Here is a fact to think about: The number one computer-related activity that people in the US do daily is SOCIAL MEDIA.  It tops checking email, file sharing and gaming.

What does this mean for your business? It simply means that now is the perfect time to plan your Facebook marketing strategy for the coming year! As a year-end post, I have created a checklist for you to help organize social media activity and welcome 2015.

PLAN OUT A CAMPAIGN THAT INSPIRES PEOPLE

If you want to achieve a greater response from your fans and new fans, think of a general campaign message that inspire people on a broad level.

THINK OF YOUR AUDIENCE

What kind of posts get the most engagement? If you’re not checking your Facebook insights to understand this- start there. Insights will allow you to review your most successful posts for the past year. You can repurpose the good content and recycle, or spin-off and develop a new strategy.

USE COMPELLING IMAGES TO TELL STORIES ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

A picture says a 1000 words.  Images are powerful tools, use them to give your audience a visual of your mission or to showcase your customers and employees.

LAY OUT CONTENT TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

A good content marketing plan is supposed to be a journey of learning. Valuable information is what keeps your followers sticking around and coming back to your page. Plan out a series of topics about your business that will help people.  Provide value and you’ll have a customer for life.

SIMPLE IS THE WAY TO DO IT

People in general have short attention spans… So it’s better to write short, meaningful words, blog posts and status updates. Use shorten URLs with bit.ly or another link shortening tool and avoid hidden messages.

Design great cover photos, especially for the occasion. Update your page with a great cover photo to start the New Year right.

USE ALL OTHER TYPES OF CONTENT

Aside from images, there are all kinds of content you can leverage for your Facebook page.  Videos are the #1 most engaging type of content – use them for client testimonials and to showcase How-To videos of your products.  You can also share links to other types of content that your fans and audience might like.

COMPLETE ALL FIELDS IF YOUR PAGE – ESPECIALLY THE ABOUT SECTION

If you created your Facebook page years ago, go back and make sure your profile is up to date.  You’ll want to make sure that ALL of the fields are completed.  This will make it easier for your audience to find you on Facebook and when doing Google searches. If you have a physical store, make sure to include your business address so a map can be generated on your About Page.

Hint: Use the Additional links field to take people to a specific page on your website.

CREATE AND SHARE POSTS THAT EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN AND EMPOWER YOUR FANS

Those are the most basic characteristics of a valuable post. If you are able to give your readers the content they want from your niche, then there will be no reason to hide you from their Newsfeed or unfollow your page as time goes on.

WRITE CRAFTY HEADLINES

Headlines like ad headlines, blog post titles, image text descriptions and video titles should serve one purpose: to catch the attention of your fans. Fans have so much noise in their newsfeed and with the new Facebook algorithm updates coming in 2015, you’ll want to create a headline that is going to STAND OUT!

ASK YOUR AUDIENCE

To maximize engagement, ask your fans to share their opinions.  Allow polls which will encourage people to choose their own answer.  You can also ask a question in your status updates that encourage people to answer – therefore, increasing engagement on your page.

GET SILLY

Posting something humorous from time to time breaks up the monotony of just posting information about your business and your products and services.  Get silly and post something that shows your personal side.

TIME AND FREQUENCY ARE ESSENTIAL

With Facebook Insights, you can check which times your audience are more likely to be online. And since Facebook posts have a short life span, (about 75% of post engagement happens for the first 5 hours upon posting) there are two essentials in posting: posting at the right time and regularly.

BE A TARGETING MASTER

Make sure you utilize the Ads Manager where you can get even more laser focused on choosing the best audience for your business.  You can also click Boost Post and while this has some efficient qualities, you lose some of the targeting capabilities you have when you create an ad in the Ads Manager or Power Editor.

Hint: Start targeting people who like competitor pages. You can also upload an email list and create lookalike audiences. Once you are comfortable with creating audience groups, you can save it as a custom audience.

WIELD THE THE POWER OF POWER EDITOR

If you want to understand Facebook Ads like a pro, then make sure you set aside an hour or two to learn more about using the Power Editor, a Chrome-plugin to help you make ads like a true Facebook marketing master. This is for a more advanced user and has more capabilities that the Ads Manager portal.

