Orlando Media Archives - Wellons Communications

How to get started with Facebook and Instagram ads

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Wellons team

Maybe you’ve been there.

You’re posting and posting great content for your business, and yet you still see your post reach hovering in the same sad range. You’ve heard about social media ads, and you’ve even started researching how to get started, but every time you fall down a Google spiral, feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of deploying ads on Snapchat and Pinterest, setting up a landing page and mapping out a sales funnel until you just give up.

We’re here to say it: Getting started with social media ads does not have to be that complicated—and they can make a big difference for your business.

Just start small.

The why and where

First, know you aren’t crazy for thinking you’re running in circles relying on organic reach. In fact, besides a 0.5 percent increase during the social media surge of the pandemic, organic reach on social has been declining for years. Now, only 5.2 percent of your page’s followers see any given organic post.

That alone is a strong argument for the use of paid social media strategies.

There’s also plenty of opportunity out there. While nearly all social platforms offer ads (Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest and most recently TikTok to name a few), Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) are great first steps. Facebook’s ad platforms have been around for years, and with 2.6 billion monthly active users, it’s also the largest social platform.

Because of this, we’ll focus there first. Ready to get started? Check out some of the most basic steps below.

Give yourself a boost.

If all you’re looking for is a little bump of engagement on your page posts and you just want to dip your toe in the social media advertising waters, boosting a post on your page is the way to go. Simply go to your business’s page and select the post you want to amplify. There should be a blue button offering to boost. Here, you’ll see a simplified version of Ads Manager where you can decide how to boost, who to target and how much to spend. And just like that, you’re doing it! While you can read on for more about how to refine your efforts, think of a simple boost as giving the organic content you’re already doing a little more “oomph”.

Ready to go bigger? Define what you want.

If you want to turn that “oomph” into a “POW,” you’re going to need to use Ads Manager. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with it (we promise it looks more complicated than it is). Facebook offers a variety of options right off the bat. They break down to:

Awareness

Brand Awareness—Increase people’s awareness of your business
Reach—Show your ad to as many people as possible

Consideration

Traffic—Drive people to a website
Engagement—Like a boost, but with more refined options. This breaks down into page likes, post engagement and event responses.
App installs—Promote your business’s app
Video views—Get your video in front of people most likely to watch it
Lead generation—Using a form, get people to submit info, like emails for newsletter sign ups
Messages—Another of your boost options, this allows people to connect with your business.

Conversion

Conversions—Drive actions on your site, like adding to cart
Catalog sales—Promote your ecommerce store to drive sales
Store traffic—Promote your brick and mortar location to those nearby

You need to decide what it is you want to accomplish with your ads. Do you want more web visitors? Do you just want to stay top-of-mind? Are you looking to ramp up engagement on your page? This will drive your choice. While all of these objectives are useful in the right moment, if you’re just getting started, consider engagement, a page likes ad, traffic or awareness as a first test. Some of these other objectives require slightly more complicated setups (great for your continued education!)

Know your audience

Once you pick your objective and set your budget to where you feel comfortable, you will have to create an audience to target. Facebook offers so many options here, you might feel a little creepy—and you’ll definitely start to understand more about the ads you see in your own feed. Think about who your target customer is. Then, get creative creating parameters that best fit people like your best customers. The trick here is to shoot for a middle ground. You don’t want your audience to be so wide they find your ad irrelevant, and you don’t want to be so narrow that you’re missing great targets and not getting bang for your buck. Playing with the custom audiences is a great place to start, but lookalike audiences hold huge potential for later down the line.

Know the requirements

One of the last steps to launching your ad is to select the creative—and this is an integral step. If you don’t create an ad that catches people’s attention, all the hard work you’ve put in won’t ROI in the way you hope. Worse yet, if you don’t create an ad that fits Facebook or Instagram’s parameters, it might not run at all. When you get to this step, you can either select a post from your page or create a new ad. Give good thought to if what you post makes sense for the audience and the platform. Make sure your objective carries through with the right call to action. Make sure the visual you select is eye-catching, and at the most basic level, is the right size and shape. Sprout Social has great guides like this one to help you with this. Finally, make sure your selected image doesn’t have too much text. Facebook prioritizes ads for images with less than 20 percent text.

Monitor, learn and repeat

You’re not going to get it totally right the first time. Even the most experienced marketers and social media gurus know there’s always room to optimize. Try a few things and see what works best for your business. Once you have a little more experience, you might look into installing a pixel on your website and trying retargeting, or setting up a catalog for dynamic ads to sell products.

Truly, there are huge possibilities for your business in the realm of social media ads. You can always learn and grow. But the only way to reap the benefits? Take the first small steps and get started. Still feeling overwhelmed, or ready to move on to Social Ads 201? Give us a call at 407-339-0879 or email Will at will@wellonscommunications.com. We’d be happy to review your goals and put our social media advertising know-how to work for you.

Why COVID-19 could be your opportunity for media coverage

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Wellons team

We’re all numbed by the overwhelming amount of information doled out daily by public health officials, governmental officials and other well-meaning organizations.

Wear masks. Keep your distance. Wash your hands. It’s a mantra we have heard—and lived—daily since COVID began to make its presence felt in early February.

Lost in the shuffle is information about products and services that continue to operate without interruption and whose services are in demand.

Surprisingly, there is considerable demand for product and service information. However, in response to this demand, information outflow by public relations operatives has actually decreased.

In our estimation, that presents an opportunity you cannot afford to miss.

How do we know media wants more information in today’s COVID times?

Energy PR, a well-respected British public relations firm based north of London, conducted a survey of nearly 150 British media outlets in the past month. The survey explored how things have changed for them since COVID-19.

