Boosting Facebook Posts

Social media is here to stay. It’s the one-stop-shop for updates on your friends, family, news and so much more. More and more businesses are using Facebook to leverage their promotions, products, and services they offer to expand their audience reach. If you have a business, then you know the importance of a solid social media presence and how it can impact your business. But what if you’re a small business or not gaining a large following on your Facebook? The answer is easy – boost your posts.

Simply put, a boosted Facebook post is a post that you pay for to reach a wider audience. For example, when you create a post on your company’s Facebook page, only a certain number of your page’s fans will see the content. When you pay to boost that particular post, you’re essentially widening the post’s visibility. Not only will your own followers see the post, but a larger audience beyond them will see it too – such as friends of friends or individuals with similar interests.

Previously On Facebook…

Gaining consistent engagement on your business page used to be much simpler. You post a robust status informing your followers of new products or services and people would like, share and comment on it. Sounds good, right? Not so fast. Because that post would only reach those who’ve liked your page (and you want to gain more of an audience) it wouldn’t reach those outside of your page’s circle of followers unless they shared the post on their personal page.

Choose Your Target…Wisely

Now, with the recent algorithm change implemented by Facebook, the intention is to encourage businesses to engage in boosting, or pay for posts, to gain even more visibility than before.

What does this mean for you, the business owner?

More views, more people and more awareness for your company at a small price. Before, you could only boost a post and send it out to those who’ve liked your page and their friends. Now you have three options:

• People who like your page and their friends
• People similar to people who like your page
• People you choose through targeting

You now have the control to tailor your boosted posts to specific audiences. You can experiment with each of the options to see which audience generates more engagement. But what does each one mean? Let’s break it down.

People Who Like Your Page and Their Friends

Say you want to start with baby steps, dipping your toes in the Facebook boosted posts pool – this would be the safest bet. Your boosted post will be shown to not only your audience – but the friends of your audience. Think of this as the +1 guest of visible Facebook posts – except on a much larger scale.

People Similar to People Who Like Your Page

This is the next step if you want to really expand your social media horizon. Targeting similar people who have already liked your page, this option can greatly increase traffic to your post. Your post will be visible to those individuals based on qualities such as demographics, interests and activities. This method could be considered your “next generation” of consumers. You will be reaching those who have similar interests and needs as your original followers who may be looking for your company’s goods or services.

People You Choose Through Targeting

Lastly, we have the most customizable option for those that really want to hone in on a specific group. With this choice, you can choose from many variables to target a specific audience. From age, gender, location to even political viewpoints and relationship statuses – the options are endless and you can get very particular.

How does this help you?

You can refine your chosen audience down so precisely that you don’t have to worry about your posts being seen by people who aren’t interested – which saves time and money. Think of this option as Frankenstein – you are picking and choosing specific variables of your potential audience and piecing them together to create an audience that’s tailored to your company’s needs.

The Best Time to Boost

Unfortunately, there is not a universal “right time” to boost a particular post. The best thing for a company that is active on social media is to monitor their audiences’ activity. If a business is new to the social media world, their best bet is to sporadically post at different times during the week. This can give you an idea of when the users are most and least active. Once you have figured out the timing, it’s important to focus on boosting posts during the increased periods of activity to get the best results.

One way to find this information is from Facebook insights. This very powerful tool can help you track user interaction on your company’s page. By using Facebook Insights, this allows you to determine the best day and time to post to your page. You can also see which content was the most favorable and best received by your audience. Lastly, it’s good to be aware that Facebook Insights is almost constantly updating to reflect any developments or patterns that appear on your page. So keep checking back to get a good read on it.

Don’t Overdo It

Yes, there is such thing as too much of a good thing! When boosting posts, you want to be choosy. Pick a post that’s important to you and your business. Overdoing it can make your posts appear too often in people’s news feed, causing them to scroll right by. The best case is to boost a post either once or twice a week, but make sure the content is compelling, unique and engaging.

There you have it! Boosting your Facebook posts can not only increase your visibility to a wide variety of audiences but can also increase revenue for your company. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try, nothing negative can come out of it (unless you think more customers are a bad thing). Boosting a Facebook post can bring the most positive impact for any business that’s dived into the social media realm. From promoting offered goods and services to leading more traffic to a website and spreading overall awareness – a small price can make for huge beneficial results.