With the popularity of social media platforms in establishing extensive networks and linkages organically, it has become a very competitive market in the “pay to play” online marketing arena.
With Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, it would seem as though organic reach has no match for these platforms’ pay to click and paid advertising options. This has led people to conclude that organic reach using these social media is dead. But is it?
Is Facebook free?
Technically yes, but you would not think the same about its features and products.
Let’s face it, for many if not all of these social media platforms, marketing has become a full-blown ad business.
If it was to generally easy to reach followership of 5000 contacts five years ago, the rules of the game have totally changed and you would be very lucky if you could even get 15% today relying on organic reach.
To leverage Facebook for marketing, you would need to invest money to tap into the extensive audience network of Facebook. However, you may still be able to take advantage of Facebook ads without spending too much.
With careful and strategic planning you can still reap the benefits of Facebook’s massive audience network.
Audience targeting
Facebook allows you to target audiences based on age, location, occupation, gender, and interests, just to name a few. This helps you narrow down choices for your pay per click advertising and sponsored ads.
If you have a local business, you may be able to select your target location from one of the options when boosting a post in your page, that way you only get to focus impressions or your boosted posts on your desired audience.
The same goes for age, gender, and interests. For instance, you only want to target your audience with interests in real estate limited to professionals aged between 18 and 45, Facebook will then target your boosted posts to these individuals and interest groups.
Call to Action
Facebook provides several means for consumers to connect with your business, so having a strong call to action works just as effectively. Also, count on Facebook’s data analytics to help you craft marketing and targeting strategies so you may be able to measure the performance of your campaigns and help you identify strengths and weaknesses.
What about Instagram?
Advertising on Instagram is entirely different compared to Facebook. This platform is a product validation tool that provides a channel for customers to engage and be inspired in a visual narrative.
It is a brand awareness tool, rather than one focused on sales, so making use of creative, attractive, and visually-engaging content is critical. It is also important to note that content used for Instagram should be succinct, short, and appealing, as well as compressing it in one post without overcrowding it.
Make sure to always engage your community and provide added value by being knowledge brokers to help empower your audience.
The LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn is a platform that is more client-focused and works differently from Facebook and Instagram. It has its own unique tone and audience that should be treated differently when producing content for it.
The tool is used primarily for connection with colleagues, organisations, and professional networks established as a B2B tool that helps build corporate branding for products and services.
But while LinkedIn is geared for the corporate and professional sphere, there are exceptions to the “rule” that could help make it viable for marketing campaigns as well.
For instance, humanising your marketing approach can help you break good ground using LinkedIn because many clients and organisations still expect the human touch to strengthen your B2B channels.
People in business still want to deal with people, so sharing insights or a human perspective into your business’ work culture or team can help you create an image of putting people first in your group.
So, when you plan to leverage on social media for your marketing campaigns, make sure to learn from these insights that can help you make the most of your marketing strategies and help you generate the best results.