DEPLOY REMARKETING

Avoid wasted leads! Target visitors who visited your website, but left without signing-up or completing a sale. These people are already interested in your offer, so you can always include them as a custom target and remarket new offers.

BUILD A LIST

Yes, the success of a Facebook page can be measured with page likes and engagement; but the real deal with building a Facebook page is to generate leads that will turn to real sales.  Make sure you are capturing email addresses from those that interact with your page.  You can do this by using Facebook App software tools such as 22Social.

OFFER THE RIGHT FREEBIE

To get your ideal leads, you must have the right offer. Study your market well and think of a specific digital tool you can create that fans can’t resist.  Think about creating a free e-book, a digital guide or a video series that not only helps fans, but promotes your brand.

SETUP AN AUTORESPONDER SERIES

Once you have captured the email addresses of those that have downloaded the freebie, follow up with an autoresponder email series to introduce them to you and your business. These pre-scheduled messages aim to build rapport, boost credibility and introduce your products or services.

CREATE MULTIPLE FACEBOOK GROUPS

Group pages are highly-recommended for building stronger relationships with followers. You can build several groups for your email list, hot leads, coaching groups and business partners.

When you work with premium members, a private Facebook group provides a more “at home” feel with you and your program. Whereas email subscribers will benefit more with public groups in which members can invite other friends to join. With Facebook groups you maintain a closer relationship with customers.

NETWORK YOUR WAY WITH OTHER GROUPS

Join groups to widen your presence and follow other brands related to your business.

BE REAL

Post, comment and reply as you would personally. Keep your mind open to what people are saying as their feedback or criticism are as valuable as a praise. Put a person behind your company and make people connect with you. Be a human.

BE POLITE AND HONEST

As any company would do, always practice social media etiquette. Be polite and respond to positive AND negative comments/posts.

SPLIT-TEST YOUR ADS

Run several ads for a certain time and pause the ones that are not performing well, while letting the more successful ones continue.  Switch out new copy and images for ads that are not performing well.  Still not performing?  Make sure you are testing different audiences and that your creative speaks directly to that specific audience!

Check out Insights

People tend to shy away from the data.  I get it…most people hate numbers.  But without this knowledge, your page isn’t ever going to perform at it’s optimal level.

Get in there and get educated on which posts are performing best.  Understand your demographics so you can create posts and ads that are targeted.  Check out what time of day your fans are online and adjust your posting schedule.

OBSERVE YOUR COMPETITION

You can learn a lot from your competition. One easy way is to watch competitor pages using Pages to Watch. You can add up to 100 pages at a time so you can observe how they grow their page likes, engagement and strategies. You can discover what post content, post types and times work.

Another trick is to add them to your interest list. You will need to like their pages first then click the options down-arrow to add them to your interest list.

I sure hope this list helps you get smarter about the way you are using Facebook to market your business and wish you luck for you and your business in the new year.

Happy New Year to you and wishing your business prosperity in 2015!

Holiday season is here and I created a quick, last-minute guide to using Facebook Ads to help you grow our business during this time of year. Just follow these few tips and watch your Facebook ads deliver!

5 WAYS TO USE FACEBOOK ADS FOR THE HOLIDAY

Let’s assume that you have set up at least a few ads on Facebook before.

1. MAKE A CALENDAR AND WORK BACKWARDS

Taking note of important dates especially those crazy shopping holidays. This will enable you to determine execution and delivery timelines, including the best dates are to post for your business.

2. HAVE CLEAR MARKETING GOALS JUST FOR THE SEASON

After setting up your calendar, try creating achievable goals for the season.
Do you want more page likes?
An increase in brand awareness?
More visits to your website, local store or office perhaps?
Increased sales?

Or, maybe you have a new product or program to introduce for 2015. You name it! Use these goals and then align them to your calendar.

