The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!’ – John F. Kennedy
Slow growing and patience are words not generally associated with the fast paced world of social media. Normally, when it comes to growing your community online, particularly on Facebook; the use of instant gratification mechanisms like competitions are popular. These sort of tactics result in a sharp increase in likes or followers. But as any heavy chef would advise you, when it comes to online communities the focus should be on sustainability.
We have discovered an easy way to attract the right people to your Facebook page by making use of Facebook advertising. Facebook is an extraordinary advertising platform allowing you to target users by interest and demographics ultimately driving high quality and inexpensive traffic to your page. Creating a Facebook ad is as simple as it gets.
Step 1. Log onto Facebook and click on adverts and pages. Click on the Create an Advert button.
Step2: Create a 25 character ad title and ad body copy (135 characters), upload an image (optional but recommended) and provide a destination URL.
- Bear in mind that users on Facebook are there for conversations and are not looking for a product or service. A good idea is to pose your ad as a question or an agreeable statement. For example – Like Honda Racing? – Show some support and like our page. A statement like this does not sound pushy and will entice people to join your community.
- Your image is important – it must relate to the copy and it must be of good quality. An ideal size 100 pixels wide x 80 pixels high, save the image with as high resolution as possible.
- Normally the destination URL is that of your Facebook page.
- Be sure to test your advert by changing the picture, copy or target audience to discover what resonates with your target audience.
Step 3: Create a landing page on your pages tabs.
- This helps to carry the message through from your ad.
- The landing page image should relate the cause of your community.
- Remember to include an arrow pointing to the like button. Here is an example of the global BMW’s landing page .
Step 4: Bidding.
- Set your daily ad budget. The minimum is $5.00 a day
- Facebook gives you the option to pay per click or pay per impressions. Start with paying per click. This will help you maintain more control of your budget.
- Select your maximum bid. Facebook will suggest a bid range based on what people are presently paying for similar ads and suggest a bid amount. If your bid is too low, your ad will not get shown, and you obviously do not want to pay more than you have to either. Using the suggested bid price is a good way to deal with this.
Step 5: Test, test and test some more.
- Facebook ads suffer from ad fatigue quickly. To combat this, change the image often – as often as once a week. You can even create more than one ad at a time to keep things varied.
Facebook ads do not work for every kind of organization. They work best for specific interest groups especially if they have a strong cause to converse about. This can be politics, stamp collecting, car brands etc.
Read more posts by Ettienne Mostert
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