Thanks to their promoted posts feature Facebook ads are providing marketers with a key resource to generate interactions on fan pages (are they now called Like pages?). But in reality Facebook marketing is all about status updates.
Dustin Luther answers why marketers will want to promote individual posts with Facebook ads. This post will start the ball rolling on the “what”. What types of posts are worth advertising?
I’m sure that more than a few agents will want to advertise posts that contain properties. The problem with advertising properties posted to a Facebook page is they generally produce very little interaction. In other words they’re boring. Put simply they make a poor status updates.
Why are interactions so important to a Facebook page?
In search engine optimisation the goal is always to achieve page one in a Google search. In fact if you and you’re business isn’t in the the top 10 results you’re virtually invisible. On Facebook the goal is to get your Page showing near the top of your fans Top News feed. That’s the section of the feed where Facebook’s algorithms take a pretty good guess at the stuff that will interest you. How do they do this?
Well, it’s Facebook’s secret sauce but the number of interactions–that’s Likes and comments–are a great start. But it’s not the end of the story. The other part is how relevant those interactions are to a person’s interests. So, if you have a lot of your friends–and especially those you interact with a lot–who comment or Like something on a Page there’s a good chance it will show up in your Top News feed.
What this means is that close communities and lots of interactions are essential to the success of a Page. It’s here that the genius of the Pages advertising platform emerges by providing Page owners with a way to reach out to friends of fans and show case their best and most engaging posts; the ones that will generate the most number of Likes and comments.
The default option for promoting a post is to target the friends of fans. This makes sense on two levels.
First, it targets people who aren’t already fans. After all, why spend money advertising to people who are already fans. Second, it targets people who are friends of people already connected to the page; and this acts as a form of social endorsement for the page. As a result the conversion rate of click throughs to fans is potentially higher than a non-endorsed avertisement.
So what type of post would a brand want to advertise you a Facebook advertisement?
Well, what they wouldn’t advertise is something that’s boring. That’s hard for some businesses! What they would choose to advertise is anything that’s going to generate Likes and comments.
To generate comments takes skill, effort and creativity. Sometimes it takes a combination of all three. Saying something kind is great. Controversial also works. Questions that require only a yes or no or even a short reply also work. Ones that are long and cerebral don’t, at least not usually.
And the balancing act here is to say something that both informs and entertains, that appeals to the head and the heart. It can be tricky, but that’s social media.
The easier option is to create posts that generate a simple Like. Posts that create a clear statement that resonates with fans and that provides something of tangible value seem to work.
Here are my top five types of posts that generate interactions and would be worth advertising.
- Something funny
- Something controversial
- A major announcement
- Breaking news
- A question
- A request for assistance
- Job opportunities
Do you have any others that work for you?