3. HAVE FUN WITH CONTENT

This is the season to be lighthearted, creative and festive so come up with a few different festive holiday images for ads, offers, sponsored posts ads and landing pages. Here are some  examples of when to use seasonal imagery:

• Use images as choices for insight-seeking poll questions
• Post virtual greeting cards, rewards, coupons and announcement posters.
• Run fun contests that will make people submit content to you (photo & video contests)
• Giveaway something exciting and compel readers into real conversion!

4. ADJUST TO THE RIGHT AD SETTINGS: TARGET LOCALLY

During the holidays make sure you target locally, with the right age group. If you have a month-long promotional activity, then schedule how many days as well as the optimal times your ads are going to run in a local setting vs nationally and vs other parameters.

5. COMMUNICATE LIKE A REAL PERSON – NOT LIKE A BUSINESS

People will be more active on Facebook this month so take advantage of increased outreach from potential customers. Communicate with them through comment replies or private message (PM) as a live person – a real connection. Continue supplying your Page with engaging content to support your paid ad efforts and watch your business grow!

Enjoy the holidays!

Facebook recently introduced a new type of video ad, which focuses on driving mobile app installation. This feature is a part of Facebook Mobile Apps which brings more interactivity to the newsfeed, where customers can click and play the video before installing a particular app.

Now, developers can use videos to drive customers to a Google Play Store or Apple Apps Store within Facebook. This allows users some preview on the product before installing the app.

Videos are proven to boost engagement in the Facebook news feed, so it seems natural to test this out for app installs as well.

The brand Double Down Casino was the first partner to test the advantages of the new feature. John Clelland, Vice President, Interactive Marketing for DoubleDown Casino says that using videos on the ads resulted to increase in installs, while the company costs per install has decreased. This is indeed a proof of greater opportunities in mobile app marketing.

Lately it’s becoming a trend for developers to utilize Facebook as an alternative channel to Google Play and the Apple Apps Store to widen reach among target users. This is particularly true to free-to-play games.

Successful Facebook ad campaigns requires the most compelling copy to drive leads. Facebook recommends videos that showcase the best characteristics of the app, user experience, game instructions or screenplays.

Bonus: The videos are not set to play automatically on the newsfeed, just like other shared video contents, so it is less likely to receive negative comments.

Facebook Ads has also simplified the way advertisers buy mobile app ads. This is by providing options for bidding and optimizing mobile app installs. Facebook has now introduced the cost per action (CPA) bid, which helps advertisers manage their ad budget better, maximizing costs per installs. Through this bidding, advertisers are only charged when a user downloads and installs the app, providing more control on spending in mobile app campaigns.

Based on beta tests, buying on CPA costs per install is 20% cheaper compared on buying on CPC or Cost Per Click. In order to start bidding CPA, advertisers will need to track the number of installs on a ad campaign. You can do this by integrating the ad campaign with Facebook SDL or get a mobile analytics partner.

As of now these new features will be gradually introduced to developers and advertisers who are promoting mobile apps installs and not yet to general users.

So what do you think? Excited about this latest news? How will you use this for your business?

Reviewing Facebook metrics can sometimes leave you confused. Data and numbers change all the time and I’m sure this is one task you prefer someone else to do for you- even I do at times!

Facebook Insights are loaded with tech terms, numbers, graphs and dates. Fear not! It can seem overwhelming if you don’t know what to look at, so allow me to simplify the process and point out which items should really matter to you.

THE INSIGHTS DASHBOARD

Your Facebook Page Insights is the tab/area to visit to learn more about your metrics and page data. This section is activated when at least 30 people like you page.

• To find your Page Insights, click Insights at the top of your Page.
• Once on the Insight page, view the metrics about your Page performance by clicking the sections at the header.
• To export your insights data, click Export in the top-right corner. You may want to do this to share with a marketing expert or to archive for your own files.

What Do You See In The Insights Dashboard?

• Likes – How many people like your page in a week.
• Post Reach – Reach is the number of unique people who received impressions of a Page post. Reach might be less than impressions, since one person can see multiple impressions.
• Engagement – How many people like, comment, share and click links of your posts on a weekly basis.

So out of all of that, what really matters?

1. Fans

Your Fans tab are the people who liked your page. You can find this by clicking People tab.

