature a video of how we create a shadowbox frame for wedding invitation and photos. Another tip, the more it tugs on the heartstrings the better. Videos that make your audience laugh or cry grabs their attention and keeps them watching through the end.

Before creating Facebook ad campaigns, take time to define your purpose and craft content that makes customers care about your product and services.