Category Archives: Facebook Marketing

Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing in 2019

In 2019, by far the most powerful social media channels for NZ marketers are Facebook and Instagram.

That’s where the audiences are, and that’s where YOU need to be.

Through Facebook you can reach an estimated 3.3 million Kiwis 13+
Through Instagram you can reach an estimated 1.7 million Kiwis 13+

Of course, there’s rather more to Facebook and Instagram marketing than making a few posts or taking a few pretty pictures and hoping to reach large numbers of your target audience.

Effective social media marketing requires the right knowledge, tools, tips and techniques to help you get noticed and to encourage your audience to engage with you and your brand.

That’s where we can help.

We have a number of social media marketing courses available already but, in recognition of the combined strengths of Facebook and Instagram, we’ve taken the best of our popular Facebook and Instagram courses, and blended them together into a powerful thirteen-part Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing online training course.

This combined will bring you up to speed with what’s required to make your social media marketing on Facebook and Instagram really work for you in 2019.

(And see below for a very special offer saving you $200).

Here’s what the Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing online training course covers:

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PART ONE: FACEBOOK MARKETING

LESSON ONE: AUDIT AND MAKEOVER

In this first lesson we invite you to audit your current Facebook presence. Who have you attracted so far to your Facebook page, how much are they interacting with you and what do they get to see when they arrive at your Facebook Fan Page anyway? Then we show you some of the ways that leading brands and organisations have set themselves up on Facebook and identify the key elements you’ll need to include if you want to increase your success on Facebook. You may even find yourself rethinking your current Facebook activity entirely.

LESSON TWO: ENGAGEMENT

Know anything about Facebook’s algorithms? These not-very-well-known formulae determine exactly how visible you are on Facebook, especially to those who say they like you. We peek under the covers and show you exactly what you need to do to prosper under the algorithms — and how important it is to engage in particular ways with your fans and followers. A word of advice: don’t post anything more to Facebook until you’ve completed Lesson Two.

LESSON THREE: PLANTING VIRAL SEEDS

“Viral” is one of those magic qualities to which most marketers aspire. Alas, many are called but few are chosen. In this lesson we look at the principles behind some of the most effective viral campaigns of recent time — and show you how to harness those concepts to reach out to influencers and consumers alike. We’ll also discuss how you can (legally and legitimately!) make Other Peoples’ Content actually work for you!

LESSON FOUR: CREATING EFFECTIVE FACEBOOK POSTS

The biggest challenge for any business using Facebook pages these days? Creating Facebook posts that get noticed and get shared.

So this lesson tackles this problem head on, identifies the secrets of effective Facebook posts and shows you exactly what you need to do to stand out on Facebook.

LESSON FIVE: FACEBOOK ADVERTISING

Even with what you’ve learned in Lesson Four about creating effective Facebook posts, you’ll still need to master the art of paid Facebook advertising — that’s just the reality of social media marketing these days. In this lesson we explore what you need to know to achieve significant success promoting your organisation on Facebook.

LESSON SIX: SOCIAL SHOPPING

There’s a whole lot more to social shopping than just offering a drop-dead, deeply discounted deal and ending up with bargain shoppers who won’t spend a penny more than their coupons allow. We take a serious look at some of the best practices in this space and identify smart ways to help your customers spend more of their hard-earned money with you. Along the way we’ll discuss pre-commerce, augmented recommendations and how to turn existing customers into advocated (without them having to do anything). And we also take a look at Facebook Apps and how they can be of use to you.

PART TWO: INSTAGRAM MARKETING

Lesson Seven: Getting Established on Instagram

In this lesson, we discuss how important both pictures and video have become when it comes to getting noticed. We then explore the specifics of Instagram, including its background, the demographic profile of those most likely to use the social medium and how Kiwis are using Instagram.

We also look at some of the leading Kiwi Instagram practitioners (a topic which we will return to in more detail later in the course) and how they are using Instagram effectively.

