Tag: Boosted Posts

Days Not to Post on Facebook

Facebook Calendar

 

I am a big proponent of posting shareable content on all of your brand’s pages every day. A steady cadence of a daily organic posts (and now coordinated with ads) will help you stay top of mind and in the newsfeed to your customers. But as I discussed at my recent Southeast Franchise Forum presentation, there are days when no post may be better than a post.  

This is advice for any US brand’s national postings. If you’re a Franchise brand or have multiple locations in multiple markets, be aware of what’s happening in all of your local communities as well.  Local emergencies and weather issues may be reasons to hold off on posting for a day or two. Obviously you will need the help and input from your field team and perhaps alerts from news sources within your geographic footprint.

 

National tragedies and major International tragedies:

When terrorists (domestic or ISIS) struck in Baton Rouge, Nice, Dallas, Istanbul, Orlando, Paris, San Bernardino, and the growing list of places, people took to social media to learn, grieve, and show anger with their friends. Your brand’s marketing message would at best be lost in the outpouring or at worst stick out like a clueless, poorly timed, insensitive faux pas. Just wait a day or two to get back on schedule.

 

Celebrity deaths:

When icons like Prince, Muhammad Ali, or David Bowie died, many brands posted ill-advised images complete with marketing tagline and logo.  It works if you’re MTV or SiriusXM and you’re sharing an artist’s work for the day, but it doesn’t work if you’re selling fast food.

 

Political events:

Avoid posting after the first day / last day of the upcoming conventions. Also avoid the evening of and the morning after the Trump / Clinton debates and of course, Election Day. You will be buried in newsfeeds, so just wait a day. 

 

Holidays:

Take a break on MLK Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and September 11. Unless you have an inspirational and relevant message, please avoid it!

 

Franchise Sales Using Facebook

fRANCHISING

How much of your brand’s Facebook activity should be devoted to franchise sales efforts versus consumer marketing and engagement?
 
Many franchise systems with whom I’ve spoken in the past several years have struggled with balancing their social media communication for consumers and their engagement with potential franchisees. Some designate a certain amount of content on the page for consumer marketing and an amount for franchise development. Others create completely separate Facebook pages for their franchise sales messages.

I don’t recommend either of these practices; all goals of marketing a franchise on Facebook can be achieved in a more holistic approach.

 

Your Page Versus Their Feed

First, let’s stop thinking of Facebook pages like websites with certain amount of real estate devoted to various parts of your organization. A Facebook page is really just your starting point.

The true power of Facebook communication lies in users seeing your brand and your news on his or her news feed, not on your Facebook page.

It doesn’t really matter what’s on your page. Very few people are ever going to seek out your page and view it the way people once did with websites. Typical consumers won’t be confused by your franchise sales messages because they don’t see them.

 

Organic Versus Paid Target

Your messages may be seen as organic (free) posts, which will reach 2% to 20% of your fans, depending on your fanbase size. But more likely, your messages will be seen in the form of boosted posts or other types of paid advertising. The reach or size of audience depends how many dollars you want to spend.

Target your paid content by the demographics of your franchise sales candidates. This goes beyond just age and gender; target according to your typical candidates’ interests, industries, and more.

Even within your group of franchise sales posts, you may want to change up content or demographics based on location. Messages promoted to Texas candidates might need to be different than those promoted to Florida candidates.

Your brand’s fans and your franchisees’ customers won’t see that content. With a few exceptions, I typically don’t see anything wrong with showing consumers some franchise sales-specific social media content. But when paying to boost and target Facebook posts, it is cost prohibitive to show all messages to all people.