SMS marketing and social media advertising are some of the fastest ways to reach the widest possible range of users. But what is more effective for promoting your business? Determining this can be difficult!

Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of social media advertising and SMS marketing. And also find out how using both strategies will help accelerate the growth of your business and customer base.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

The benefits of social media advertising for your business are truly enormous. Here are just a few of them:

• social media advertising helps to reach a wide range of segmented and high-value customers;
• it is more accessible and profitable than traditional marketing. At the same time, taking into account all the necessary expenses, advertising on social networks is more expensive than SMS marketing;
• you can split-test your ads, and advanced analytics will help you optimize your conversion rate;
• promotion in social networks offers various formats of content to attract the audience.

DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing has many benefits for businesses and individuals, but it is not without its downsides. Here are the main ones:

• constant updates to social media algorithms can affect ad performance and ROI;
• hiring a separate specialist will require additional costs;
• high competition leads to a higher cost per click;
• if you plan to do social media marketing yourself, then you will need a long training;
• tracking social media marketing is difficult, though possible;
• social media promotion has a low conversion rate and a slow return on investment.

BENEFITS OF SMS MARKETING

SMS marketing has many advantages for both individuals and legal entities:

• With the help of SMS marketing, you can reach a huge number of people. For example, about 96% of the population uses mobile phones;
• SMS-mailing has a very high open rate (up to 98%) and conversion;
• SMS marketing is very easy to implement;
• compared to promotion in social networks, SMS marketing is more accessible and effective.

DISADVANTAGES OF SMS MARKETING

For all its advantages, SMS marketing has the following limitations and disadvantages that you should be aware of:

• leads received via SMS are hard to add to the email list (your asset);
• in some cases, you may be reported or blocked – SMS marketing can be perceived as an invasion of privacy;
• you will not be able to group or segment the audience using SMS marketing;
• scaling a business with SMS marketing is not an easy task;
• SMS marketing is limited to one content format (short message) – no long texts, images, videos, and so on;
• finally, you will not be able to effectively track how your marketing is performing and what needs to be changed to improve it.

HOW TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SMS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS?

These are two completely different marketing strategies. You can use social media promotion and SMS marketing for the same goal – conversions. However, both approaches are appropriate in different circumstances.

If you are planning to improve both your online presence and your digital footprint, then social media marketing is the perfect solution.

In addition, social media promotion allows you to properly track the reactions of your potential customers with the help of CRM tools. You get a lot of useful information about their interests, environment, work, and status, which will be useful for marketing and retargeting in the future.

If you do not intend to improve your online presence or this task is not yet a priority for you, SMS marketing is a great option for a more personalized approach and increasing conversions.

With SMS promotion, you can send more personalized messages to specific customers.

The choice between SMS and social networks largely depends on what goal you are trying to achieve. This decision will determine which strategy is best and most appropriate to use.

There are other factors to consider when choosing between SMS marketing and social media marketing.

• Budget Allocation: Both methods make it easy to allocate your budget, especially during initial A/B testing. You can quickly determine which ad set requires more funds.
• Target Audience: Social media marketing allows you to define your target audience rather than just running ads randomly. This helps to reduce costs and achieve the desired results.
• Competent Employees: Without a qualified team, social media marketing becomes an almost impossible task. If you do not have competent employees, SMS marketing will come to the rescue.
• Competition: The higher the competition, the less effective social media marketing will be. On the other hand, SMS promotion allows you to send personalized messages and reach out to your audience directly.

With all this in mind, you can choose the most appropriate strategy for your business.

And why not consider email promotion if you are looking for an alternative strategy? The ROI on email marketing is $42 for every dollar spent. You can manage email lists, schedules, and campaigns with dedicated services.

HOW TO USE SMS MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING AT THE SAME TIME

Social media advertising and SMS marketing are extremely beneficial for businesses on their own, but when combined, these strategies can be even more successful. Because both approaches have unique properties, it’s important to know how to use them at the same time.

Here are some ways to apply these strategies together.

1. Create a customer database

By sharing strategies, it will be easier for you to build a good customer database. For example, you can start an SMS marketing campaign that will run advertisements inviting potential customers to send SMS to receive prizes.

This campaign uses both strategies. It allows you to attract more potential customers and achieve high conversions.

2. Grow your online presence

By combining strategies, you can significantly increase your online presence and brand awareness.

In addition to launching ads to achieve this goal, with SMS you can influence people’s actions by encouraging them to like and subscribe to your page, as well as create a positive brand attitude.

3. Increase awareness

With SMS marketing, you drive enough attention to your social media page that potential customers can get to know your products and services, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

The potential for the simultaneous use of strategies is very high, as they complement each other well.

Many companies and brands actively use both approaches, such as IKEA and Domino’s Pizza.

COMBINED PROMOTION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THROUGH SMS GIVES THE MAXIMUM RETURN

To grow your business, scale, and create a high conversion rate, you need to use multiple marketing strategies. Combined promotion through SMS and social networks will give the best results and will allow you to achieve maximum returns.

It is important to note that the appropriateness of any marketing strategy depends on the specific situation. 

The better you learn to apply several approaches at once, the better your business will develop.

Before Instagram introduced the ability to publish stories, marketing within the social network was limited to sponsored posts and content. Stories on Instagram have become an additional channel for brand promotion. In addition, new methods are constantly being developed on the platform through IGTV vertical videos, Reels, and more. In this article, we will look at the current trends on Instagram that you can use to promote your brand.

TOP 10 Trends on Instagram

Marketing on Instagram is dynamic, so predicting the near future of the social network is not easy. Based on the main trends, you can determine what will be popular on Instagram in the coming period.

1. Increase purchases on Instagram

Online selling on Instagram is not new. The social network is actively developing Social commerce. The platform provides a huge number of tools for instantly going to the site using a link, placing an order, sending a message, and other actions that lead to a purchase. Many brands choose Instagram as their main platform for online sales and promotion. Thanks to a simple principle, Instagram allows you to communicate with your audience. And with the help of the visual style of the platform, transfer to display goods, services. So, on a social network platform, you can use:

• Links in Instagram Stories 

The feature first became available in 2017. Since then, brands have been using this tool. A direct link leads directly to the desired product, which increases the conversion. Therefore, the popularity of Stories on Instagram and the tendency to buy links will only increase. In addition, disappearing stories can be saved in the “Actual” section. Therefore, there is no need to update the information daily. You can leave directing users to a folder with saved links.

• The presence of online stores on Instagram

A large number of offline stores have been forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual online stores have become an alternative way. On the page, you can visually arrange a photo with goods for a more real and detailed demonstration. To reach the target audience that is interested in your products, you should use the appropriate hashtags.

2. Stories on Instagram

In continuation to the previous point, it is worth noting the popularity of the stories themselves. For the first time, short 15-second and “live” stories appeared in 2016. Since then, it has been an important marketing tool on Instagram. Brands use the function to realize creative possibilities and will continue to do so. Instagram Stories are versatile, so you should use the tool in your Instagram marketing strategy. With the help of filters, stickers, and other effects, you can create original offers that are beneficial for users.
Stories features:

• Advertising and promotions

Short stories are more entertaining but addictive. Therefore, they are an effective means of advertising campaigns and promotion. Instagram Stories are great for promotions like giveaways, contests, short video ads, product launch announcements. Instagram Stories are short-lived, which develops a sense of urgency in the user.