Lesson Seven includes:

The Power of Pictures
Instagram: a History
Who Uses Instagram
Instagram in NZ
Your Ideal Instagram User Name
Your Optimised Profile Picture
What You Should Feature in Your Instagram Bio

Lesson Eight: Instagram for Business

Do consumers actually connect to businesses on Instagram? Yes, according to at least one study, 80% of users follow brands on the Instagram platform.

Why? The usual reasons that consumers give:

they like the brand and want to show their support
they want deals and discounts
they like to receive insider knowledge about the brand
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

In Lesson Eight we discuss how to set yourself up with a Business Account on Instagram, we show you the stats on the percentage of businesses currently using Instagram, and we reveal some of New Zealand’s most popular brands on the platform.

Lesson Eight covers:

Setting Up a Business Account on Instagram
What You Need to Know about Instagram Stories
New Zealand brands on Instagram
What you need to know about Instagram Shopping

Lesson Nine: Posting to Instagram

Why do some Instagram posts go massively viral (effortlessly, it seems) whilst others are just meh? We’ve done the homework so you don’t have to, identifying more than a dozen secrets of powerful Instagram photos and videos.

We also discuss the best ways to attract followers, and how to really engage with them.

Lesson Nine features:

The Most Effective Instagram Creative Approaches
The comparative effectiveness of photos vs. videos
The photo content types that attract 38% more likes
Posting Mistakes to Avoid
How often you should post
The strategic importance of Location Tagging
The power of emojis
How to Set Up and Use Instagram Live

Lesson Ten: Hashtags

Hashtags are the lifeblood of Instagram. They’re the equivalent of keywords on Instagram, except even more so: they’re a way of getting found, a rallying point for people, brands and causes and a way to reach out to your constituency in a highly-targeted and shareable manner.

In this lesson, we examine the hashtag phenomenon, show you how brands and leading Instagrammers are using them effectively and help you to identify the best hashtags for your products and services.

Lesson Ten includes:

Optimising Hashtag Usage
Choosing Hashtags
Hiding Hashtags
The ideal number of Hashtags on each post
How to Follow Hashtags (and encourage others to do so)

Lesson Eleven: Instagram Advertising

If you want to take full advantage of Instagram, then at some point you will find yourself buying advertising on the platform.

Lesson Eleven to the rescue, with the key facts you need to know about advertising on Instagram, to ensure that you achieve maximum effectiveness.

Lesson Eleven outlines:

The Mechanics of Instagram Advertising
Instagram Advertising Options
Best practices for using video in Instagram ads
Boosting Instagram posts
Effective Targeting
Using Facebook Ads Manager

Lesson Twelve: Instagram Influencers

Did you know that 78% of social influencers prefer to partner with brands through Instagram, according to recent research?

That statistic makes it more important than ever to learn how to use Instagram effectively.

In this lesson, we talk about how to use Influencer Marketing effectively (and monitor results) and also sound some alarms to ensure that your influencers comply with their legal obligations.

In Lesson Twelve, you’ll also learn:

Why Use Influencer Marketing
Most Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies
Finding Kiwi Influencers
Notifications and Disclaimers you MUST use
Influencer Marketing Measurement & ROI

Lesson Thirteen: Instagram Tips, Trends, Tools

Finally, we cover some of the key tips and techniques that you need to know about to make the most effective use of Instagram, along with some of the recent Instagram developments and new feature testing.

In Lesson Thirteen, we cover:

Identifying the best times to upload to Instagram
How to Remove Inappropriate Instagram Comments
What you need to know about Instagram Rights Manager
The Best Instagram Tools
Instagram Trends to Note

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WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS COURSE?
Any Kiwi marketer, or anyone who is responsible for marketing for their organisation, who is considering using Instagram or Facebook (or probably both) to promote their products/services.

