You’ve heard of Facebook Ads and understand the concept, in general.  What are the different approaches and reasons that you should consider paying to promote content? As we publish this article, the current Facebook algorithm  that drives what people see in their personal stream only allows 3-5% of your fans to actually see your post in their stream. For most businesses, this won’t get you the results you’d like. Paid Facebook advertising is affordable and can be tightly targeted. So if you really understand who your ideal customer is, you can achieve some fairly exciting results, for as low as $15 - $25 per ad. It pays off for a small business to learn how to utilize Facebook Ads. There are three different approaches to consider when paying to promote, using Facebook. Before we outline those, let’s review some helpful terms. Social Media Vernacular Review Here is a little of the social media “lingo” for your understanding, before we dive into specifics about paying to promote, to avoid getting lost in the language. Post (noun): A post is a comment, picture, or some type of media placed on your business Facebook wall for fans to read. Post (verb): “To post” is the action of placing these items on your wall. Share (verb): Posting information on your page for your followers. This does not cost you anything. Typically, 3-5% of your followers will see the share. Promote (verb): Paying for a post to reach exponentially more people, including fans, but not limited to those. Most reached will not be followers. Ad: An ad is any type of paid promotion. Paying to Promote #1: Promote Your Page Promote is code word for “pay for broader exposure.” The goal of paying to promote your page is simply to get more likes, thus broadening your audience, and raising the potential to engage with these people. One Facebook ad type is called a “Page Like Ad” whose call to action is simply “Like Page.”  This is a great way to reach people who don’t know you yet, as you can exclude current followers from seeing the ad. Here is what a sample Page Like Ad looks like.   Paying to Promote #2: Promote Hot Content We live in a “help” economy.  To build a highly-engaged fan base, you should think, “What type of information would be helpful to my audience?” And it should, in no way, be information that somehow is an attempt to sell.  It’s an attempt to help. That’s it. You should get useful content only for the purpose of being helpful, interesting and informative to your readers. There are two ways you can share industry content. Share the content. The app makes this easy and it keeps your stream full of useful information. Promote the content.  The next level includes paying to promote that content, as only 3-5% of your fans will see the share. This conquers that issue for as low as $15 to reach over 1,000 people. This helpful content [...]

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you worry sometimes about making small business Social Media mistakes. Don't worry. We have a few ideas to help. Are you making small business Social Media mistakes? Getting started on Social Media for your business can be scary. But NOT being there is even scarier. There are resources that you can use and a few ground rules you should consider to ensure that you have a professional, well-managed community. Here are the 8 most common small business social media mistakes and how to avoid them. Not Being on Social Media At All It can be overwhelming. But if you're smart enough and motivated enough to have started your own business, you have what it takes to do this well. Today's consumer expects you to be on the digital highway, and if you're not, it will hurt you, especially if you are selling to consumers directly. If you haven't started, open Facebook and get going now. (Nervous? We'd be happy to help you at no charge. It's that important.) Underestimating Time, Effort and Resources Building an effective social media presence takes time, effort, and some money. To be effective you must engage with people continually, and communicate highly informative, entertaining and thought-provoking messages to connect. Each social platform has its own "personality", voice and constraints. Start with one platform and build from there. Not Responding to Comments Everyone who takes the time to Comment, Like, or Share deserves a fast and genuine response. Once the perception takes hold that your company is not interested in engaging with the audience, that's the beginning of the end. You will be labeled as a company that is interested only in self-promotion, a cardinal sin of social media marketing. Oh, and if you delete negative comments rather than address them? The negative floodgates will open. Simply ask the person to inbox or direct message you with details so you can address it with them directly and take the conversation off line. Selling Too Much People aren't necessarily on social media to be sold. They come for information, entertainment, and referrals. In fact, many use social media to escape commercialism. If you make your content all about you it is going to backfire. Think 80/20 – 80% engaging content geared toward their needs and interests, and 20% about your business, event, special offer, etc. The best way for your community to generate sales is to build relationships, trust, and authenticity... then introduce the idea of doing business together. Not Selling Enough The converse of No. 3 is also a mistake-not attempting to sell through your social media campaign. This amounts to not having a strategy. If you view social media as a way to build credibility and brand awareness, that's great, but at some point it's time to turn that credibility and brand awareness into sales. It's a delicate balance. For many Amazon brands when their products are doing well then they tend to enlist help from something like an amazon [...]