Polls in stories help you get to know your target audience, find out consumer preferences for your brand or product. Surveys also help to get an idea of ​​what customers want or expect in the future and increase brand loyalty. Holding a competition and awarding the winners is an additional reason for interaction.

3. Vertical video

More often, users access the application from a smartphone. Therefore, the emergence of the vertical video was inevitable. Instagram Live, Stories, and IGTV, Reels support the vertical format. If you rely on trends then video content in 2022 will become the leader in popularity. Video product reviews allow you to better understand the product and make a buying decision faster. 

4. Influencer Marketing (Influencer Marketing)

A well-known trend on Instagram, which also does not slow down. In the new year 2022, brands will focus on micro-influencers (up to 100K followers). Collaboration with influencers will be the basis of marketing strategies. Brands use influencers to create posts, link back to their own website, increase engagement, and even drive sales. Social media influencers help in promoting the product as well as creating quality content.

The advantage of Influencer Marketing is the low cost of services.

Several effective ways of cooperation:

• Influencers Network

Buying ads from several influencers at once. Where brands used to pick one or two influencers and send them free products to review, now is the era of massive influencer marketing.

• Hashtags for advertising campaigns

The idea involves creating a specific hashtag for a specific ad campaign and promoting it, including all formats: stories, page posts, influencer recommendations.

• Influencer Invitation Events

As part of an advertising campaign, you can organize an event, for example, in honor of the opening of an offline store, a themed evening, during which opinion leaders mark the brand page, leave a link to the online store, or express their own opinion. The influencer reaches a large number of followers and attracts the attention of the audience. This increases brand awareness and helps promote the product.

5. New features – additional features

Instagram regularly adds useful features and auxiliary tools. Now it is not just a chronological visual news feed, it is an opportunity to interact with potential customers 24/7 and communicate with them in real-time. Competition is growing, which forces social networks to develop to get more subscribers and customers.

Also Read: Mobile Marketing TOP 10 Trends for 2022

Instagram is known to be testing an improved analytics platform that will help businesses grow once it’s launched. There’s also news of a new feature called Promoted Stories that will help promote selected stories for maximum reach.

6. Tweets and memes

Instagram has increased the amount of humorous content. Users publish screenshots of funny tweets in the form of posts, Instagram stories, tag friends and acquaintances. On the social network site, there are Instagram accounts designed specifically for publishing such content. #mememarketing

Marketers are using this trend to their advantage. People like the humor on the platform, so they are more likely to perceive branded content as native. At the same time, it is not necessary to create memes and tweets, you can just exchange fresh jokes.

7. Instagram Live

Instagram Live was first launched in 2016. Live and streaming videos have a number of advantages. Firstly, the feature allows you to interact with the target audience in real-time and provides two-way communication. Users can comment and ask questions, get instant answers.

Live broadcasts attract an audience to your business. You can use live videos to conduct a Q&A section. This is an opportunity to understand the pains of clients, to get information about their needs. Instagram Live allows you to interview an expert or influencer, highlight current topics from a niche. This is a good way to not only attract but also benefit the audience. Live videos are attractive and interactive and arouse interest.

8. Interactive on Instagram

Instagram offers a large number of interactive tools to engage and interest the audience. Many brands and marketers are experimenting with interactive content.

Examples might be:

• Ask a question in a Story or in a post asking for a comment;
• Create a multiple-choice survey;
• Conduct a quiz
• Set a countdown to the publication of a post, the launch of a collection, or another important event;
• Use other stickers in Stories, of which there is a huge number on Instagram.

Feel free to experiment. The audience of the social network perceives such interactive activities well and participates in them with pleasure.

9. Instagram Stories Ads

Instagram Stories ads appear between stories in the feed, so the ad fits seamlessly into the content. This is the reason why story ads “work” better than other types where you need to highlight a sponsored or branded product. Marketers are investing more in Instagram Stories ads, realizing the benefits of the current trend. 

There are three types of Stories ads available on Instagram: images, videos, and carousels (3 images or videos in one ad).

There are a few rules to keep in mind before buying Instagram Stories ads:

• add a call to action to your Instagram Stories ad, as that is what will drive traffic to the site.
• advertising should be simple and understandable, since the video or image is shown for only a few seconds, you need to quickly convey the idea to the user.
• minimal text with added visuals to grab the attention of the audience right away.
• correct placement of text that detracts from the word “sponsored” at the top.
• Highlight offers or discounts in an ad.
• use a quality image to get more clicks.
• you can add a price.

Instagram Stories ads help you promote your brand, products, and services, and get more conversions.

10. Tab “Search and Interesting”

The feature allows you to see the content you post on Instagram and find more accounts to follow. This is a personalized selection of content collected on the basis of the likes left and the viewing history. The option works on the basis of machine learning and includes built-in algorithms. The social network filters information by categories: best, accounts, tags, places. Marketers additionally use SEO for Instagram search, optimizing the profile and content for keywords, hashtags for a specific niche. Using the right hashtags will help you appear as high on the Search & Explore tab as possible in the feed.

Conclusion

Instagram is actively developing, and current trends will determine the future of marketing in the social network. To stay competitive and stand out from the crowd of Instagram accounts, you need to be aware of current trends. The top 10 Instagram trends you need to use to succeed in the marketing game.

Many of us spend about 2 hours a day browsing social media feeds. Instagram alone has about 1 billion monthly active users. You need to take these statistics into account to consider using Instagram to promote your brand on social media. Instagram has several powerful tools to make it easier to complete your brand promotion tasks.

As one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram offers a wide variety of marketing tools. The effectiveness of your marketing campaigns depends on the correct choice. Since most of Instagram’s marketing tools are free or available for a small fee, their functionality is the main selection criterion.

WHY SHOULD YOU USE INSTAGRAM MARKETING TOOLS?

Instagram is a visual content-driven social network that can drive the growth of your business. The days when people wanted to see in their feed only moments from the lives of their friends, photographs of delicious dishes, and beautiful landscapes are long gone. Today, more than 200 million users use business profiles. Therefore, you should connect Instagram to your strategy for promoting your brand, products, and services.

Using Instagram marketing tools is the best way to manage your business profile. With their help, you can schedule the publication of your marketing messages, promote hashtags and get analytics about your profile. In addition, thanks to Instagram tools, you can expand your user audience, increase the level of subscriber engagement. Overall, with marketing tools, you will be able to automate a multitude of tasks while getting the most out of your profile. Thus, Instagram marketing tools can save you tons of time.

BEST INSTAGRAM TOOLS FOR BRAND PROMOTION

Now that you understand how important Instagram tools are to making your marketing campaigns more effective, it’s time to consider the very best ones.

1.DMpro

Direct messages (DM) on Instagram are a great way to reach leads and consumers. With DMpro’s direct messaging automation tool, you can improve your DM marketing on Instagram. It automates all tasks related to sending messages to users. With its help, you can send bulk messages and receive notifications about reading messages by users to your email.

Key features of the DMpro tool:

• automation of outgoing direct messages;
• automatic sending of replies to incoming messages;
• sending bulk messages to users from your contact list;
• sending and receiving direct messages via email.