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WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING ABOUT OUR COURSES

Here’s a sampling of the feedback we’ve received from those who’ve taken our courses:

Thanks for an informative and interesting [Facebook Accelerator] course. Your presentation held a good balance of theoretical and practical information and was clear and simple enough for a non IT Facebook novice like me to follow. There are many ideas that I have gained that I will attempt to incorporate in the overall marketing plan my team is currently developing for our brand. Facebook can offer so much more than I thought as a medium for communicating with our current and prospective customers. Julie D

I found this course fantastic, i started off knowing very little about facebook (just how to run my own personal page) to now having a thorough understanding of ALL the things you can (and there is a lot). The course format was great and allowed knowledge to be built up over time. Course length was great and this will definetly be something i come back to constantly as we develop our facebook pages more within my company. Aleisha H

I have really enjoyed the course and the way it was structured. It was informative and interesting – liked the way you incorporated slide-shows, video, statistics and different forms of media to provide information. Lisa C

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TIMING

This online training course begins on Monday 30 December, 2019.

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INVESTMENT

If you were to take the Facebook and Instagram courses separately, it would cost you $994+GST. Sign up for this combined thirteen-part Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing course and pay just $897+GST. However we offer a $200 Introductory Special Discount — the course is just $697+GST for bookings made and payment received by 5pm on Monday 23 December, 2019.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing course and SAVE $200, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here:

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to [email protected] with your requirements.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

You’ll receive our emailed confirmation of your booking. Then on the first day of the course we’ll follow up with details of your Login and Password, along with an Enrolment Key for the Mastering Facebook and Instagram Marketing online training course.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please email us at [email protected]

Spy on Your Competitors and Their Facebook Advertising

Facebook has just introduced a new tool for marketers, and now provides Facebook Advertising campaign details attached to each Facebook page.

The social giant’s stated intention: to provide more transparency into advertising on Facebook. The welcome side effect for marketers: we can now see exactly what brands are opting to advertise on the network, which is valuable competitive intelligence which was not previously available to us.

So how do we get details of Facebook Advertising activities?

On a desktop computer, you’ll find it on the left-hand column of a brand’s Facebook page, under “Info and ads”.

On a mobile device, “Info and Ads” can be found near the top of the screen, on the right-hand side:

Even though this information is made available, however, sometimes there’s nothing to see (as in this example, where ‘DoritosANZ’, Doritos Australia/New Zealand, is not currently advertising on Facebook, either in Australia or New Zealand):

If we turn our attention to a brand that has been advertising recently, such as the example below from the Body Shop, we can see copies of any ads they are running on Facebook. It’s a useful pointer to where they’re putting their promotional efforts.

We’re not provided with any campaign information such as timing, spend levels or targeting — but at least we can see their creative executions, which provides us with insights into their thinking.

Facebook Advertising Across More Than One Market

We can learn still more about brands’ Facebook Advertising activities by viewing their efforts in multiple markets.

For example, if we turn our attention to the Australia/New Zealand Facebook page for Walt Disney Studios, we can see that the company has been advertising Incredibles 2 in New Zealand:

We can also see what the company is advertising on Facebook in Australia, simply by choosing a different location from Facebook’s dropdown list near the top of the page.

Then we learn that, apart from Incredibles 2, the company is also promoting the DVD/Digital release of A Wrinkle in Time. If you were a competing film distributor, that knowledge could assist you with your own campaigns.

Even More Market Intelligence about Facebook Advertising

Your Facebook Advertising access isn’t only limited to pages that jointly promote New Zealand and Australia. You can also go to international pages for insights.

For example, Ford New Zealand has an active NZ-only Facebook page, but is currently promoting only its SUV range:

If you want to see what else might be in the pipeline, you might head to Ford’s Australian page to check out their ‘Info and ads’ section.

First you’ll have to use the dropdown menu to see ads currently served in Australia:

Then you can see where they are putting their promotional efforts across the ditch:

And:

You might also decide you also want to check out what’s happening with Ford Canada:

All in all, this new Facebook Advertising capability will give you additional insights into your competitors and their plans. Add it to the list of tools you should use to improve your Social Media Marketing efforts.

