Facebook Doesn’t Suck, Your Strategy And Attitude Does

Fellow marketers, quit crying about your organic reach suffering from Facebook’s ever-evolving (and predicted) shift to the pay-for-play sandbox. We all know Facebook is a public company with a fiduciary responsibility to earn profits. Boo hoo! We also know advertising costs are rising while organic results are falling.

We saw this day coming. But the fact is, advertising by promoting a post from your brand’s page remains reasonably priced. It’s very targeted, and it’s easy to set up. Don’t believe me? Spend $47 anywhere else to advertise and tell me if, for 65 cents a click, you reach nearly 15,000 targeted people as I did this past week for one of my clients. That’s an absurd return – OK, not absurd– but it’s pretty damn good for less than $50.

Not satisfied?

A colleague also ran a campaign for one of his clients. After several updates, he put up a direct call to action post. It was displayed to 53,214 people, received 1,844 post engagements at an average cost per engagement of 20 cents, all for $360. The idea was to run two posts to build awareness, then a direct call to action – a prototypical jab, jab, haymaker approach. Facebook has changed and it will continue to do so. Many predict Facebook will die. Perhaps it will someday, but not anytime soon. You can mope about change and you can wave the white flag. Not me. The way I see it, this is a great time to advertise, drive traffic and expose your brand to the right people no matter how big – or small – your budget. Don’t argue that it’s difficult to set up or that Facebook’s rules are too restrictive. Sure, Facebook has rules. You can’t promote a post that has an image with more than 20% text. If you’re running a promotion, make sure you’re compliant.  Still, with just a few clicks you’ve got a promoted post capable of reaching the largest pool of people on any single social network this world knows. Identifying the audience is easy and that’s on YOU. Facebook provides you the tools to reach the people you target. It’s on you to make it work. And now.

Maybe Facebook won’t work for some of you because you don’t have an advertising budget. If that’s your case, time for you to get out. What’s the point? Figure out which platform is best for your social media marketing strategy. Facebook will look different a year from now. Hell, it may change drastically in six months. But as online marketers, we’re nomads. Embrace change, see what’s valuable and act accordingly.