2. Realtormate

If your company is in the real estate business, you can’t do without Realtormate in your Instagram marketing campaigns. By using this tool, you will have access to a variety of content templates to speed up your content creation. Realtormate functionality also allows you to create content plans for posting to Instagram. In addition, this tool can be used as a growth manager capable of generating 400-500 new leads and followers monthly.

Key features of Realtormate:

• ready-made content templates for real estate companies;
• development of content plans;
• attracting new subscribers and potential customers.

3. AiSchedul

It is an effective Instagram marketing tool specializing in post scheduling. You can create a post using the functionality of the social media platform, and then set the date and time of its publication using AiSchedul.

Over time, this tool has received several updates and has evolved into more than just a post scheduler. For example, it allows you to add hashtags based on key phrases from your posts. You can also repost content related to your niche. AiSchedul also offers an international calendar showing all the posts that are up to date. This can be your inspiration for creating your own publications. AiSchedul also lets you track your mentions.

Key features of AiSchedul:

• posting Instagram content at a specific point in time;
• selection of relevant hashtags;
• reposting relevant content;
• ideas for content dedicated to international events;
• tracking of mentions.

4. AiGrow

Instagram follower growth tools are arguably the most requested. Increasing your follower count is a great way to build your brand’s authority. However, many of the previously used tools stopped working as Instagram banned the use of bots on its platform. However, AiGrow is one of the new subscriber-building tools that organically expand your user base. This means that your user base will be replenished with real people. AiGrow offers several subscription options that differ in cost and available functionality.

Key features of AiGrow:

• the ability to grow your user base organically.

5. Later

Originally introduced as a scheduling tool for Instagram posts, Later has gained additional functionality over time and is now one of the most effective marketing tools. With Later, you can create great posts and set their posting times. In addition, the tool contains a calendar that allows you to keep track of important international events and create relevant content.

Key features of Later:

• scheduling Instagram posts;
• various tariffs that differ in functionality and price;
• unlimited amount of uploaded data.

6. Hootsuite

Many marketers use Hootsuite as a great scheduling tool for Instagram content posts. You will be able to post any type of content directly through the Hootsuite platform. However, this tool is useful for more than just scheduling and publishing content. It is also effective for dealing with comments posted under your posts.

Key features of Hootsuite:

• developing content for posts and stories on Instagram;
• scheduling of publications;
• search tool for relevant hashtags;
• analysis of the effectiveness of the Instagram account.

7. Iconsquare

This marketing tool is used to manage a business profile. Its main function is to analyze the performance of the Instagram profile. Based on the data obtained using Iconosquare, you can develop an effective marketing strategy to attract customers and increase their level of engagement. In addition, Iconosquare allows you to schedule the date and time of posting, track activity (mentions, work with comments, etc.).

Key features of Iconosquare:

• analysis of your work on Instagram;
• hashtag tracking;
• Search for influential profiles.

8. Buffer

It is one of the oldest Instagram tools used to schedule your posts. With Buffer, you can create content plans and publish your content at a specific point in time.

Key features of Buffer:

• scheduling Instagram posts;
• creating a content plan, publishing based on a calendar.

CONCLUSION

Instagram is a popular social platform with simple and straightforward functionality. Therefore, it is widely used by representatives of various generations. To improve your business performance with this social network, we recommend using the best Instagram marketing tools listed above.

If your business connects with customers through social media, you can establish relationships that will help increase your brand awareness. By communicating regularly with your community, you will achieve even more meaningful results. Getting in touch with your audience is no big deal, especially if you have a flexible communication tool at your fingertips.

Even the most successful brands, with large user bases with millions of subscribers, continue to invest in technology that analyzes all social media mentions and posts. This allows you to receive comprehensive answers to critical queries related to brand technology, customer service, and more. So, in order to draw attention to your brand, communication, and interaction with the audience should be included in the priority list. And here we come to the main question:

WHY IS CUSTOMER ACQUISITION USING SOCIAL PLATFORMS SO CHALLENGING?

Bridging the so-called “expectations gap” is one of the most important tasks of modern marketing. This is the difference between what customers expect from the company and what it actually offers them. This gap arises because the brand does not adapt traditional marketing methods to changing market conditions in order to meet the expectations of today’s customers who need personalized messages and a high speed of interaction. However, delivering personalized content in a timely manner is not an easy task. It’s even harder to create content quickly and share it across multiple channels without sacrificing user experience.

Below, we’ve outlined a few techniques to help you improve your social media strategy to meet the needs of today’s users, increase their engagement and grow your brand as a whole.

1. KNOW WHO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE IS

As a brand whose success depends a lot on the effectiveness of social media marketing strategies, you should ask yourself the questions: Who are your audience members and who are you trying to connect with? Knowing your audience well can make it easier for you to create personalized marketing campaigns to grab the attention of your customers on social media.

Finding the right tone for the content you post requires a deep understanding of your audience. Knowing all the important characteristics of users, you can create personalized campaigns, segment them correctly. So, you will find out which parts of the content resonate with your users and how to improve the quality of the services provided based on this approach.

2. KNOW WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE IS

For example, you can use one social network while most of your potential customers prefer another. If you do not know which social platform your audience prefers and where they are most active, it will be difficult for you to increase the level of engagement of your users on social media. For example, if your audience prefers Facebook, it doesn’t make sense to run campaigns on Twitter or any other social network, as it won’t benefit your brand.

Also Read: 9 WEB DESIGN TRENDS IN 2021

For this reason, you need to know where your company is mentioned and where your audience members are spending their time. By understanding this, you will be able to create relevant content to entertain your potential customers at the right time and in the right place.

Also, you should know on which platforms your customers mention your company the most. This way you can answer all their questions about your product or service. Moreover, it is the key to maintaining a positive image of your brand. Social media has been and remains a public channel where your loyal and new customers can see your posts and raise their awareness of your brand.

3. INTERACT WITH CLIENTS MORE OFTEN AND RESPOND PROMPTLY TO THEIR REQUESTS

You should not only monitor social platforms in search of your audience but also contact its representatives, respond to their requests. The faster you react, the stronger the feeling that you care about your customers’ opinions. And this is a critical point where many businesses still fall short of their users’ expectations.

The response speed is important not only in relation to queries related to your brand on social media but also to general comments or positive reviews. Companies that interact with the audience on a regular basis are characterized by the minimum average waiting time for a response to a user request. Regular engagement with customers via social media isn’t the only way to retain them.

Understanding what user-generated content is will allow you to expand on this topic in more detail. Every positive social media review left by your client indicates their satisfaction with the quality of the product or service you offer. Share such user-generated content (reviews) with community representatives via social media to attract new customers. In addition to posting user-generated content, follow your audience to form stronger relationships. It works the same as if you subscribed to your friend’s social profile, expecting them to follow you back.

4. PUBLISH CONTENT SO THAT IT IS AVAILABLE TO REPRESENTATIVES OF YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

In an effort to increase the level of engagement of representatives of your target audience on social networks, you need to place content so that it is easily accessible to them since such content is much easier to consume. There are two effective ways to make your content more accessible: adding descriptions to your images and captions to videos. Sophisticated image descriptions will provide a better understanding of the product or service you offer. It will also make it easier for your potential customers to understand what you are offering them. Video captions will help your audience get a good idea of ​​what they will see when they watch. Ultimately, picture descriptions and video captions improve the user experience.

