Social Media Marketing Workbook 2019

by Adam Schaffner

  Event image: you may not use this one as often, but it is still good to know a couple of tips. Go for an image that is 1200 pixels by 675 pixels and, again, make sure that if you include text in the image, don’t use a font that is too small, otherwise the readability for mobile will be compromised.

  Note: the ideal dimensions for each of the images changes regularly, so try to keep yourself updated.

  Reply to your messages on Facebook Messenger

  If you do this whole personal branding on social media thing right, people will want to get in touch and you most likely will get several questions, recommendations and comments. It is quite important that you try your best to reply to, or at the very least acknowledge as many as you can. Leaving everyone on “Read” will give you the reputation of someone who is not approachable, which will translate into a big obstacle for the growth of your network.

  In case you are using a Page for your branding, you can turn to Instant Replies to help you with this task. To use Instant Replies, go on your page and select “Settings.” On the list of options on the left, you will find “Messaging,” which is where you should click. On that page, there is a “Response Assistant” section and that is where you will be able to activate and personalize your Instant Replies, as well as scheduling times when people will get a message saying that you are not available and will get in touch soon. Set up a nice instant reply and then, when you can, take some time to look at the messages you got and message them back.

  Chapter 8: Facebook Advertising

  Just like on Instagram, Facebook also gives you the option to make organic posts or to invest on them (this only applies for Facebook Pages -- Personal Profiles cannot use Facebook Advertising). My advice is that you consider doing some ads, as there is more and more competition on Facebook everyday and the reach of organic posts on this platform (and on any other, in reality) has been continuously decreasing.

  As a Facebook Page, there are two ways in which you can invest on your posts: you either make a regular post and then promote it, or you create ads. The truth is that a promoted post is a type of ad, but there are still some differences that you might want to consider when you need to choose between the two. When you boost a post, you just widen its audience, in hopes of achieving a result specific to said post. The Ads are bigger than that and involve a little bit more strategy and thinking. They can constitute a whole digital marketing campaign and include more advanced customization options.

  Boosted Posts

  To promote a post, write and publish it as you normally would and, after it is published, click on the option to “Boost Post.” After accepting Facebook’s non-discrimination policy (it exists to prevent ads from being discriminatory in terms of race, country, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and others - something you should ALWAYS obey by), you will see a popup with some options for you to manage your boosted post (and you will also be able to preview your post both on desktop and on mobile, on the right side of the popup):

  Audience

  The group of people you want this promoted post to reach. You have three options here:

  People you choose through targeting: a group of people whose demographics (gender, age and locations) you define. As you change these demographics, Facebook shows you your post’s potential reach, so you can experiment and try to reach a good number of people.

  People who like your Page (you can change the Location to restrict or widen the audience within your followers).

  People who like your Page and their friends (again, you can change the location).

  Budget and duration

  Total budget: the amount of money you want to spend, that will be distributed over the days you choose to have the post promoted (the minimum is one currency unit per day).

  Duration: you can have the promoted post running for one day, one week or two weeks.

  Under Budget and Duration, Facebook lets you know the cost per day, according to the amount of money and the number of days you choose. No maths from your part needed here.

  Payment

  You will have a payment method connected to your Facebook Page, which will automatically appear in this section. However, you can change this.

  Facebook Ads

  The other Facebook Ads available are a little bit more complex than the Boosted Posts, but nothing too crazy. They are quite similar to the ones I described in the last chapter, since Facebook owns Instagram. To create ads, you need to go to Facebook’s Business Manager, where you can create eight different types of ads:

  Photo: an ad that includes an image (with a ratio of 9:16 or 16:9) and a link, accompanied by a copy. The simplest and easiest one to put up.

  Video: an ad with a video that can be short (GIFs, vertical videos, a video carousel or a video collection) or long (in-stream video, i.e., those 5 to 15 second videos that play before you watch a video you clicked on).

  Stories: just like on Instagram, people can create and post Stories (the 24-hour only content) on Facebook. When you create a Story Ad, it will appear in between the user’s others stories, posted by their friends, and it will give them the option to swipe up and learn more (again, just like Instagram).

  Messenger: ads that appear in a chat window between you and a user on Facebook Messenger. These ads are more personal, since “you” are talking one on one with the person on the other side of the screen, and they help start conversations with your potential customers. Messenger Ads can be fully automated. You create a quiz and, according to the person’s answers, suggest the product or service that makes most sense. You can customize them to be as creative and interactive as you would like.