Facebook curates data on Gender, Age, Country, City and Language. Although Facebook privacy rules state Page admins cannot view detailed personal data, Insights has made statistical data for you to get a profile of your general audience.

In this screenshot, notice that my Page attracts both men and women almost equally, and most of them are between 25-34 and 35-44 years in age.

WHAT DOES IT TELL ME?

This tells me to prepare content that speaks directly to the majority of the demographic who follows my page. In this example, the audience group suggests young-middle age adults; educated and professional, both male and female, who follows my page to learn more about Facebook marketing.
So when developing content my style and tone should address that type of audience.

2. Engagement

People Engaged refers to the people who have liked, commented on, or shared your posts or engaged with your Page in the past 28 days.

So in this figure, women who are between 35-44 years old seem to engage more frequently on my Page posts.

WHAT DOES IT TELL ME?

If you look you see I have an equal number of men and women liking my page, but it is the women who are sharing the buzz… maybe I can improve engagement by posting content that is more appealing to men? Or, when I promote something on my Page using Facebook Ads, perhaps I only focus on women to share content.

3. Timing 

Under the Post tab, you will see a section called When Your Fans Are Online. This is one of my favorite things to look at because it tells me what time of the day fans are online in a week.

HOW DOES THIS HELP?

This insight helps you to schedule posts and ads during the optimal times your audience is on Facebook.

4. Types of Posts

Also under the Posts tab, you can find a table list of every post to your page over the last few weeks, the types of post and their engagement metrics.

WHAT DOES IT TELL ME?

Looking at the type post is important, since it will give you an idea what type of content your fans like. This could be photos, a link, videos or status update. Generally, photos receive the highest engagement on Facebook and fans enjoy graphics.

5. Where People Click

On the Likes tab scroll down until you see the ‘Where Your Page Likes Happened’ graph. Remember that Your Page can be liked even without loading your Page. For example, the Like button can be found on paid ads, Page suggestions, as well as like box widgets on other websites.

On this chart you’ll also see the like sources:

• On your Page – Someone hits the like button on your Page.
• Ads and Sponsored Stories- Someone hits the like button of a Facebook Ad.
• Page Suggestions – News Feed shows suggestions of pages or posts to like.
• Mobile – Someone clicked “like�? from a mobile device.
• Others – Like box widgets or links found on other places like 3rd-party apps or websites outside Facebook.

WHAT DOES IT TELL ME?

This helps you to discover where do most people click the like button. From here optimize your ads.

To recap, here are a few things to consider when looking at your insights and metrics:

• Know your fans. Who are your attracting?
• Pay attention to engagement. Who can help you spread the buzz?
• Timing is key. Determine the best time of day to post content.
• Types of posts matter. Understand the posts your fans are engaging with and why.
• Where do likes come from? Where can else you optimize your page presence to be liked?

Focus on these numbers and don’t get distracted by the vast amount of date in your Facebook Insight dashboard. If you need more help deciphering what really matters, I’m always here to help.

Facebook advertising is one of the most easy-to-use digital ad platforms available to businesses today. With a little review and practice, even you, a real estate pro, can drive steady leads to your Page, App or website.

But, before diving into a Facebook ad campaign I highly recommend you take some time to think of the specific goals you want the campaign to achieve.

You’ll want to decide whether you want people to “like” your brand (to grow your fan base), install an App (to use your product or service) or go directly to a website (to take another action such as filling out a lead form, or purchasing). In order to help you identify the best type of Facebook ad campaign to set up, you should:

1. IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE

Who are the ideal people you’d like to reach? Those who would most likely click your ad and especially those who would most likely act on your call to action are the ones you want to target. What are their interests and demographics?

2. SECURE COMPELLING GRAPHICS

What will be your ad content? Do you have the right text and images to attract your target audience? Images need to be visually appealing while the text needs to attract an action.

3. CREATE AN AWESOME LANDING PAGE

If you are sending leads to your custom Facebook Tab or website landing page, what should it say for people to give you their contact information?

4. DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET

Aside from determining a budget, you have to be able to come up with a certain benchmark number that will make you say that you’ve had a return on investment (ROI) for your time with the ads you’ve set up.