CONCLUSIONS

In today’s reality, attracting users to social networks is not an easy task, since they are constantly exposed to various content. You need to make every effort to win their attention. However, difficult does not mean impossible. To build strong relationships with your audience and get them to engage with your business, you need to know your potential customers, respond to their inquiries in a timely manner, and educate them about the unique characteristics of your brand.

Many companies consider social platforms to be the ideal option for promoting their business. And if you do not have a full-fledged team of specialists in the field of promotion using social platforms, you can succeed in this direction by developing a smart strategy that takes into account your goals and available resources.

After reading this article, you can create your own social media promotion strategy, as well as get rid of the exhilarating feeling that arises every time you open Instagram or Twitter.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION STRATEGY?

A social media marketing strategy is your master plan for how you will create, publish, and interact with content. It provides a general course on your social media behavior, as well as aspects such as post frequency, marketing campaigns, creative planning, and audience engagement principles.

WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE NEED FOR A PROMOTION STRATEGY IN SOCIAL NETWORKS?

Reaching your audience, measuring your ROI, and the ability to meet your business goals are three key challenges marketers face when promoting a business on social media. To solve these problems, an effective promotion strategy is needed. It will allow you to set the right goals, remove all possible obstacles to achieving them, assess the effectiveness, and make timely adjustments. However, without a so-called “starting point“, you will not be able to evaluate the results of your activities aimed at achieving your goals. A social media strategy also allows you to define your expectations, increase the level of participation of each team member, and figure out what they should / should not do during the promotion process.

So let’s figure out how to create a social media strategy from scratch.

1. Define your target audience

If you haven’t yet determined who your average customer is, find out the key demographics of your audience: age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests. Learn about their problems and the challenges they face on a daily basis. Focus on no more than 4 types of people that represent the majority of your target audience. Do not get hung up on those segments of it that come to you by accident, otherwise, you will never start developing a plan.

2. Blog

Fresh content is the backbone of the success of any social media promotion strategy, so you need to constantly create new quality content. Make a list of common questions asked by representatives of your target audience, try to provide answers to them, do at least one blog post a week.

3. Create educational content

Develop downloadable content that can solve your prospect’s problems: ebooks, checklists, videos, infographics. If you post really useful content, the likelihood that people will share it on social media (thereby helping you promote your business) is significantly higher.

4. Focus on a few key social channels

Most startups and small businesses do not have the resources to manage high-quality profiles on multiple social networks at once. In addition, it is very difficult to learn the principles of correct interaction of profiles in several platforms at the same time. HubSpot Academy has published a video in which they highlighted several promising social channels for publishing content.

Also Read: 10 Digital Marketing Tools You Should Consider In 2021

So, you need to start small. First, explore the features of popular social platforms that your target audience uses. Then, do your best to build a loyal community before switching to other social media platforms.

5. Create your own guide to working with social platforms

Since social media is not an exact science, it works differently for every company and industry. To achieve results for your business, schedule posts, and interactions. Develop a guide for your team to follow. Set goals for publications as well as interactions, and strictly follow the rules of the guide you create.

6. Evaluate the results you have achieved

The quality of promotion work in social networks can be assessed by a huge number of criteria. First, find out how much traffic to your website or blog your social media accounts are driving. Review your posts, track audience reactions, and trends related to specific topics and keywords of greatest interest. By gaining insight into post traffic and performance, you can set goals for KPIs and measure your progress.

Choose the metrics that are easiest to track. If you measure indicators that take too long to evaluate, you will not be able to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Examples of simple metrics to bet on are the number of followers and subscribers, the number of new visits, and interactions with your website from your social media accounts.

7. Change tactics

Your social media accounts won’t work overnight. To build a subscriber base, create your brand, and in order to see the first results, it will take some time. Experiment to bring out the most effective combination of social channels, content, and posts. Over time, you will adjust your social media guide, content, and leads to make your promotion strategy more consistent and effective.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Social media is a multifunctional business asset. They allow you to establish a relationship with representatives of your target audience, promote the promotion of products, services, and your brand. Developing a social media marketing strategy is a different process from the one described above. This is because the metrics you track may be more specific than the metrics you measure for marketing through other channels.

When promoting your business through social platforms, make sure you act consistently and in a positive manner. For example, the images and content you post on social media profiles must match the images and content on your website, blog, or another website. Pay attention to questions and comments left by your audience, try to solve their problems as soon as possible, as this type of interaction can both increase conversion and the opposite effect.

Finally, reconcile the content you post on social media and the content you share through other channels (such as email marketing or advertising).

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT STRATEGY

Content is the backbone of any promotion strategy using social platforms. Without publishing content, you will not be able to interact with your audience, promote products or services, or evaluate the effectiveness of your actions. Due to the somewhat biased attitude towards social media, you will neglect the planning of publications, however, this approach is fundamentally wrong. While social media content is not as static as blog posts or e-mails, it plays an important role in engaging audiences and shaping your brand. Therefore, you need to develop your own content strategy for social media posting, which should include the following:

• The posting guidelines for the specific social platforms you work for. For example, you can post animations on Twitter but avoid Facebook.
• Key features of the target audience in each network (for example, the average age of Instagram users is significantly lower than that of LinkedIn users).
• Reassign plans for publishing longreads and voluminous content from your blog, podcast, or ebook.
• Distribution of responsibilities between team members: someone is responsible for publications, someone is responsible for attracting new subscribers.
• Selection of companies, publications, and individuals for reposting (choosing who you can repost and who you cannot).

NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO START PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

Still, thinking you can’t be successful on social media? This is due to the fact that social platforms are literally overwhelmed with content. However, you can get rid of your prejudices by using the tips and strategies listed in this article. Remember a few important points: tackle only one social platform at a time, prioritize your target audience, focus on what really works. By following these tips, you will achieve results and increase traffic in the short term.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “social media doesn’t work for my business” a lot.
I spoke with a business owner once and he stated that social media is not worth the time and money spent. We decided to check his social media accounts. It turned out that his publications were inconsistent, and the images used were of very mediocre quality. Without going into details, I will say that this business ceased to exist after a couple of months.

On the other hand, I often visit restaurants and cafes that my agency works with. I witnessed how visitors come to the bar with a smartphone in which the Instagram application is open and, showing the images we have published, they say: “I want to order this …”.

What is the difference between people who find social media ineffective for business and my clients?

It’s simple: For the most part, many business owners make a few common mistakes in their social media marketing campaigns, thereby limiting their ability to attract leads. Below are the 3 most common mistakes.

1. THEY DON’T KNOW THEIR AUDIENCE

It is imperative to know who your potential customers are. Without knowing your audience, you are trying to reach out to everyone at once. In fact, this is a cry into the void in the hope that someone will hear you.

Not knowing how to establish relationships with people, you are unlikely to be able to sell them anything. Understanding who your target audience is (what they want, what they need, what criteria you meet them) is critical. This is the only way to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns using social platforms.