The answers Energy PR uncovered offer some valuable insights that businesses and brands can capitalize upon. You can see their survey for yourself here.

One survey, of course, does not a trend make. However, like Energy PR, we hear journalists saying, “I am okay with COVID material, but I need other stuff as well.”

Here’s what Energy’s survey tells us:

Don’t try to be COVID-relevant when you’re not. There is so much COVID information out there that you get lost in the shuffle and become just another COVID story. A full 20 percent of journalists report that “no one is doing or saying anything new at the moment.”

Creativity counts. Sometimes creativity is simply being the oracle of the obvious. Actions like pointing media toward your blog posts, identifying how customers are adjusting to changing times and even new, unforeseen responses from your customers can all provide information that may serve as a news hook for outlets hungry for something besides COVID.

Don’t hold back. Business acumen and insights count. But you’ve got to express your ideas—and distribute them—to get noticed.

If you have something to say about your business category, now’s the time. If you’re noticing significant changes in consumer behavior, be a leader in your category and say it.

If you have something totally unique to point toward, go all out and issue a press release, tweet, conduct a webinar or make yourself available as a guest on a podcast. Above all, however, let your PR firm know about it so your marketing team can take advantage of what you have to say.

Capitalize on the lack of information. The sheer volume of information in the current news environment offers an extraordinary marketing opportunity for you to put your name in front of households who are weary of news revolving around The Mantra (masks, distance, handwashing) and COVID.

Here’s how Wellons Communications can help you…right now:

We know how to identify what’s newsworthy, even when you may not realize you have news.

We have exceptional news distribution capabilities that can put your news in the hands of journalists who are eagerly looking for something to report on other than COVID. We also possess the kind of creativity that can make your message stand out and call for attention.

We have outstanding resources at our fingertips that can graphically make your messaging come to life. And we understand how to make your message turn into memorable video and audio “bites” that can put your product or service into the news.

You can capitalize on an open news window right now…but only if you act.

Never before have we seen the media so eager to report something beside The Elephant in the Room (COVID). Indeed, with smaller-than-ever staffs and less time available to research and identify what’s newsworthy, media have become more and more dependent on folks like us at Wellons Communications to help them find stories that will interest their readers, viewers and listeners.

You can only take advantage of this opportunity by acting. The media are not going to find you if you wait for them to call.

Instead, let someone like us give you a hand in crafting and distributing information that will put your product or service into the news. We can help you connect with your target audiences and conversely, allow your would-be customers to connect with you in the form of sales.

Call me, Will Wellons, at 407-462-2718 or email me at will@wellonscommunications.com and let me know what you want your audiences to hear.

How to prepare for media interest now

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Wellons team

A great TV story about your business’s latest charity effort runs on the 10 p.m. news. The local business journal publishes a feature on your growth strategy. The trade publication your partners read runs an item on your latest product.

Who doesn’t want that?

As an Orlando PR firm, we are no stranger to gaining media attention for our clients. In fact, earned media placements are one of the most common requests we get—and we’ve seen what they can do for a client’s reputation and reach.

Even so, there’s a big misconception with how these kinds of hits happen. Clients tend to expect that they will put out a press release and the media will come knocking. Sure, that happens sometimes (when it’s a good story, or we use our connections and skills to pitch media the right way). But often, media attention comes from being flexible. It comes from working a current event angle or building a relationships and reputations. And more often than not, it comes fast.

If clients aren’t prepared to make things happen, they might miss out on an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And nobody wants that.

Businesses who want to truly take advantage of media opportunities need to be ready. Below are a few steps you and your business can take to prepare now.

Nail your talking points

You know your elevator speech…right? CEOs and business leaders know what their company does, but you’d be surprised by how often they realize they can’t quite verbalize it. Before you take an interview with any media outlet, you need to be sure you can share your mission in a clear, concise way. Take some time to boil what you do down to just a few talking points, and be sure to share them with anyone who might handle media requests so your message is aligned.

Flag potential problems

Just like you want to know all the good things about your company, you’ll also want to do some introspection and identify any potential problems. Once in the public eye, anything and everything is fair game. If you can identify any tricky spots, you can be proactive in developing responses to any questions you might be asked about these things. This will help you avoid being caught off guard so you can mitigate any negative attention you might receive and position your company in the best light.

Identify a spokesperson

When time is of the essence, you need to know who’s stepping up. Identifying a spokesperson in advance allows that person to have time to complete the above steps. Be sure to choose a company leader who is comfortable in the role and who can confidently speak to the company’s mission. Your reputation rests in their hands.

Know your visual opportunities

It is important to not only tell a great story, but to show it. Words are a powerful and often essential aspect to telling your story, but there are many times a story will die without visuals. This is particularly important for TV media. Be prepared to offer visual opportunities to journalists. You should also start to build your media kit with high-resolution, professional photos of your company, including headshots for all executives, shots of important services or activities, and videos. You don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute to get these, and often, if you can offer these assets, you can land a story that might otherwise be passed over.

Complete media training

Completing the above steps will take you far, but when you find yourself in front of a camera with a microphone in your face for the first time, it’s natural to freeze up. Completing media training can help you know the tips and tricks of the trade so you can feel comfortable and properly prepare for each individual interview.

How we can help

At Wellons Communications, our Florida PR agency is made up of former journalists and PR pros. We’ve been on both sides of the camera and notepad, so we know how to help you prepare and put your story in the best light.

We also understand how media works and can craft the right pitch to gain media interest in the first place.

Need some help? Call 407-339-0879 or email will@wellonscommunications.com and see what we can do to help you prepare for any media interest and news coverage that may come your way.