Last week, I brought you the details on the first half of my day at the SMX West Expo’s Social Media Marketing Boot Camp. I’m back today to give you a wrap up of the second half of the day. The day was jam packed with valuable information on social media marketing techniques, paid advertising, and getting your social media conversations to translate into leads.
Here is the breakdown of the second half of the day:
Facebook For Business & Other Paid Social Media Opportunities
This class focused on paid advertising on Facebook specifically. They did briefly touch on business to business marketing on other platforms (like LinkedIn).
• Use advertising selectively to get more visibility in the newsfeed
• Try to gain as much exposure as you can in the newsfeed: You need great content and then combine it with paid advertising
• Content matters the most, what are you sharing? Take that content and multiply it. Visuals matter
• Lead generation – it’s possible to create leads through social media but you really have to start with building the audience, engaging them, and then it will eventually translate. This should be the last on the list even though you want it to be the first result. Expectations have to change to see the results
• Mobile reach is huge on social
• It has become almost a necessity to use paid advertising on Facebook. Organic reach is down because of their newsfeed ranking algorithm
• Don’t use right hand side ads – they are much less effective
• If you still use FB ads as if it’s 2013, you deserve the results you get
• LinkedIn might be the better focus for B2B marketing
• Pinterest: promoted pins are up and coming in social advertising. They will be transparent and appear in the newsfeed so they won’t be intrusive pop up ads. Each promoted pin will be relevant to the users search. This is a great option for retail customers.
Things to experiment with and look into in Facebooks Ads Manager and Power Editor:
• Partner targeting
• Interest and category targeting
• Media targeting –you can use Facebook as a form of media relations. You can put your content in front of certain media outlets (Ex: Everyone who works at New York Times)
• Custom audiences
• If you have leads or a client list, you can upload those email addresses and it will target all your customers to get them to like your page
• Lookalike audiences –this lets you reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your customers
• Facebook Exchange –for retail owners (Ex: If you’re looking at a shirt on Nordstrom’s site and then go to Facebook the exact same shirt will show up in your newsfeed
A big take away from this course was expectations for businesses. The struggle for most businesses here is: brand building vs. direct response. Businesses starting paid advertising have to understand that it might not meet your ‘direct response’ expectations. The point is to build your audience, then focus on building your engagement, and eventually this will lead to conversions. One step at a time. You have to build the audience, keep them engaged, start interactions, and then convert. You can’t just expect immediate results. The key is to build the relationship with your followers.
Twitter for Business
The focus of this course was an explanation of Twitter as an Ecosystem. It is a place to connect, discover, and advertise.
• When you RT –add some personality. You are connecting with people after all
• Humanize your brand (Ex: Group shot with your logo super imposed)
• Don’t just share a post or put the title of a blog post up. Add some personality, encourage engagement, etc.
• Talk directly to somebody (not just at your followers) –the one on one communication is a breakthrough. People want to be talked to not broadcasted at
• Leave room for someone to RT you –don’t use up all the characters
• Use Twitter lists to connect with influencers
• Subscribe to lists that list you
• Favorite people’s posts –even if no one knows what you favorite, it’s like a little pat on the back for those people
• Help 5 people a day. Reach out, respond to questions, join discussions, etc. without self promotion
The main point of this class was pointing out that even though you are a brand –your brand should have a voice. You are part of a larger community and if you want others to engage, you have to be willing to do the same. Just like with Facebook, the pattern is to build your audience, increase engagement, and then convert those engagements to leads.
The SMX Expo West Social Media Marketing Boot Camp was extremely beneficial. I have several new techniques to try and a new outlook on social media advertising in general. If you have anything to add or any questions, feel free to comment below!