2. THEY ARE INCONSISTENT IN WHAT THEY POST

Consistency in the selection of published content is the key to expanding the user audience, given the latest algorithms used by social platforms.

Being consistent doesn’t mean you have to post to social media on a daily basis. You must create a well-thought-out publishing schedule and stick to it. You are unlikely to achieve instant results. But regular posts will resonate with your audience and motivate them to interact with your social media accounts. Every time your business is searched for or come across by accident, potential customers will receive fresh and relevant content.

Also Read: Types Of Online Businesses that will Start in 2021

To improve the efficiency of using your social media account, you must publish content that is interesting to your audience, as well as effectively exchange messages (engage in dialogue with potential customers). By regularly making new publications and informing your audience about them, you will increase the level of trust in your business and its authority.

3. THEY’RE JUST TRYING TO EXPAND THEIR USER BASE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

I keep repeating that the days when you achieved your goals simply by attracting as many followers as possible are long gone. Without thinking about who your audience is, you just get dead weight. An impressive number of subscribers are just pretty numbers if all these people are not your potential customers who want to purchase your product or service and thereby help in the development of your business.

One of the features of social media marketing is that simply engaging users degrade your stats. For example, out of 1000 of your subscribers, 900 are not interested in interacting with your business. If so, your analytics and audience insight will not pay off. This means that you have to study your audience and understand what it needs.

You will spend a lot of time building your brand awareness and engaging truly engaged users. But building an engaged subscriber base has a higher value than chasing numbers in an attempt to meet those interested in your profile information. Many users of social networks are aware of the existence of the so-called “subscriber boost”. Therefore, you need to focus on the quality of your business and the content that you publish, as this will bring the best results in the long run.

KEY DIFFERENCES

The difference between people who claim that social media is not doing their business, and those who acquire customers, sell products or services, and gradually grow their audience through quality leads from their social media profiles, is that the latter has an established process. They figured out what their audience needs, regularly publish relevant content, conduct research, and make appropriate changes. While this is a time-consuming process, it is one that brings results.

If you are doing “hard work” on social media, spending more than an hour every day, you are most likely wasting this time on something that ultimately does not benefit anyone. Schedule key tasks, make a schedule, develop a plan based on your audience’s data, stick to that plan.

Successful marketing using social platforms can only be achieved by those who clearly understand the needs of their audience and plan their actions.

It takes a lot of time and effort to set up an effective Facebook ad campaign. Of course, Facebook has tried to simplify the functionality of its ad service. But, if you want to achieve maximum success with online advertising, try to think through your advertising campaign to the smallest detail.

You won’t achieve the results you want with Facebook Ads if your ad campaign isn’t well thought out. Take some time to develop your strategy before you open Ads Manager. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting your budget on impressions and clicks that will not bring the desired result.

We’ve compiled a list of 7 tips to help you design a good Facebook ad campaign. After reading this article, you will clearly understand what you will be doing in the process of creating a campaign. Plus, you’ll learn how to quickly roll out your Facebook ad campaign and get the most out of your investment in it.

1. DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Before starting the development of a marketing campaign, a specialist must ask the question: who is his target audience? Even if you’ve been working with the same audience for years, take the time to ask yourself this question again. By clearly understanding who you are offering your products and services to, you can maximize efficiency.

From Facebook’s perspective, this question has two answers. First, you need to understand which market you are targeting. Second, you need to know how you will interact with this marketplace through Facebook.

For example, you have created a gambling application. People buy points that they can spend in the app to earn even more points. As long as you have these points, you remain in the game. In general, the target audience can be both men and women of middle age living anywhere in the country. They have a stable income, regularly use smartphones, and love risk-taking games.

The target audience is likely to be characterized by a large number of parameters. But the purpose of this article is not to create a client image. By understanding who your target audience is and how they are motivated, you can design an advertising campaign that will get people to take targeted actions.

All of these will help you set up your Facebook targeting. Since the target audience in this example is interested in gambling, a start has been made. Interest targeting functionality on Facebook contains a section of games, among which there is gambling. Now you can narrow the circle by specifying a lower age of potential customers, as well as by choosing regions of residence in which there is an increased interest in casino games.

This example is extremely simple, but it clearly demonstrates how simply thinking about who your target audience is and what type of ad campaign is appropriate can help you improve your Facebook targeting. Getting the right targeting is half the success of your Facebook marketing campaign, so start by asking “who is your target audience?”

2. SET A GOAL

Understanding the goal is another important part of a successful Facebook ad campaign. Similar to targeting a target audience, targeting is an important task both broadly and technically. Without knowing your goal, you will not be able to assess the effectiveness of your campaign (whether you managed to achieve the desired results or not). For example, you want to increase the number of sales. But, you only focused on increasing the number of clicks. The results of such a strategy will look good on paper but can lead your business to bankruptcy.

From a technical point of view, it is extremely important to choose a realistic target. Depending on the strategy you use, the goal of your ad campaign may not align with the overall goal. For example, you are faced with a global challenge – to drive the growth of profitable sales. However, targeting traffic in your Facebook ad campaign may be the best option for increasing those sales.

In addition, you can launch multiple campaigns at once with different goals, which work together to form a sales funnel. As you can see, Facebook Ads offer almost limitless possibilities. It is only important to define goals and understand how each campaign fits into the big picture.

3. DETERMINE THE POINT OF SALE

Regardless of what your global goals are, any ad campaign should have the same ultimate goal – to motivate your audience to take actions that benefit your business. It is important that you communicate with people in a language they understand, focusing on their needs. In other words, you need to be clear about your argument – what prompts the audience to take targeted actions.

For example, what are the benefits of a cleaning agent? Cleans quickly, does not contain harmful substances.

Thinking through the strategy of your advertising campaign, you must understand that the real incentive and the one you imagine it can be significantly different. You may think very differently from your client, so the latter may be motivated by very different things.

The best way to understand your target audience is to talk to several of them. Make sure you really understand what they are motivated by and how to use it in your ad campaign.

4. USE THE CONCEPT OF A SALES FUNNEL

You should understand that not every potential customer is ready to purchase a product or perform any targeted action right here and now. It takes a lot of people’s time to understand how your business works. Therefore, the most effective Facebook ad campaigns aren’t just “Buy Now!” or something similar. They are part of an overall marketing funnel, driving brand awareness and inspiring people to try what you have to offer.

To be successful, you need to design multiple ad campaigns that perform different tasks at different stages of your sales funnel. For example, you can interact with a cold audience through engaging video content and then redirect your site visitors by offering them different content or something else.

This layered strategy assumes that you need multiple creative campaigns with different goals. But from a long-term perspective, this approach to Facebook advertising provides the most effective use of your marketing budget.

5. CHOOSE THE RIGHT BIDDING STRATEGY (HOW MUCH DO YOU SPEND ON ADVERTISING)

Since Facebook’s bidding process is automated, many professionals neglect bidding in their strategies, choosing the default option. However, given the strategy used, this approach may not be correct. For example, you can pay a certain amount to show a video or click on a link. In this case, you can set a limit value for the cost (rate) to avoid unnecessary costs.

Based on your goals, you should clearly understand how each campaign fits into your strategy and how to achieve a balance of performance/profitability. By choosing a bid too high, you risk wasting your entire budget at the wrong stage of the sales funnel. On the other hand, by making low rates, you will not achieve the desired results.