Congratulations. You're setting up social media accounts for your business. You're focused on your Facebook and Instagram marketing, as you know that a lot of customers are sourced from these platforms. If you want to use Facebook for marketing to moms, here are some special considerations for you to attract this generation's parents to your business. Before we dive into Facebook, specific, configuration, here are a few notes that apply to most social media channels. For all Channels when Marketing to Moms First, a few considerations regarding all social media platforms: Name yourself – Your social channel "name" should meet certain criteria and should ideally be the same across all channels. If you are an outlet of a larger organization, check with your corporate office, as there may be guidelines for this, but make sure that it's something pronounceable and that it's as short as possible. No special rules here for marketing to parents, necessarily. Describe your business – The description of your business should be identical across all platforms, if possible. LinkedIn and Google+ make this easy, yet Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest all have a 160-character limit, which will constrain the description. Be sure to include the benefits to the children receiving your product or service. Today's parents look for what the kids will learn at your business. Enter contact information – Don't make people have to dig for a phone number, email address, street address, or website. Especially in the business of serving children, make yourself very "available." Also, today's mom is an "e-mom." You'll definitely be more attractive of an option if you're available via email and Facebook messenger. Use a professional image – Profile pictures should project a professional image. Logos work great, and also remember that a parent may be showing your page to a kid, so use an image that is attractive to them. Profile pictures should be consistent across your social platforms, although size requirements may differ. Banner – If you're focusing on kids, create a banner that reflects this. It could be a photo of a class of students, an intimate moment of an instructor working with a child, or kids playing and learning. Get an image that shows that your organization is warm and that kids are learning and happy. Don't use your personal page to run your business, although you should definitely champion your business there. First of all, it's just confusing. Also, it's against Facebook's Terms of Service to use a personal page with commercial intent. And while only Facebooks calls this out as a requirement, this is a best practice across all platforms. Use your personal page to be "you" and your business page to speak on behalf of the business. Configure Facebook for Marketing to Moms This platform has the greatest number of members with 1.7 billion and growing. Pay attention strongly to Facebook if you're marketing to moms and You may consider looking at online marketing courses if you want to expand your marketing skillset. About [...]

Configure HOT!Content If you have already requested your daily dose of free content to share on social media for your business, here are the instructions to help you configure your account effectively. Not yet registered to get your HOT!Content?  Here’s the link. Once registered for HOT!Content, login here to get to your portal. On the login screen, enter the user name and password sent to you when you registered. At the top of the page, select COMMUNITY. On this screen, you’ll see options to add various social accounts. Simply press the + next to each platform to add it. This will allow you to share HOT!Content with this selected platform via one click, from your phone or via your desktop. Any pages for which you are authorized will show as a choice for you to select, and you may select any one of these. (If you don't see one of your pages for which you think you are authorized, check under Settings/General/Page Roles on that fan page to confirm.) For other platforms, you will simply need the user name and password. Included sites are: Facebook Business Pages Twitter LinkedIn Google+ Business Pages YouTube FourSquare Pinterest Yelp That’s it.  You’re done configuring. How To Start Using HOT!Content Each day, you'll receive a daily HOT!Content email with the subject line "Today's HOT!Content."  It takes less than 60 seconds to complete the following steps to add value to your community. -Review the HOT!Content titles in the email. -Read any that may be of interest to your readers. -If you determine that one of the articles does, in fact, qualify to share, you can post it find the POST NOW button at the top right. Selecting that button brings up the following screen.  If you scroll through the page, you’ll see you have the option to personalize this post for each of your platforms, by writing an appropriate introduction. -Select NEXT at the bottom. -Either post now or schedule your post for a future time. Also note that if you select to post to Pinterest, you’ll need to select a board. So get sharing. Ready to take things to the next level?  Here are the five types of content you should be sharing to grow your community.