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Need help with your Facebook marketing? Check out our Social Media Marketing online training courses:

Here are the current courses (click on the links for more details about each course):

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING COURSES

Facebook Accelerator Programme

So you have a few hundred (or a few thousand) followers on Facebook but now you want to know how to get to the next level? Our Facebook Accelerator seven-part online course will lead you through the steps necessary to supercharge your Facebook presence and get Kiwi consumers engaging with you and your brands.

For more details of the Facebook Accelerator programme, please click here.

The Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing

This is a thirteen-part eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a Social Media Marketing programme.

For more details of the Social Media Marketing online course, please click here.

The Complete Facebook Marketing Course

For those who wish to master Facebook Marketing in its entirety, we’ve created a ten-week online training programme which will take you from absolute beginner on Facebook to highly effective Facebook communicator.

For more details of the Complete Facebook Marketing programme, please click here.

Mastering Facebook Advertising

This is a nine-part eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to Facebook Advertising.

For more details of the Mastering Facebook Ads online training course, please click here.

How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief

Even if you don’t intend to become directly involved in social media yourself, you may still need to understand the principles, practices and opportunities of social media — for example, if you need to brief someone about running a social media campaign. This programme is designed to provide you with the insights necessary to prepare an effective brief.

For more details of the How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief programme, please click here.

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Also, check out our Social Media NZ Marketing Trends 2018 special presentation.

Details here.

Should Marketers Panic About Facebook?

We’ve all seen the news stories and the memes about Facebook and its privacy issues. And we’ve seen a very different Mark Zuckerberg fronting up to the US senate. So is it time to panic and divert our marketing energies somewhere else — anywhere else?

Facebook uber-expert Mari Smith asked a similar question in a recent blog post:

Should businesses abandon Facebook and use other social media platforms instead?

One of Mari Smith’s audience members asked this very question on a recent Facebook Live broadcast on her Page. Her answer: absolutely not! For SAVVY MARKETERS it is “Business as usual.” You are foolish if you abandon Facebook right now.

Granted, if you are a personal user only, and Facebook no longer floats your boat, then sure go for it — delete your account.

BUT, if you manage a business Page on Facebook, you still have *the* most granular ad targeting parameters available to you and the ability to reach the largest online audience ever.

As much as Facebook has had a ton of challenging media attention in the past few weeks—primarily due to the Cambridge Analytica data breach debacle—there is simply NO solid reason for businesses to abandon Facebook right now. As for the impact of Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress, well, it remains to be seen what will happen from here.

Here’s Mari’s ‘soap box’ #MariRant message about not abandoning Facebook!

The above video is a five minute excerpt of this longer Facebook Live broadcast Mari did on April 4th, reviewing many important updates that Facebook rolled out:

Six Important Facebook Updates

In the past few weeks, Facebook has been pushing out update after update in a concerted [rescue] effort leading up to Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before Congress. Following is a list of the most pertinent changes that impact business users in particular:

1. Removal of Partner Categories in ad targeting (over the next six months)

Facebook is shutting down Partner Categories, which allowed third-party data aggregators like Experian and Acxiom to provide Facebook advertisers with additional valuable offline demographic data such as home ownership or purchase behavior. Facebook will wind down Partner Categories over the next six months. [Note for Kiwi marketers: these Partner Categories weren’t available in New Zealand anyway, so no loss there]

2. New email address list certification tool

Facebook is working on a certification tool that will demand that marketers guarantee that email addresses used for ad targeting were rightfully attained. The tool will aim to safeguard against advertisers misusing user data in uploaded lists for ad targeting. [In our view, this is all about making Facebook GDPR-compliant in advance of Europe’s imminent new data protection regulations.]

The tool is still in development and it’s not clear exactly what the ‘certification’ process will entail. Other than checking a box? Hm. Perhaps advertisers will have to show proof of where and how they obtained the email addresses, e.g. the URL of the landing page with the opt-in form, or the Messenger Bot, along with which CRM system the business uses. 3. Major changes for apps using Facebook API’s

3. Changes to Data Access

Facebook announced nine important changes to restrict data access. Those changes include

Events API: All apps using this API will no longer be able to access the guest list or posts on Facebook Event walls.