6. MOBILE OPTIMIZATION

Most Facebook users prefer to use Facebook’s mobile app. Consider this feature when developing an advertising strategy. Even if your ads look good on PC or laptop monitors, they won’t do the trick if they don’t display well on small screens.

For example, a mobile device screen can only accommodate the first three lines of your ad copy. In this case, it is the first 2-3 lines that should contain all the important information that you want to convey to your potential clients.

In addition to displaying the text correctly, you should pay attention to graphic content. The aspect ratio of Facebook ad units for mobile ads has changed from 2: 3 to 4: 5. If you do not take into account this point, your content may not display correctly.

Finally, as part of your overall strategy, you can use mobile-focused tools like Instant Experiences or Story Ads. If you are an online seller, we recommend using Collection Ads tools, which provide high conversion rates for retailers.

Also Read: How To Avoid 6 Common Facebook Ads Mistakes And Related Marketing Budgets

Let’s get to the bottom line: make sure your ad meets the expectations and needs of your mobile audience. Review your ads on mobile devices to make sure your content is displayed correctly and looks attractive. If not, make the appropriate adjustments or reconfigure your targeting to desktop users.

7. TEST YOUR AD CAMPAIGNS

The recipe for success for your Facebook ad campaign contains two main ingredients: strategic thinking and testing. Even if you think you’ve created a really good ad campaign, you can’t always guess how your target audience will react to it. The best way to optimize is to check everything: goals, text, visual content, cost (bids), display, sales funnel strategy.

Realizing the importance of testing, Facebook has made this process as easy as possible. Just come up with a few hypotheses and Facebook will do the job for you. With preliminary results, you will be able to choose the most effective option, using the knowledge gained to design other campaigns as part of your marketing strategy.

FINDINGS

Creating an effective advertising campaign requires hard work and free time from you. Plus, you have to be smart. The success of an advertising campaign depends on how thoughtful the strategy behind it is.

Hopefully, the 7 tips listed above will help you create the right Facebook ad campaign strategy. Now you know that Facebook Ads are more than meets the eye. At this stage, you should already have a clear understanding of where you are and what you still need to learn. We wish you every success!

Advertising on Facebook is a great promotion tool that helps both increase your brand awareness and increase the number of sales. But Facebook ad campaigns vary. Often, even a small mistake can lead to unnecessary waste of your advertising budget.

As with other marketing platforms, a successful Facebook ad campaign requires more than just good copy and eye-catching visuals (although these elements are also crucial). By avoiding a few common mistakes in Facebook ads, you will greatly increase your chances of achieving the desired result. Here are 6 common Facebook ad campaign mistakes you should avoid.

1. DEMONSTRATION OF ADVERTISING AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY

Similar to traditional ways of distributing ads (television or radio), you should not use Facebook to display the same advertisements at any time of the day. Without setting limits on the frequency of ad serving, you run the risk of exhausting your target audience.

According to research by The Drum, users get frustrated if they are shown ads for the same ad campaign for 3 days.

To avoid this mistake, it is recommended to create a custom schedule for your Facebook ad campaign. Thus, you will only show your ads on those days and hours that are most relevant to your audience. If you reach out to your customers when they are most likely to make a purchase, you will achieve the best possible experience for your ad campaign.

2. IRRELEVANT LANDING PAGES

Good Facebook ads are just the first part of the formula for success. You also need to consider where your ad will lead potential customers after they click on it.

Most brands’ advertisements lead to a landing page that should deliver on the promise of the initial offer by delivering what grabbed the prospect’s attention.

Unfortunately, many marketers make a mistake at this stage. Some of them use advertisements for a particular product only to direct interested users to the home page of a company site or even to a page selling another product.

Your potential customers clicked on your ad because it promised something specific. If the landing page associated with this ad doesn’t deliver what it promised, the prospect will leave and the marketing budget is wasted as a result.

Make sure your landing page matches your ad. This is a key tenet of effective Facebook advertising.

3. TOO FREQUENT CHANGES TO THE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Facebook offers great marketing opportunities, but this platform does not guarantee that you will be successful the first time you launch an ad campaign. 

Facebook uses machine learning technology, but in order to achieve high-performance indicators, it takes a certain time until the system determines the reaction of users and makes the appropriate settings.

Facebook calls this process a “learning phase” where the system gathers information and evaluates performance metrics. The platform’s website states the following:

“The Learning Phase is the period during which the ad content display system gets to know your ad campaign. At this stage, the system searches for the best ways to showcase your ad, so your CPA (cost per action) may not be good enough.

The Learning Phase occurs every time you add new advertisements or make significant changes to those already added. ”

Also Read: Common Facebook Page Mistakes

According to research by KlientBoost, it takes 24-48 hours to fully optimize an ad campaign. Impatient marketers who run short campaigns or make frequent changes to existing settings never reach the point of full optimization, wasting their budgets on non-optimized ads.

You may be tempted to make quick changes to your ad campaign, especially when a lot of money is at stake. However, more often than not, it is best to wait or campaign at specific times to ensure optimal results.

4. NOT USING AUTOMATIC FACEBOOK RULES

Even the best advertising campaign becomes less effective over time if you are not able to constantly check and track the results you get. As a result, you run the risk of overlooking important issues, which will lead to higher costs and overspending of the advertising budget. Facebook’s automatic rules can help you avoid this.

Facebook automatic rules allow you to automatically turn off an entire campaign or individual advertisements, adjust a campaign’s ad budget, or bid for ad impressions in accordance with set terms.

The Facebook site states the following:

“If you create automatic rules in Ads Manager, the service will automatically check all your ad campaigns, sets, and ads, update information and send you notifications. In addition to these automatic checks and notifications, the tool will take all the necessary actions for you. ”

You can set thresholds for cost per conversion, impressions, daily expenses, and more in the Facebook auto rule settings.

While you can let Facebook change your settings automatically, AdEspresso recommends turning on notifications so you can make any changes yourself.

This way you will be able to maintain control over your advertising campaign and be aware of any changes.

5. RE-ATTRACTING ALREADY ENGAGED CUSTOMER

Remarketing can be very effective, but it isn’t always advisable to show the same ad to a user who has already become your customer. If someone has already converted after seeing your ad, they probably won’t want to see an identical ad in the future.

This can be easily avoided by excluding from the audience to which you intend to show your ad, those who have already purchased the advertised product or have taken another targeted action. In this way, you can expand your advertising campaign to an audience that includes new potential customers, without annoying those who are already familiar with your brand.

6. EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF ADS

Each audience is unique, so different people will react differently to certain types of ads. The vast majority of brands invest in Facebook ads that appear in their news feed or ads that appear in the right column. At the same time, the platform’s functionality allows you to create more attractive ads, experiment with various media options (for example, videos or GIF animation).

In one interesting study, Facebook published the results of Champs Sports, which showed that Champs Sports improved their ad spend by replacing ad units that were displayed over 30 seconds with short videos that were 6 seconds long. The report contains the following information:

“The 6-second video made the ad more memorable by 11%, increasing ROI by 12% and view rate by 271%. This allowed the brand to achieve more effective results. Using 6-second videos, the company was also able to improve a number of other key metrics, including conversion rate, average cart value, and click-through rate. ”

Marketers using Facebook services are wasting money if they don’t do A / B testing. By choosing the ad format that best suits your unique audience, you will significantly increase the efficiency of your ad budget.

