Tag: social media campaigns

How to get started with Facebook and Instagram ads

Posted on 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.

Top social media post ideas for businesses

Posted on by Wellons team

If you have a business, chances are you realize the value of social media. (If not, there are so many reasons you should consider it!)

Creating content for a business page, however, is vastly different from updating and maintaining a personal page. You want to have consistent, professional content that helps to support your business’s social media strategy.

When you’re staring at a box on a screen with the words “Write a post…” however, that can feel easier said than done. What photos or art do you use? What should your posts look like? What do you even say?

Like all things in business, you need a plan. You want to craft a mix of posts that help you accomplish your goals. At a higher level, you want to craft a personality and aesthetic on your platforms that align with your brand. A lot of that comes from what you decide to post.

If you’re just getting started with your business’s social media, or if you’re just stuck for ideas, consider going back to these five basics.

  1. Your own news. When it comes to social media, authentic content is key. Your followers want to get a sense of who you are, and giving them a peak behind the curtain is a great way to do that. Have you recently had a win you can share? Posting articles, press releases or news coverage on social gives you another outlet for the good things you’re making happen. Can you share a sense of your office culture, or give a glimpse at daily life? Snap a quick photo. You might even consider a regular feature of a staff member through a spotlight. All of these types of posts give outsiders a sense of who you are beyond your homepage. They can be great tools when potential job candidates or potential new business leads check out your digital footprint.
  2. Industry news. If you don’t have any internal news to share at the moment, it doesn’t mean you have to be silent. Turn to the industry publications you read, or your local news outlets. Are there articles that catch your attention? Sharing these can show your company is on the pulse of what’s happening, and they can start a conversation. You can also use these posts aspirationally, targeting business areas you’d like to work in and showing some thought leadership.
  3. Customer reviews. They’re saying great things about you—so tell everyone else! Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, this type of post can work for you. If you have great testimonials from customers or great reviews on sites like Facebook, Google, Yelp or TripAdvisor, reuse that content. Create a graphic with a quote from the review and share to show off your great work—in their words, not yours.
  4. Your products or services. This is probably one of the most basic subjects for a social media post, but don’t forget to tell people what you do. Spotlight both your best sellers, as well as products or services even your best customers might not know about. This is a great way to keep you top of mind and another outlet for your messaging.
  5. User generated content. If you’re in the B2C space, your customers are likely connecting with you in some way on social media. If they’re tagging you in photos, consider asking for their permission to reshare. This is a great way to add to your creative lineup, show authentic content and engage with your fans. B2B businesses don’t have to be left out, either. Retweet, repost or reshare posts your industry partners tag you in or posts they share to build those connections and show your involvement.

When it comes to social media for your business, there are endless possibilities for what you can post. Once you incorporate these basics, you can try new and creative ideas, from running contests to creating your own videos.

The key is to know what you want from your platforms and craft a plan to support that. Still need some help? Give us a call. We are pros at messaging and have plenty of creative ideas to help you meet your goals.

Social media delivers results

Posted on by Wellons team

Social Media campaign blogMore than 80 percent of Americans have a social media presence. If you’re not using social media as part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing out.

Social media marketing can be extremely effective, and it doesn’t have to be confusing or expensive.

There are two main ways for you to use social media marketing effectively. First, there’s the organic reach.

Organic social media marketing is content you don’t pay for. If you’re in business, chances are you already do this or have at least thought about it. These posts are generally content-driven and help keep your customers up to date with company news. They can also further your company’s brand.

But because these posts are organic, they can easily get lost in the flood of things available on the internet to the point where your followers might not even see them.

Because of that, if you choose to go the organic route, it’s essential to develop a long-term plan for your posting. It’s also important to keep your audience in mind and create shareable content so you can reach new people.

Paid social media posts, however, can help you meet your goals faster. Through paid ads and boosted posts, you can target specific audiences and have a flexible budget. Money can go a long way on social media, because, according to Moz, the average cost is about $0.25 per 1,000 impressions.

To create a strong social media campaign, it’s important to take a few things into consideration.

  • Target the right audience. Paying for posts that are going to the wrong audience can deplete your budget quickly and deliver few results. Write your posts for the specific audience you want to reach and put some thought into who your ideal target is to create an effective audience.
  • Budget your campaigns. Learn from experience which posts generate more engagement and reach. See which posts have a higher relevancy in Facebook and which ones convert into paying customers. Tracking conversions over social media can be difficult, but, over time, trends may emerge.
  • Choose the right platform. Although 18- to 29-year-olds dominate social media sites, there’s a more even spread of generations on Facebook, according to Pew Research Center. Use the platform to your advantage. For example, if you have a visual product or experience you want to promote, Instagram may be the way to go.

At Wellons Communications, we have experience creating both organic and paid social media campaigns. From the beginning, we’ll customize a plan which can help your company gain new customers and grow the relationship with your current customers. Give us a call today at 407-339-0879 to see how we can help your business grow to its fullest potential.

The Importance of Knowing Your Audience in PR

Posted on by Wellons team

So you got the new iPhone update which includes the new emoji keyboard and you’re really excited about it.

However, you wouldn’t send your grandmother a text full of emojis when you know that:

  1. She doesn’t understand that EMOJIS means that you did not enjoy waking up this morning.
  2. Her cell phone doesn’t receive text messages.

You would simply pick up the phone and tell her that information. It doesn’t make sense to send her a message she doesn’t understand through a medium she would never see.

The same is true in public relations. Knowing who you’re speaking to – knowing your audience – is a critical part of the PR practice.Apple new emoji keyboard.

No matter what strategy or tactic you are using, the best message in the world won’t be effective unless it’s in front of the right people in a way they understand. From collateral to social media campaigns and press releases, knowing your audience is crucial.

For example, when choosing outlets to send press releases to, we choose the ones most relevant to the client’s audience. A food blogger isn’t going to want to know about an upcoming marathon race. A CEO of a company probably doesn’t read or watch the same material that a college student does.

It’s important therefore to know where your audience gets their information and what channels they frequent. Facebook seemed like it was going to be the end-all-be-all of social media, but did you know that today’s teenagers don’t see Facebook to be as important as their parents do? If your product appeals to a younger demographic, it’s important to follow the trends of social media platforms. In the long run, these teenagers will hold major buying power 5-10 years from now. How will we adapt?

It’s also important to ensure that your message and tactics are appropriate for you audience. Messaging that is humorous isn’t always going to translate well for serious non-profits or business people. Similarly, a text-only ad for a children’s breakfast cereal isn’t going to communicate to toddlers.

In public relations and marketing, knowing your audience is step 1 in a successful campaign.

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