Groups API: All apps using the Groups API will need approval from Facebook and an admin. Plus, apps will no longer be able to access the member list of a group, or personal information attached to posts or comments in groups. This is surely a good thing from a user standpoint. However, I imagine there are many Group apps out there a bit upset about this change.

Pages API: Going forward, all apps accessing data through the Pages API will need to be approved by Facebook. Facebook Login: In addition to the changes Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21, 2018, Facebook is further imposing strict requirements on apps before they can access data. For any app you’ve not used in the last 3 months, Facebook will remove that app developer’s ability to request your data.

Instagram Platform API: Facebook accelerated the deprecation of the Instagram API, choking off developers’ access to numerous capabilities.

For the full list of the nine changes, see this post.

4. No more reach estimates for Custom Audiences

Facebook no longer shows reach estimates for Custom Audiences. After a research team from Northeastern University discovered a potential privacy vulnerability with this ad feature, Facebook stopped showing audience reach estimates in any campaign using Custom Audience targeting.

Custom Audiences are created using customer information that advertisers upload—such as a list of opt-in email subscribers, phone numbers or addresses—or website visitors based on the Facebook pixel.

Potential Reach numbers will not be provided in any campaign set up that uses Custom Audiences, including to build lookalike audiences from an uploaded list, until a fix has been developed. Let’s hope that’s fairly soon! Nonetheless, you can certainly still run your ad campaigns without the reach estimates.

5. New rules for political or issue ads

Every advertiser on Facebook that wants to run political or issue ads will need to be verified by confirming their identity and location.

Political/issue ads will be labeled and will clearly show who paid for the ad.

Plus, for political ads in the US, you’ll be able to search an archive that shows how much the advertiser spent, the types of people who saw the ads, and the number of times the ad was seen.

6. People managing large pages need to be verified

Facebook is also going to require people who manage large pages to be verified as well. Zuck states, “This will make it much harder for people to run pages using fake accounts, or to grow virally and spread misinformation or divisive content that way.”

It is not clear yet what constitutes a ‘large page,’ or exactly what the verification process entails, or even whether the verification will be the publicly displayed blue check badge.

What to do now

Many of these changes will have some impact on business Page owners and Facebook advertisers. However, each of the changes is specifically to address protecting user data. Over time, it’s likely Facebook will make some adjustments to these changes. We’ll see.

Meantime, it’s “Business as usual.”

Do your best to speak with good purpose and strive to become a part of the SOLUTION, not a part of the problem.
Don’t “pile on,” and add to the negativity that’s already swirling out there.
Keep posting great content on your Facebook Page that resonates with your audience and sparks meaningful engagement.
Amplify your reach and engagement with at least a nominal ad budget on your posts. Keep using all Facebook’s tools and ad products you were before.
Be sure to create and run an engaged group, linked to your Facebook Page.

This article includes quotes from the post Six Important Facebook Updates: What Marketers Need To Know Now which appeared first on MariSmith.com.

Are You Making These Facebook Marketing Mistakes?

Just how well are YOU really doing on Facebook? Are you making classic mistakes like these:

1. Too much self-promotion

Do your Facebook posts only talk about You, You, You?

As Jeff Bullas notes:

It is okay to share your achievements with your loyal followers but you should never overdo it. If you are not offering value to your visitors or are not providing them with the information they are looking for, you’re missing out a lot. People spend time on Facebook to get entertained, inspired and interact with like-minded people. So in order to promote your brand, you should find innovative ways that inspire visitors and give them a reason to connect.

If you become too promotional, you will soon see the ‘Likes’ turning into ‘Dislikes’.

Here’s a typical example, from Acer Australia & New Zealand:

The local page has more than 50,000 total likes, but this post (a typical recent example) could only attract one thumbs-up.

We’re not picking on Acer — it’s just a typical big brand example, seeing Facebook as yet another broadcast mechanism rather than a chance to interact with customers.