As mentioned, Facebook ads can be a great help to your marketing strategy, especially as new features are added regularly: search ads, mid-roll video ads, and more. However, regardless of whether you are using the new functionality or not, you must clearly understand the principles of the platform.

You will get tangible results for your business and never exceed your ad budget just by optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns.

This post is about Organic Promotion and Paid promotions. People say that the best things in life are free. This saying never seemed right to us. Of course, something is really available for free – love, sunshine, fireflies, and many other wonderful things. However, you can also buy a lot of good for money: for example, nunchucks, a bicycle or a disk with the cartoon “Kung Fu Panda 3”.

Given this, it is sometimes difficult to unambiguously determine which things are better – paid or free. At least when it comes to social media marketing. Between the adherents of organic and paid promotion, disputes are still ongoing. Both options have both strengths and weaknesses.

On this page, we will try to understand in detail the features of each method and study their main advantages and disadvantages.

ORGANIC AND PAID PROMOTION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

You can identify the main difference between organic and paid promotion in social networks by the name of these methods. Publication of organic posts on social networks is free and is usually used to attract subscribers and people with whom you want to share the information received. Paid content on social networks is available to a wide audience outside of your subscribers, but this way of promotion requires an investment of money.

Organic and paid posts on social networks have their advantages and disadvantages. Below we decided to list the most basic pros and cons of each of these types of marketing.

BENEFITS OF ORGANIC PROMOTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

It is more cost-effective.

In theory, maintaining organic activity on social networks is absolutely free. Publishing posts on Facebook, Instagram, Vkontakte, does not require any costs. All the expenses that you incur will be associated with the work of interacting with your community and creating content for filling channels on social networks. You can delegate these tasks to dedicated team members, freelancers, or agencies. They can also be included in the daily duties of some employees.

One way or another, the implementation of organic promotion in social networks does not require immediate investment. If your budget is limited and you are confident that you can create high-quality and thoughtful content, then this type of marketing will be most suitable for you.

It allows you to interact with customers and help them directly.

Social networks are an excellent platform for constant interaction with customers and the provision of services to them. A competently promoted and active profile on the social network provides users with an accessible and official place to post questions, complaints, and compliments. If you can allocate time and resources to constantly respond to most (if not all) customer requests, then you will get a big return on your investments in organic promotion on social networks.

It helps shape brand identity.

Using company profiles on social networks, you can express a certain personality of your brand. Your accounts can increase your return on marketing investments through witty posts, helpful tips, and more. Customers will begin to associate good qualities with your brand. For example, the Taco Bell profile on Twitter is famous for its corporate identity, which the fast-food chain has established thanks to its interaction with the audience and the publication of funny content.

DISADVANTAGES OF ORGANIC PROMOTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

It may take too much time.

Constantly creating first-class content and actively interacting with the audience is far from easy. You will not be able to quickly complete this task during the lunch break. This approach requires full-time employment and significant effort. If you do not have dedicated team members or you do not use outside help, it can take a tremendous amount of time to maintain activity on social networks.

Algorithms are unstable and difficult to understand.

The content that your audience sees on social networks is determined by the algorithms. They are designed to sort publications by relevance and potential benefit to the subscriber, rather than by time of publication.

The success of an organic social media marketing strategy depends on your ability to deliver content to existing and potential customers. That is why it is very important to understand how the algorithms involved in social networks work. Unfortunately, in words, it is much easier to do than in practice.

Social network algorithms are not always easy to understand and master. Even if you succeed in doing this, they are very likely to change. It can take a lot of effort to learn the principles of these algorithms and to adapt to them when creating content for social networks.

It’s less flexible in terms of reach

Reaching your audience from your organic marketing efforts on social media depends on how actively your content is distributed by subscribers. This means that you can only promote anything directly to your audience and the people with whom they share. You will not be able to distribute content among a specific demographic group or specific types of users, which is possible thanks to paid publications on social networks.

THE BENEFITS OF PAID PROMOTION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

You can target specific users to increase your audience reach.

Paid advertising on social networks allows you to accurately identify and reach certain demographic groups of people who will be most susceptible to your offers. You can sort users by categories such as location, age, gender or interests, and place targeted ads on your social networks. This gives you the opportunity to reach out to potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your offers.

Its payment model fits any budget.

Paid promotion on social networks is made in such a way as to fit almost any budget. As a rule, pay per click (PPC) is charged, that is, you only need to pay for clicks or those impressions of ads with which users directly interacted.

Many platforms allow you to limit the budget for showing ads, so you will never spend more than you expect. In addition, advertising for certain target audiences can be cheaper than for others, which allows you to strategically place ads to satisfy various potentially profitable niches.

The results will be noticeable faster.

Organic promotion in social networks involves long-term work, and also requires effort and the development of a marketing strategy. You will have to create content in accordance with the algorithms of social networks, look for ways to interest potential customers, and actively work to keep existing subscribers and attract new ones.

Paid promotion on social networks allows you to avoid the whole process and instantly place ads in the advertising channels of potential customers.

THE DISADVANTAGES OF PAID PROMOTION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Return on investment may be negligible

Paid promotion on social networks is ideally described by its name. Regardless of the size of your investment, you still spend money. Funds can be wasted if your marketing efforts prove ineffective. By constantly experimenting and failing with paid advertising campaigns on social networks, you essentially burn money. This happens quite often.

If you own a small business and you do not have the knowledge and skills necessary for the effective coordination of your strategy for paid promotion in social networks, you risk wasting resources that can be more successfully distributed between other forms of marketing.

You may face high competition

Social media marketing is far from secret development. According to Statista, in 2019, approximately 91 percent of all US companies to some extent bought paid placements on social networks.

To succeed in a highly competitive environment, you will have to put up with high CPC to achieve targeted demographics. You also need high-quality and attention-grabbing content to really benefit from the money invested in advertising.

It requires close attention

Paid promotion on social networks is rarely unchanged. It must be constantly monitored, analyzed, and subsequently adjusted to get the most out of it. Many platforms offer analytics tools that measure the effectiveness of ads. This data is not trivial and cannot be ignored. You will have to carefully analyze them.

Thanks to this, you can understand how to better structure your ads – but sometimes it can be difficult. Paid social media posting is usually only as effective as the amount of effort you put into it. And in many, if not most cases, it will take a significant part of your time to optimize it.

ORGANIC AND PAID PROMOTION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: RESULTS

It is impossible to determine which of these promotion methods is better. Both methods are great for different enterprises with different priorities in different situations.

Also Read: 8 Newbie Mistakes When Launching Ads On Instagram And Facebook

If your business does not have a budget to implement a full-fledged paid promotion strategy on social networks, try focusing on an organic approach. Create first-class content, improve profiles on social networks, and actively interact with your customers on the Internet.

However, if your business has a significant marketing budget and it desperately needs to immediately attract new customers, you should give preference to paid promotion.

Ideally, you should find a way to combine both methods into one common promotion strategy on social networks. Use paid placements to quickly increase brand awareness and attract an audience to your profiles.

