I’m taking this week to plan our first Facebook contest; it kicks off this upcoming Monday.  Now that I’ve taken the past three weeks to use paid advertising to beef up our Facebook following, it’s finally time to give those new followers a chance to win a great prize.  Money!  Meanwhile, I wanted to look back on the past few weeks and share a couple “learn from my mistakes” … “do as I say not as I do” tips when it comes to advertising on Facebook and Twitter.

1. Prep your posts.  Before we had a bigger following, I would get a like here or there for a funny picture or graphic that I would post.  Well, once our following began to grow, our engagement began to grow as well.  But, what is the use of someone clicking ‘like’ on a funny picture or sharing that picture if it’s not benefiting your brand in any way?  Answer?  There is no point.  Add a link back to your website, a little about your business, or a link to a newsletter sign up, something! Prep your posts.

2. Don’t limit your audience too much.  When you’re setting up ad campaigns on Facebook and Twitter you can customize a ton when it comes to who your posts are reaching.  Don’t narrow that window too much though.  The first week I advertised on Twitter we had a huge boom in followers.  I noticed that many followers were outside the US and I thought to myself “are any of these ever even going to translate into clients?”  So, the next week I customized the ad to reach those in the US only.  I had two new followers that whole day.  What a waste of $10.  It’s okay to customize your audience reach -just make sure you’re not limiting too much.

3. Until you know what the routine is, stalk your campaign.  When you’re just starting out make sure you are watching what is happening on analytics constantly.  Be a stalker for a few days.  If something goes wrong, your ad isn’t reaching anyone, your graphic wasn’t approved, you entered your card number wrong, etc.  You want to know right away so that you can get it fixed and get back up and running.  Don’t burn through that cash with no results!

That’s all for now, I’m sure there will be more flops to share. If you have any, please comment below!

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