Using social media content to attract customers takes a simple, but purposeful, formula. When you plan out your posting, think about five different types of social media content to post. This way, your followers whether they've been bought or naturally grown, will be kept happy. By visiting websites such as JeffBullas.com you can learn about the best options if you are to choose to buy your followers. These include: Industry Expert Content – to be helpful and show that you know your "stuff" Unique or Local Updates - to build community Personal Updates – to build community Product-Based Promotions – by providing all of the above, you have earned the right to promote your products or services Promote Ads or Content Using Facebook Posts - not really a different type of content, but a different way to distribute the four above. Let's dive into a little about each of these types of content. All of these will help you build your community by being interesting, educational and informative. Industry Expert Content Post about appealing topics for your audience, but not necessarily promoting your products/services. Free HOT!Content is the easiest way to populate this category. Provide your readers with information about your industry that shows you know what's happening and that you can guide them. For marketing to moms, or parents, this may look like: Parenting 411: Homework Tricks 25 DIY Furniture Hacks You Should Start Right Now This Year's Hottest Hair Trends At some point or another, these pieces of information will come in useful for anyone who is looking to make some changes to their life. When it comes to learning about the hottest hair trends, for example, simply knowing where you can get the best hair rollers from will help those of us who are in desperate need of a style transformation before a birthday party or wedding. The articles may not be used all the time, but you can guarantee that they will be at some point because we're always looking for ways to add some spice to our lives, and it could come in the form of informative articles like this. Looking for a resource to get industry content customized to you for free, each day? Get free Hot!Content for your industry here. Unique or Local Updates Share posts that brag or highlight things happening in your exact locale, or very narrow market segment. These would look like: New Tollway Set to Open Next Friday 4 Must Attend Events this Weekend Cy-Hope Resale Shop Opens off Barker Cypress Rd. Personal Updates Local and personal updates help build community and include items that aren't selling something, but are making your audience increase familiarity with the organization, the neighborhood, its people and goals. It could involve: introducing a new face, thanking volunteers who worked on a project, giving a "here's what's happening now" post, a "congratulations" to a staff member or customer, or even a "pardon our mess while we renovate the north bathroom" post with a photo [...]

You want to get more social followers for your business, build stark raving fans, drive more leads and increase revenues. Who doesn't? But have you tried things like getting a buyer persona template whereby you can use your personas to create more targeted content? Are you able to create more targeted content for each group of customers and have more successful marketing campaigns and stronger results? Or are you withholding traditional marketing practices? Many companies tend to choose to leverage the services of experts in the field of social media management and brand-building strategies, like Tom Baker for example. These experts can come up with actionable plans to help out with key areas of establishing an online presence and more importantly, getting more customers talking about the brand. Here are eleven secrets to get more social followers. Post the articles: Sounds basic...and it is. Each day, I receive content that I think my community will like. I sift through those and select a daily piece of interesting info to share. (Here is a free content source for you!) Share a work/life balance tip: Your social media followers want to know you're a real person with similar struggles that they have. Note this when you share that type of content. (Example: Maybe you're posting a list of some type...say, "Especially #2!" Then you raise curiosity to see what #2 is.) Ask a question with the post: People are more apt to answer a question, than to randomly comment on a post. If somebody posts a photo and asks you a question, such as, "Which is your favorite?" regarding a list you post, people are more likely to click through, read and have a comment. Be a genius. Attract customers and prospects by showing how smart you are, sharing info that is about the industry, relevant and, well...HOT. Posting educational articles for your industry and target audience makes you a more relevant partner for customers and helps keep you in tune with your target persona. Another way to get a larger following on a social media platform like Instagram, is to Buy your Instagram followers with Upleap. Tie the post to real people or events at your facility: Bring the post home with a comment about a person on your staff or an event happening. Commenting, "Ms. Shayna wouldn't approve of this article, would she?" would certainly raise comments, especially if Shayna is popular! Staff comments: Encourage your employees to comment on the posts on your page. Often, people are reluctant to comment, as they don't know the human behind the post; but, if their specific contact at your company comments, this often will get them to join the conversation. Caption this: Did you find an image associated with one of your pieces of content particularly compelling? Ask your fans to caption it! Faux number the post as a "tip:" Periodically post article using a random numbered tip to increase engagement. This is true whether or not the tip is part of [...]

HOT!Content makes your social streams work. Are you wondering whether social media marketing is right for your business, but you don’t have the time and expertise to get started? Engage121 developed a daily dose of hot content, named HOT!Content, just for you. Social media success starts with finding and posting articles that are interesting, entertaining, and informative. Sounds hard, right? And do you really have the time? HOT!Content provides you everything you need to get started in social media: 1. A daily email containing 5 articles ready for you to post; 2. A one-click system that posts articles to your Facebook page and Twitter account; and 3. Most importantly, an easy way to promote your posts to build your community. Best of all - it’s FREE! Simply request your own personalized HOT!Content here.