Once you have a decent number of subscribers, use high-quality organic content and an active presence to attract their attention, turn them into customers, and maintain long and profitable relationships with them.

Let’s take a closer look at the errors on Facebook made by administrators when creating and maintaining business pages.

Interesting? So,

20 mistakes in maintaining Facebook pages

Error No. 1. Bad page title.

The name of the page should reflect its essence, purpose, theme, as well as geographical location and, at the same time, not be too long. It should be noted that changing the name of the page in the future will be very problematic, so you need to clearly determine the name immediately.

It would seem a banal thing, but the title should not contain errors or typos. For example, one of the common annoying mistakes is when English words are used in the page title, but at the same time written in lower case.

Error No. 2. The page description is incomplete.

At the very beginning, when creating a page on Facebook, you need to fill out a description, contact details, website address, and other items – depending on what is relevant. Otherwise, you will forget about it later, and the page will remain with spaces in the “biography” and “passport data”.

Mistake number 3. Lack of uniqueness, similarity to others.

Your page should be different from other pages on Facebook, to carry a certain value to users. This is especially true for entertainment pages, of which there are a great many, and they look like each other like two drops of water.

If you have a brand page, then, as far as possible, in content, colors, and communication with the audience, it should carry its idea and mission.

Mistake number 4. Misunderstanding of its target audience and its interests.

Misunderstanding or mistake in formulating your target audience will lead not only to difficulties in targeting when creating advertising campaigns, but also to incorrect selection of content, and, as a result, to the high cost of attracting subscribers, a high share of non-target subscribers and low activity of subscribers.

Mistake number 5. Lack of a content plan.

If you post publications on a page without even a rough content plan, you are wasting your time inefficiently and also risk missing important news feeds and using not all publication topics in the wrong proportions.

Mistake number 6. Non-compliance with Facebook rules.

Although many of us consider it a formality to use various services, non-observance of the “ Terms of Use of Facebook Pages ” is ultimately fraught with sanctions from Facebook. And if you value your page, then it makes sense to think about how justified this risk is.

Among the most frequent violations of the rules for Facebook pages, there are violations in the rules for advertising campaigns (contests), placement on third-party advertising pages, as well as the collection of personal data of users.

Mistake No. 7. Attempts to circumvent Facebook rules, manipulate reach, etc.

“Cunning” administrators who invent various tricks to get around Facebook restrictions, in fact, do a disservice to themselves and their colleagues. After all, over time, Facebook detects these “loopholes” and takes countermeasures that narrow down the set of available promotion tools.

Mistake number 8. Boring, uninteresting, irrelevant content.

Content for social networks should correspond to the interests of the audience, be interesting for it. A certain optimal proportion must be observed between educational, entertaining, selling, and entertaining content. The audience should be involved, participate in discussions, respond to your selling posts.

Mistake number 9. Using substandard content.

Quite often on Facebook-pages, you can find substandard pictures or videos, unedited text, etc. Naturally, problems with the quality of the content do not contribute to the successful promotion of the page.

Mistake number 10. Too frequent, too rare, or too irregular posting frequency.

You need to find the optimal frequency for posting updates for your page and try to stick to it.

It is depressing to see pages that take breaks in posts for several months, periodically recalling Facebook and resuming publications, after which they disappear for a long time again. Or when the page generally ceases to lead, and it turns out to be abandoned.

Mistake No. 11. Duplication of content from communities in other social networks.

Each social network has its own characteristics, both in terms of audience and in terms of available tools for promotion. Therefore, it is necessary to take these differences into account and adjust publications accordingly.

Mistake number 12. Too many promo posts.

A large number, one way or another, of selling or promoting something posts scares away the audience, makes the page uninteresting and of little use (maybe, with rare exceptions, when you sell something at bargain prices). In addition, anyway, the organic coverage of promotional publications, one way or another, will decrease. Accordingly, the effect of them will be less and less.

Mistake number 13. Abuse of entertainment posts.

Too often publishing entertaining content not only entertains, but also distracts subscribers from the topic of your page, without developing their habit of consuming serious content, and can also distort the image of the brand that you are trying to form in the audience. In addition, entertainment posts may not always please everyone, and not everyone, especially if your jokes or memes have already been published many times on other pages.

Mistake number 14. Inability to properly communicate with the audience.

Employees responsible for communicating with the audience of the page should have at least elementary community management skills. On the part of the company, when communicating on a page, such manifestations as resentment or rudeness are absolutely unacceptable.

Also Read: What You Need to Know About The Facebook Algorithm in 2020

Another common occurrence is communication with an audience in the style of a “dull call center employee.” This is when clients come up with real problems that need to be quickly resolved, and an employee of the company answers them with pre-prepared template phrases without taking into account the specifics of specific situations. This behavior is very outrageous to users and gives the impression of a formal approach to working with clients, unwillingness to understand their problems, as well as low qualifications of company employees.

Error No. 15. Failure to respond or too long response time for comments, publications, or user messages.

According to research, users, when they post to a page, leave comments or publications that require a response, want to receive this response quite quickly – within half an hour. This contrasts sharply with the opinion of administrators who believe that they have at least 24 hours to respond.

Moreover. Recently, Facebook has put in place such a parameter as the “ Responsiveness Indicator ”. To receive the “ Very Actively Reply to Messages ” badge, page administrators must respond to 90% of messages within 5 minutes within a week. This is probably too strict a requirement, but, nevertheless, this is the opinion of Facebook:

You as the page administrator should try to respond to users ’personal messages within 5 minutes!

Mistake No. 16. Lack of response (or insufficiently quick response) to a reasonable negative.

When users publish some kind of sensitive information related to a real flaw in the work of your company, it is very important to respond to this as quickly as possible, for which it is advisable to monitor social networks regularly. Otherwise, you expose your brand to a certain reputation risk: after all, negative information about your company, under certain circumstances, can instantly disperse not only on Facebook, but also on other social networks, and it will be much more difficult to stop this process.

Error No. 17. Lack of analysis of the page.

If you simply lead the page without subjecting the results of your work to careful analysis, you don’t own the real picture: what are the main indicators of the page, what is the dynamics, is everything going as planned, what needs to be improved? It is necessary to regularly monitor page statistics, receive feedback from subscribers, monitor the activities of competitors.

Mistake number 18. Giving too much importance to technical and other “chips”.

Facebook, due to its technical development, has a lot of functions and tools. But not all of them, and not for all businesses, are equally relevant.

So, for example, one should not overestimate the importance of having tabs, a call to action button, and other functionalities: many pages, especially beginners, can be neglected by such tools.

Mistake No. 19. Excessive use of hashtags.

Facebook hashtags are not as popular as on Twitter, Instagram, or VKontakte. It makes no sense to focus on them and turn the texts in the posts into a set of strange words with bars.

Mistake number 20. Absence of links to pages on social networks or outdated links on the site.

Oddly enough, but this happens quite often: the site has a community on Facebook, but the link to it, however, is absent or irrelevant. It is very inconvenient, for example, when, you need to make inquiries about an organization, and instead of simplifying this task for the user, it confuses and misleads it.

Well, I will be glad if my article allows you to avoid any mistakes or correct them in time.