  Carousel: with carousel ads, you can have between two and ten photos or videos in the same ad and each of those can direct the user to a different link. You can order the slides yourself or let Facebook order them in an optimized way, according to their performance.

  Slideshow: similar to video ads, but presented in a slideshow format instead. You choose each image (which should have a ratio of 16:9, 1:1 or 2:3) or video for the slides, put them in order, choose the duration of each slide and, if you want, add music (and don’t forget about the copyrights issue, otherwise your ad can end up being put down). When you build a Slideshow ad, make sure all the images have the same ratio; if they don’t, Facebook will make them all 1:1 and parts of the images will be missed.

  Collection: these ads work like a catalog, where people can browse and find more about a brand’s products. They include a main photo or video and then four smaller photos of whatever the brand wants to promote. There are four templates for Collection Ads, that you should choose depending on your end goals:

  The Instant Storefront, if you want to show and sell four or more products;

  The Instant Lookbook, if you want to tell a story and boost sales at the same time;

  The Instant Customer Acquisition, for when you want to take the user to an app or website; and

  The Instant Storytelling, when you want to tell a story.

  ● Playables: these are like a small trial. A Playable is an interactive ad where the user can try out an app before they download it. There are three components in a Playable ad: the initial video, that is an introduction to the app; the game demo, i.e., the interaction part; and the CTA, to lead the user to the app store.

  Facebook Advertising Statistics 2018

  26% of people who clicked on an ad did make a purchase (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  Facebook ads get, on average, an engagement rate of 3.91% (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  24.2% of pages invest on promoted posts and ads (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  58% of users have claimed that they would be more interested in a brand after seeing it on Facebook Stories (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen
format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  58% of people also said they have researched more about a brand after seeing it in a Facebook story (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  50% visited a brand’s website, where they could make a purchase, after seeing their stories (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  31% went to a shop to have a look at a brand’s products after seeing it in their stories (Advertising with stories ads: Fast and immersive full-screen format | Facebook Business, n.d.).

  Facebook Advertising for Your Brand in 2019

  Follow Facebook’s tips on which type of ad is recommended for your goal(s)

  Facebook has conducted studies on their platform to understand how each format of ads works and you can find this information if you explore their Business blog, but here is a quick summary:

  Photo Ads are good if you want to take users to your website or raise awareness about a tangible product.

  Video Ads are a great choice if you want to capture the customer’s attention more easily (just make sure your first 3 seconds are amazing even without sound and make the user want to click and watch more).

  Stories Ads work best if you want to create a quick, authentic ad experience for the user and if you want to efficiently drive a specific action on their end.

  Messenger Ads let you reach a huge amount of people, offer them an interactive ad experience and start conversations with potential customers.

  Carousel Ads are great for storytelling, for showcasing a new line of products or for describing in detail the features of one single product or service.

  Slideshow Ads work best if you need to make a complex story more clear or if you want to make sure even people with slow connections can watch your ad, without it having to be just one single image.

  Collection Ads are great to encourage sales.

  Playable Ads are the way to go if you want the user to give your app a try and, hopefully, end up downloading it.

  Keep in mind that you are not selling a product (at least not directly), but yourself

  If you were to promote a product or a service, your final goal would probably be to sell, so you would construct your Facebook Ad strategy around that. But here that is not the focus; at least, not your primary focus, since by promoting your personal brand you will be second-hand promoting your business brand. So, what do you want people to understand and do through your ad(s)? I would say for a personal brand, creating a video could be a really interesting choice, since it is most likely the most personal option Facebook gives you. And of course, you can invest in more sporadic posts, like the ones related to your future events or appearances in big conferences, if you think they are really worth spending your $$$.

  Make your pennies count

  Organic reach will not take you very far, so investing in Facebook Ads is always a good idea. However, as a personal brand, my advice is that you really take some time to define the audience you want to reach, as well as the duration of the ads, so that you do not end up wasting money. This is because you probably do not have the same kind of budget an enterprise would, so every penny counts.

  Once you are done with those customizations, use creative ads either to lead the user to your personal website or to start a conversation with you on Messenger. Build those ads so that they will easily lead the person to take the action you want them to. As a one-person, low-budget brand, you don’t want to make people have to do too much before they reach the finish line of your ad. So, when it comes to your call-to-action and the website linked to it, be straight to the point.

  Try to make your ad not look like an ad

  An ad is way more appealing if it does not look like one. So when you create your ads, do it as if you were going to publish a “regular” Facebook post. In Digital Marketing terms, this would mean going for native advertising, i.e., paid content that looks, feels and works like organic content, going with the flow of the platform you post them in. Don’t try too hard, or it will not be as efficient as it could have been.

