By Ed Avis
Social media marketing – specifically promotions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – was the focus of the educational session on Saturday, October 20, during the 2018 APDSP Convention in Las Vegas. The session, led by Carrie Brandon and Deborah Rock, was packed with information, but here are seven quick take-aways:
1) Focus, focus, focus. “The key to success is laser-focused marketing, not generalized
Carrie Brandon
marketing,” Brandon said. She explained that a key advantage of social media marketing is that your campaign can be focused on a narrow demographic – such as architects in a given geographic area – which allows you to focus your investment where it will do the most good. If you use Facebook Ad Manager, you can drill down more and more specifically on your target audience.
2) Video is engaging. Videos get more attention than static promotions. Even short little videos – she showed a Christmas video/advertisement that lasted about 10 seconds – engage potential customers more than a flat ad. And Facebook offers a lot of templates for little video ads that can be easily customized.
3) People respond to special offers. Offers, such as discounts, tempt people to take action, Brandon explained. Furthermore, it’s easier for you to track the success of a social media promotion if it has a specific offer attached, because you can count the people who take the offer. To best take advantage of special offers, be sure to include a deadline.
4) Be frugal. Facebook allows you to set a budget – for example, you can set a specific maximum amount that will be spent on a given campaign per week – and it’s simple to increase it. So start with a low budget and see if your campaign works, then increase your budget or modify your ad, depending on how it goes.
5) Use bit.ly to create URLs for your promotions that are easy to use and easy to track. Bit.ly takes long URLs and turns them into short, customized URLs, and when they’re set up right, it’s easy to track clicks.
6) Consider more advanced features, such as the ability to create a “look-alike” audience that expands your circle of potential customers by matching characteristics of your current customer base to other Facebook users.
7) Carrie herself will provide free advice to APDSP members for a limited time. Reach her at carrie@brandonbrandon.com In the meantime you can access the resources she shared at the convention by clicking here: https://www.brandonbrandon.com/workshops/apdsp-rsa-workshop.html (after clicking, scroll down to find a bunch of links to resources).