It is now more difficult than ever to get meaningful results on Facebook without spending money on paid advertising, and as Facebook is on the fast track to become an advertising giant, we ask how small businesses can possibly succeed on Facebook without a hefty marketing budget?
How the roles of paid vs. organic have changed
Through organic endeavours of content creation on Facebook, businesses are able to expand their reach across the internet, build brand awareness and drive traffic to their website – and it works. However, due to the changes in Facebook’s advertising, organic efforts will now only take you so far, as paid advertising is now required to ensure posts get the same reach that they previously did. It’s been a shrewd business move indeed, but one that only benefits a single business – Facebook.
Now it all depends what your goals are for your Facebook channel.
Due to these changes in reach ability, it’s best not to experiment without a clear idea of how social media will support your business goals. The question you should be asking yourself is how much a Facebook ‘like’ is worth to you in monetary terms, and that might not be a particularly easy thing to figure out. Facebook can still be a place to build a free online presence, but it is no longer the way to drive meaningful engagement with customers. Indeed, the aim of both organic and paid marketing efforts is to get more ‘likes’, followers, engagement and connections, but now paid advertising has made it even more difficult to truly acquire actual conversions in terms of subscribers and sales.
Different conceptions of awarenessÂ
It is evident that the difference in post duration between Facebook ‘newsfeeds’ and Twitter ‘timelines’ could affect the reach and exposure of a brand’s posted content to followers. Facebook is great for sculpting a brand image online, as it gives businesses a platform to express authority and produce valuable content to their ‘fans’. Your Facebook ‘likes’ may also be a good indicator of your popularity online, but if click-throughs and lead generation is what you’re after, paying for Facebook ads has almost become a necessity.
Fight back through user-generated content
So what should small businesses do? Even though organic self-generated brand awareness processes are diminishing – those of your customers are not. If you can get customers to check-in or tag your business on their posts, this can still generate a ton of reach and electronic word-of-mouth. The impartial and unprejudiced nature of information provided by user-generated content is of great use to potential consumers, providing important and personal information upon which to base an informed decision later. By engaging with your main opinion leaders online, you may be able to shape and protect your brand image by having an active input in third-party discussions, without an overly direct involvement.
However, if you do decide to go down the paid route, try before you buy
Before you allocate a portion of your marketing budget for paid Facebook advertising, make sure you do your homework and focus on what it’s good for. There’s no point investing time and money into an audience that doesn’t fulfil either of your needs, so use your analytics to make targeted ads, and engage in a little trial and error, but don’t expect to see off-the-scale results over night.
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PAID TIPS SECTION
Target your audience: Use the demographic functionality of Facebook advertising like a heat-seeking missile. There’s absolutely no point in paying for your advertising to market snowboards to grandmas in Hawaii, so sit down and think about your target audience. How would you define them in terms of demographics? What are their interests, professions, geography – and income? Facebook can help you reach them.
Use competitions: Even organically we believe that competitions provide a great way of boosting online engagement, so the extra boost of paid advertising can be a very attractive proposition. Remember, you’ll also able to obtain the email address of each competitor too – an added bonus for lead generation and potential follow-ups.