FACEBOOK ADS OVERVIEW

A Facebook Ad is an online paid advertisement that can be seen in one of three places:

• Right Hand Column on Desktop Computers
• Desktop Newsfeed
• Mobile Newsfeed

A published Facebook Ad usually consists of 4 parts:

• Headline
• Description
• Media: Image, or Video,
• Link to landing page: Page, Post, Website or Events

Why Should You Use Facebook Ads for Your Real Estate Business?

• To sell more houses
• To get more listings
• To create a loyal fan base

If you are a real estate professional that keenly wants to target real people such as your friends and people who live, work or interested in your city, then Facebook Ads are for you! Let’s get started.

HOW TO FIND AND USE THE FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER

1. YOU WILL NEED TO USE YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE TO ACCESS FACEBOOK ADS. FROM THE LEFT SIDEBAR OF YOUR FACEBOOK HOME PAGE, CLICK ADS MANAGER. ON THE ADS MANAGER PAGE, CLICK THE BIG GREEN ‘CREATE AD’ BUTTON.

2. CHOOSE YOUR FACEBOOK OBJECTIVE. WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO DO?

3. TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE. YOU CANNOT TARGET WELL ON FAFCEBOOK IF YOU HAVEN’T IDENTIFIED YET WHO YOUR TARGET MARKET IS. MAKE SURE TO HAVE A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF BUYER AND AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS: GENDER, AGE, COUNTRY/ CITY, LANGUAGE, AND DEVICES. THIS WAY, YOU CAN OPTIMIZE YOUR BUDGET SPEND TO THE AUDIENCE THAT MATTERS MOST TO YOU.

4. YOU MUST KNOW AD TYPES THAT WILL HELP GET THE CLIENTS YOU WANT. BELOW IS A LIST OF ALL THE DIFFERENT KIDS OF ADS YOU COULD RUN VIA FACEBOOK:

PAGE POST ENGAGEMENT AD

A sponsored post thats used if you want people to see your announcement, promo or story more prominently on the News Feed. You can increase likes, engagement or clicks to your link with this kind of ad. You can upload a photo or video to make your post more interesting.

PAGE LIKES

This kinds of ad is commonly used to increase awareness of your brand page by encouraging fans to “like” and follow your Page. This a good choice if your page is new or you want to boost the number of your fan base.

CLICKS TO WEBSITE

This is an ideal choice if you want to drive your fans off Facebook to your website for lead capturing.

EVENT RESPONSE ADS

Sponsored Events is another type of ad that will drive ideal people to attend your Open Houses, webinars or consultations.

MORE FACEBOOK ADS TIPS: HOW TO NAME YOUR CAMPAIGN, SET YOUR BUDGET AND PLACE YOUR AD

1. Facebook will choose a default name for your campaign. Click on Change Campaign to edit.
2. Choose a name for your Ad Set
3. Choose a budget – you can choose as low as $1 a day – that’s only $30 a month to get in front of more fans and generate leads!
4. Bidding – Facebook will offer a default bidding option based on the type of ad you are running.
5. Review Your Order
6. Click on the green PLACE ORDER button!

ADDITIONAL TIPS!

First and foremost, quality ad content is still paramount to any marketing campaign.Remember, you want to spark curiosity and avoid hard-selling. People hate seeing spammy, sales-looking ads. Be creative! You can use humor, amusing or inspirational stories, current events or interesting information to get your message across without pushing people to set an appointment with you.

Also, give clear CTA’s. People are busy, so get straight to the point. Let people know what you really want them to do: Click the link, like your post or fill out a lead capture form. Write quality ad content that speaks directly to your audiences.

Finally, be sure to offer something of value.The best way to get the qualified leads you want is to offer them a proposition that is of value to your audience, combining with brand message and value.

There is a lot to take in and learn when it comes to Facebook Ads, but you can do it! If you’re still stuck, check out this post I wrote that includes a 5-step guide to Facebook Ads.

Want to learn more on how to use Facebook to get a consistent source of leads online? Sign up for my FREE video series FB Real Estate Pro!