Creating content, unique content is the most critical part of building your brand and your message. You see this in sports—the team and the players are the content, but to get people to show up to the games and buy the gear is all done through marketing. The same goes for your business. While you may not be trying to sell tickets to the Charlotte Knights, marketing your content is an important piece to your content marketing puzzle.
Content will do very little for you if the only people that are aware of it are your friends and family. You must put it out there and one way to do just that is through social media, whether Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and so on. As for a specific tactic you can use right away, let’s focus on Facebook Ads. Through their platform, Facebook offers a wide array of people showing you their likes, dislikes and demographics and it is a platform that people are active with on a daily basis. Their eyes are on it and now it’s time for you to put your great content in their line of sight.
It wasn’t long ago, you could grab attention with a Facebook page simply by having one. A like, a follow, or a share would do amazing things. Instantly your content would be exposed to hundreds or thousands of people. Going viral was a common occurrence it seemed. That just isn’t the case anymore. Facebook has changed and continues to change its algorithm for the benefit of the reader—and of course to motivate businesses and brands into utilizing paid advertising. Either we can complain about it or we can play by their rules and succeed. Paid advertising on Facebook may seem like it would be expensive, but go try television, radio, or even billboards and you will quickly see that Facebook Ads are incredibly cost effective.
Now many businesses have voiced concerns that they are not receiving engagement on their Facebook ads. Yet if you look through their ads, they were not targeted (nor was the content they were promoting). It’s not enough to just sponsor (boost) a Facebook post–you must target the right audience.
Say you are a CPA in Charlotte, NC that loves golf. You’ve played many of the golf courses in the Charlotte area. Guess what? Many people living in Charlotte that need help with their taxes happen to like golf too. In fact, they play the same courses you do. They even go to Facebook and follow the golf courses you play. They show interest in the PGA and Golf Magazine. They even post their job title and company into Facebook (Vice President at Company XYZ). Does this individual like to talk about golf? You bet! Do they like taxes? No way. But a CPA that creates a unique post related to golf on Facebook and promotes it to them—that’s something they may read, engage with and then who knows…
Perhaps you can even talk to the local golf courses, feature them in an article you write and offer a discount to readers on Facebook that share your post with their friends. Might that drive some engagement? It’s worth a try. It’s one example of countless potential examples.
When you create the Facebook ad you could target:
a) people who live in Charlotte
b) people with the job title of Vice President or President
c) people between ages 35-55
d) people who like the Facebook pages: “PGA” and “Golf Magazine”
e) people who like Facebook pages related to “Personal Finance”
See how this can all come together? Your new post will be viewed by those people that are most likely to engage with your content—and who knows, maybe eventually, become your next great clients.