2. Being Boring or Predictable

As Leyl Master Black observes:

When they’re thinking about marketing, some business owners forget that Facebook is a social place where people share things they find funny, interesting or useful with their friends. Think about what kind of content your fans would actually want to share when planning your posts.

Peter Shankman, social media consultant, entrepreneur and author of “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World”, also cautions against becoming too predictable. “Status updates by themselves get boring. But then again, so do photos, videos and multimedia as a whole. Your job is to mix it up. The moment you become predictable, boring or annoying, they’ll hide you from their feed. So keep it varied and personal—a video here, a photo here, a tag of one of your fans here.”

Creating too much “filler” content by auto-publishing content from your blog or Twitter feed can also derail your efforts. Joseph Manna, community manager at Infusionsoft, recommends using Facebook’s native publishing tools to gain the most benefit from Facebook.

“Whatever you do, don’t automate everything,” says Manna. “It’s nice to ‘set and forget,’ but the risk is two-fold: publishing systems sometimes have issues, and Facebook places low-priority on auto-published content.”

Here are a couple of GOOD examples of a local driving school changing things up and providing interesting content while still staying relevant to their product category:

And:

Some more common mistakes, as identified by Dummies.com:

3. TLDR

A study by BuddyMedia found that status updates of less than 80 characters received a 27 percent higher reaction than longer updates. This makes sense when you think about how you use Facebook and how fast the News Feed flies by.

Too Long:

Posting lengthy paragraphs as a status update is like giving your Facebook fans homework. On the other hand, short updates such as questions and short polls get a higher reaction simply because the barrier to participation is very low.

Much better:

4. Ignoring Comments

Facebook fans are people, like you. If they make the effort to leave a comment or reply within a thread on your Facebook Page, they want to know that you’re listening. Pages that consistently ignore posts by fans aren’t as successful as Pages that participate in comment threads. Fans are less likely to return if they don’t feel heard.
The other reason why you want to reply to posts from fans is that Facebook sends that fan a notification, bringing him back to your Page!

Here’s an unfortunate Twitter example (dating back to 2013 and hopefully resolved these days) of customer service only during working hours:

Need help to avoid these Facebook mistakes? Check out our Social Media Marketing online training courses:

Here are the current courses (click on the links for more details about each course):

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING COURSES

Facebook Accelerator Programme

So you have a few hundred (or a few thousand) followers on Facebook but now you want to know how to get to the next level? Our Facebook Accelerator seven-part online course will lead you through the steps necessary to supercharge your Facebook presence and get Kiwi consumers engaging with you and your brands.

For more details of the Facebook Accelerator programme, please click here.

The Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing

This is a thirteen-part eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a Social Media Marketing programme.

For more details of the Social Media Marketing online course, please click here.

The Complete Facebook Marketing Course

For those who wish to master Facebook Marketing in its entirety, we’ve created a ten-week online training programme which will take you from absolute beginner on Facebook to highly effective Facebook communicator.

For more details of the Complete Facebook Marketing programme, please click here.

How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief

Even if you don’t intend to become directly involved in social media yourself, you may still need to understand the principles, practices and opportunities of social media — for example, if you need to brief someone about running a social media campaign. This programme is designed to provide you with the insights necessary to prepare an effective brief.

For more details of the How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief programme, please click here.

How to Use LinkedIn Effectively – For Your Business And Your Career

This is a seven-part online training eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to LinkedIn, from the basics to detailed instructions on how to use LinkedIn to promote your organisation, build your personal reputation, find a job, recruit prospective employees and even make sales.

For more details of the How to Use LinkedIn Effectively programme, please click here.

ONLINE VIDEO MARKETING COURSE

Online Video is no longer an “up-and-coming” marketing tactic — it’s here, and it’s a powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects.

Remember the old cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words? According to an estimate by Dr James McQuivey of Forrester Research, one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words.

So let’s cut to the chase. It’s well past time for you to upskill yourself in online video marketing. That’s why we’re launching our newest short course on the topic.

For more details of the Online Video Marketing course, please click here.