Why Promoted Facebook Page Posts Are A Smart Social Tactic

Steve Fogg 1st Nov 2012 Digital

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Facebook has gotten a lot of negative press around a recent change that they have made that will impact brands, non-profits and churches fan pages. Facebook has changed their EdgeRank algorithm so that posts are only seen by around 15% of your Facebook fan page followers. That’s right, only 15% down from a much higher percentage of the people will see your posts – unless you pay for the privilege. But it’s not all bad news. In fact I think there is a massive opportunity for churches and non-profits who are entrepreneurial in their social media strategy.

While there is a great opportunity here for churches and non-profits it doesn’t mean that have to like the fact that Facebook is now making you page for your presence when before it was free. But at the end of the day it is their platform, not ours. Here is the opportunity that presents itself. Your church/non-profit/business now has the chance to stand out from the crowd. You have the opportunity to put your highest value content infront of your audience knowing with complete certainty that they will see it.

I’ve written previously about how this has worked well before (How I Increased A Facebook Page’s Reach by 2000% in One Month) Here are two ways you can take advantage of this before everyone else jumps on board:

1. Sponsored likes

I’ve used sponsored likes for the Church page that I manage. In just over 2 months I’ve doubled the likes for the page. Some of you will call these vanity metrics, I disagree. I think that I’ve just created another touchpoint for someone to interact with a faith voice.

Mobile view

Desktop view

2. Sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are a great way to get your high value messages out and ensure that you know that it will be out there for as long as you want it out there. I’ve used an URL shortener to measure the click-through and I’ve also tracked the adoption on my App analytics page during this promotion.

What do you think?

Love it or hate the idea, paying to stay in people’s timelines is here to stay. I’m embracing the problem as an opportunity now. How about you? What do you think about it for what you do? Comment below.

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8 Comments

Tony Whittaker - November 2nd, 2012 at 10:59 am
Steve, how much does it cost to do the sponsored post thing?

Blessings

Tony
Steve Fogg - November 2nd, 2012 at 11:09 am
It depends on the size of your audience Tony, on your Facebook page click promote at the bottom right hand side of your last post, you will see two different cost structures. One for your existing audience and one for your existing audience and their friends. But be care on that one so that whatever you post isn’t considered spamming people.
Sheryl Lucas - November 16th, 2012 at 12:33 am
Steve, there’s no *promote* at the bottom right side of any of my posts. My church is small (63 likes); are promoted posts even an option for us? In other words, is there a minimum audience size for promoted posts?
Steve Fogg - November 16th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Thanks Sheryl, I’m not sure why that is the case, is your Facebook presence a page or a group? You can only promote pages.
Sheryl Lucas - November 17th, 2012 at 12:01 am
It’s a page.
Sheryl Lucas - November 17th, 2012 at 12:01 am
It’s a page
Steve Fogg - November 18th, 2012 at 11:24 am
Sheryl, there should be nothing stopping you. The promote button is small and at the bottom right of each post. If you still can’t see it contact Facebook Marketing, they are very helpful.
What Facebook’s newsfeed changes should mean for your church page… | St. Eutychus - November 17th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
[…] stuff on boosting engagement on his page lately (and this list of tips for church leaders). He also suggests promoting posts as a good way for churches to deal with the EdgeRank changes, but I think there’s a better […]