  Chapter 9: Twitter

  Twitter is a popular choice when it comes to promoting a personal brand (although its growth has slowed down over the last few years), where users can share short, straight to the point thoughts. Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, an American programmer who was, at the time, trying to create an SMS app. Little did he know that he would end up starting one of the most popular social media platforms of all time.

  When someone visits your Twitter profile, they will see a cover photo, otherwise mentioned as header, that should be 1500 pixels by 500 pixels; your profile photo, which should be 400 pixels by 400 pixels (considering that Twitter will crop it into a circle); and your bio - a text of 160 characters maximum - followed by your location, website, your “twitterversary” (a.k.a. the date you created your Twitter) and your actual birthday. This info only appears if you choose to have it as public.

  Twitter posts are called tweets. These used to have a limit of 140 characters but, by popular demand, two years ago that limit was increased to 280 characters. That means that Twitter users cannot write long content, which makes it very easy to digest. Along with the text, you can add up to four images (which should have a minimum of 600 pixels by 335 pixels), a GIF, a video or a link snippet. You can do basic edits to your photos (if you are tweeting from the iOS or the Android app), add up to 25 stickers to them and tag other users, as well as a location.

  In terms of interactions, your followers can:

  Retweet your tweets, which is Twitter’s version of “Share.” When someone retweets your tweet, it will appear in their Twitter profile. They still appear as yours and that means that your audience for that post gets even bigger, which can be a great way of getting new followers. When someone retweets a tweet, they can also add a comment, which can spark conversations.

  Like your tweets.

  Reply to your tweets.

  Send you a Direct Message as a response to a tweet.

  Under each of your tweets you will see three icons with a number to their right and they refer to three of these types of interactions: the speech balloon represents the replies, the two arrows represent the retweets, and the heart represents the likes. These numbers are visible not only to you, but to anyone who sees your tweets. There is also a little letter that users can click to send you a message, but that one does not have any number by it.

  Twitter Ads

  Similarly to the two social platforms I have talked about thus far, Twitter also gives its users the chance to create paid posts. To create Twitter Ads, you need to go on https://ads.twitter.com. After confirming your country and timezone, Twitter will ask you what goal you want to accomplish with your ad. It can be to:

  Promote app installs: when creating this ad, you add the link to your app as well as the name. You pay for each click or install;

  Get more followers: you pay for each follower you gain;

  Increase the engagement of your tweets: you pay for the engagement created by the ad (so it does not include the engagement that might occur after you ad has run);

  Get views on a video: you pay for each view;

  Take people to your website: you pay for each click;

  Make your app’s current users open it and use it: you pay for each click;

  Publish videos along with premium content: you pay for each view; or

  Raise awareness through your tweet: you pay for each impression.

  For each ad campaign you create on Twitter, you can make ad groups and define their duration, the budget, the type of bid (there are three options that vary between types of ads: Automatic bid, where the budget is optimized for you to spend the least amount of money for the best possible results; Target cost, where you choose how much you want to pay, Twitter calculates the average per day you should achieve and you pay the average cost per action for each day; and Maximum bid, which allows you
to choose how much you are willing to pay per action), your target’s details and the creatives.

  Depending on which goal you selected, your ad might appear in four different parts of Twitter: in people’s feeds, in your own profile, on the search results page or on Twitter Audience Platform.

  If you don’t want the hassle of having to create campaigns and ads, Twitter gives you the option of automatically promoting your tweets for a monthly fee of $99. Not just any tweets though: they have to pass Twitter’s quality policy. In other words, you have to have a functioning link on your bio that users can click on for more information, a profile picture and a header, your tweets should be clear and accurate, there should be a destination link, the text should be correct in terms of grammar and spelling and any images or videos should be good quality and be suitable for all users.

  If you don’t have time to create ads (and if you have 99 dollars instead), this can be an interesting option, but keep in mind that there are no guarantees of a successful outcome.

  Twitter Cards

  Another functionality on Twitter is the Twitter Cards, that are like Tweets 2.0. They were initially created for people who had something to say that they could not put in just 140 characters, but they continue to be used even after that the character limit doubled. Twitter Cards can be a little bit tricky to create, since they involve some (simple) coding on your website’s backoffice, so if you know a developer, consider asking them for their help; they will do it in no time. In case you have to do it yourself, Twitter provides useful resources and documentation on Twitter Developers and you can always check if they are correctly set up on Twitter Card Validator.