When Facebook Boosting Really is Ego Boosting and How To Fix It

January 13, 2015

Need a Social Media Boost?

I just finished an inspiring Skype conversation with a fellow marketer Anneke van der Voort. If you haven’t connected with her yet, go find her on Twitter! Anneke is located in The Netherlands (yes, a fellow Dutchie) and like myself, works with small to medium sized businesses on their marketing and social media.

As we were chatting about the success of our last collaborative efforts and a few exciting upcoming projects we’ll be collaborating on, we exchanged some industry news and tips.

Anneke asked me about Facebook advertising and we discussed how each of us charges our clients for that service and how to manage multiple ads. We discussed the Power Editor and its challenges… and then it got interesting. In talking about simple Facebook post boosts, we realized many of our clients are still focused on the ‘visible’ numbers displayed by Facebook. And Anneke said something, that sounded an awful lot like this

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

Don’t get me wrong: Facebook Boosting can be a very effective marketing strategy and deserves its place in any Facebook marketing plan.

However, boosting just any old post just to see ‘like’ numbers rise is not a very good way to spend your money. Neither is boosting a post to a national audience when you are holding a local event or boosting a post without a clear call-to-action as in ‘Click here to get more information’, ‘Sign up today and save 20%’, ‘Sign up with a friend and both receive a free copy of xyz’.

Facebook Boosting – Make Sure It Serves a Purpose

Facebook Boosting turns into Ego Boosting when the business owner (or social media manager) only looks at the Facebook metrics and not at the overall marketing objectives. It’s easy to get giddy when your boosted post reaches more than 10,000 views. It’s exciting to see your weekly reach grow and new likes just pop up, hour after hour. However, that is all you’ll get if that’s all you are doing. And your pretty green Facebook numbers will quickly fall and turn red and your ego as well as you Facebook page will be deflated.

How To Fix This Ego Boost!

So I did what any marketer would do and I dove into the world of ‘Facebook Post Boosting’ (and then also ‘Facebook Promoted Posts’) courtesy of Google.

Today, I am going to answer as many Facebook post “boosting” questions as I can think of – and I found answers to – to make sure that next time you want to boost a post, you’ll have a good idea what to do, why you are doing it and how you can benefit from it. You should know (justify) who you are spending that money! (If you don’t see your question answered here, let me know and I’ll research it further.)

But first, here is ONE big question that needs answered!

What is the difference between a Boosted and a Promoted Facebook Post?

This answer is right here in this article Boost Posts or Promoted Posts: Which One Is Better? by Andrea Vahl for Social Media Examiner. In this article, Andrea explains the differences between the boost post and promoted post options, and how to choose which is right for your marketing efforts.

“When you choose a targeted boosted post, it’s typically to drive traffic to your website (where you have a strong call to action or purpose). Even though you’re sending people away from Facebook, you’ll still pay for the engagement on the post (likes, comments, etc.). The boost post ad with targeting is a quick way to set up an ad”
“The other way to push a post into the news feed is to use the Ads Manager (or Power Editor) to promote a post. The benefit of promoting a post is that you have more targeting, pricing and bidding options.”

From what I learned from Andrea’s article is that boosting a post is a quick way to place a ‘mini’ ad to a targeted audience but with limitations on targeting, pricing and budget options.

Now onward and upwards to the questions about boosting posts. In my recent research, if found there are a limited number of articles written about boosting Facebook posts, therefore some of the answers are taken from articles mentioning promoting posts because of the added value I found in them.

What is Facebook Post Boosting?

Who can explain it better than Facebook themselves?
Facebook: Boosted Posts
Facebook: Boost Your Posts – all your questions answered

What Are the Benefits of Facebook Post Boosting?

Reaching a new audience
Reaching a large audience
Driving Facebook traffic to a website
Minimal budget needed
Simple, quick and easy to use

How Much Does Facebook Post Boosting Cost?

You can boost a post for as little as $ 5! That should be a mere a drop in the bucket of your total marketing budget.

How Can I Get the Most Value Out of Post Boosting?

This answer is answered by none other than Jay Baer in his article ‘How To Know When To Promote A Facebook Post’.Jay uses the acronym S.T.I.R to find out whether to promote a post.

S – Shelf-life
T – Timing
I – Impact
R – Results

I say one could use the STIR method for boosting as well.

How Can I Target My Facebook Boosted Post to the Right Audience?

One of the first articles I ever read on ‘custom audiences’ for boosted posts was this one: How to refine your audience when boosting a Facebook post. If you are already familiar with Power Editor this is a great read. You can also target your audience with ad manager: once you’ve boosted the post, go to your ad manager to define your audience.

When Should I be Boosting My Facebook Posts?

Knowing When and What To Boost on Facebook by Laura Sheptoski will give you a better understanding of the when and what of boosting posts. Laura gives several examples and ideas and even suggests that B2C companies might experiment with boosting on weekend vs. B2B companies sticking to weekdays. Good advice and as always, practice makes perfect so experiment with your own times and days to find your ‘prefect’ boosting times.

What Type of Facebook Posts Should I be Boosting?

As to what types of posts to boost may I suggest some of the following?

Posts about

Event Invitations and Sign Up
Book Sales
Industry Tips
Webinar Sign Up
Grand Opening
Holiday Sales
Contests
Videos
Introducing New Team Members
New Location
Fundraisers
Ticket Sales

and many more!

How Often Should I Boost a Post?

Do you want to be famous or notorious?

Do you want to be noticed in the news feed or be reported for spam?

When you have something important to say or share, want to sell something or make an announcement or invite people to an event, boosting posts will let you reach a much larger audience.

Now that you have a better understanding of what boosted posts are and what they can do, will you be using this Facebook feature more often, or not?

Don’t forget to submit more questions about boosted posts! I’ll make sure to answer them promptly!

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