The Best Session I Attended at #SMMW17

“We know that 50% of content shared on social gets ZERO shares. So why should you keep sharing on social media when most of the content goes nowhere? ”

My favorite lecture this year by far was "Hacking Facebook Ads: How 50 Dollars Can Drive Enormous Traffic to Your Best Content," by Larry Kim. 

Larry was introduced as the founder of Wordstream, a company of 225 employees that manages $1 billion of ad spend spread among 10,000 clients. (He has since moved on to found Mobile Monkey.) 

He sounded like a smart guy, and he was. 

What I loved about his approach was the intensity: he had something different to say, and he was going to spit it out. But his ability to share the concepts clearly and make them understandable made his talk very powerful. 

And what he had to say: we know that 50% of content shared on social gets ZERO shares. Organic social media reach and engagement are terrible, and paid search costs a lot. 

These are some of the most common complaints I hear from clients: "Why should I keep sharing on social media when most of my content goes nowhere?" 

In response, I've heard gurus point out that sharing good content consistently is absolutely crucial. You must keep going, to develop your reputation as an authority, to get your message "out there," to continue to allow for the possibility that the right people will see you at the right time.

Conventional wisdom. Larry is not a fan. "Social media marketing does feel a little bit like a suicide mission," was an actual thing he said. 

Larry's reasoning for sharing content consistently motivates me, because it's a reason that can make a crucial difference in your business. His point: use social media ads to promote pieces of content that you've shared organically that have performed well above average for you. Posts that you could classify as "viral" relative to the average performance of your content. 

This is the reason to continue to share content consistently: to have a baseline for engagement and clicks. That way, when a piece of content really outshines that baseline--goes viral relative to your other content--you know you can promote it cheaply on Facebook and Twitter. 

No one else at Social Media Marketing World share this concept this year in this way, and it knocked my socks off. 

He called these posts that are viral relative to your average content "unicorns." The other stuff he called "donkeys." 

Image via http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/15/quality-content-defined?utm_content=bufferf7406&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Read a deep-dive into this concept here. What do you think about this idea for choosing the content you boost with Facebook ad $$? 

1. Spend 12 Minutes Learning to Use the Facebook Pixel 2. Implement and Make More Money

If you're running Facebook Ads for yourself or others, have you checked out Facebook Ad Hacks? It's probably the BEST business group I'm in, in terms of providing tons of useful knowledge. If you have a question about an ad you're running, ask it here. 

The founder of the group explains how to use the Facebook pixel: 

This Brilliant Viral Video Actually Teaches Us Something About How to Go Viral

Viral videos. The first time I gave "viral videos" a serious, work-related thought, I was working for Howcast. It was 2009 or so and our entire (small) organization was tasked with creating a viral video. 

At the time I rolled my eyes  at the earnestness. The neediness. But beneath my not-quite-hipster scorn, there was real terror. How DO you create a viral video? What was the formula anyway? Was there really a formula? Or did it just... happen? 

Spoiler Alert: I don't know the formula. Maybe there is one, but I don't know it. If there is one, it's certainly not what it was in 2009. 

But actually I do think there's a clue in this Chatbooks video. The screen shot above was taken when the video had about 5 million views, less than a week after it was published. Maybe not the hugest number in our post- Chewbacca mom age, but it ain't bad. 

And I was thinking about what made this video so watchable. What made me want to share it with everyone? And then I figured it out. 

It was me! 

Or rather, it was the fact that I fall into the bullseye center of Chatbooks ideal audience.

And that made me realize the counterintuitive key to this video's success: it is targeted. It IS NOT for everyone. But it captures the attention of a very high percentage of a very specific audience. Because its creators know who that audience is and how to talk to them. 

They want to reach moms who want to create photo albums out of the thousands of pics on their phones, but haven't done it yet.

That's all. 

This video went viral because it: 

1. Identifies the pain points of its ideal audience, using that audience's language

• no time ("My children are growing like weeds, but I barely have enough time to keep them ALIVE let alone print pictures of them.") 

• not very much money ("When Sara does something adorable, I have to say, 'That's cute, but not $50 cute.'") 

• tons of unorganized photos collected on the phone, not archived anywhere else

• not a ton of technical/design expertise

• no energy to get all of that stuff organized, printed, designed, shipped! What a headache.  

• But it would be really nice to have photo albums. I want photo albums. I love my crazy life and I want to be able to look back on it! 

2. Explains how Chatbooks address all these pain points

• Prints and ships automatically "without you having to lift a finger"

• But you will be notified if you want to edit your order or send it back

• Chatbooks are made with high quality materials for a low price "so you can send the savings on your little thumbsuckers." 

• "Live your life and let Chatbooks print it." 

• Go straight to the app from the video (for the many people in this audience who look at Facebook on their phone primarily or exclusively). 

What I really think is worth noting, in both the "identifying pain points" section of the video and the "here is Chatbooks can help" section, is that the script uses the language of the ideal audience member. It uses the words that this mom would use to talk about why "making photo books sucks"! 

One of my friends, who is a mom of two small boys, commented,

“They have tiny spies in my mind.”

So yes, the production values on this video are high, the script is well-written and funny, and they had money to buy the Facebook ad. All of those factors helped make this video go viral. 

But one thing you and I can learn from this video is: are we talking about the problems our products and services solve so clearly that our ideal audience would say, "They have tiny spies in my mind" ?

Get your checklist for more tips on what speaks to your ideal audience. 

Answers to the Most Common Questions about Facebook Ads

We moved, which has resulted in me driving a lot more each day. This gives me extra time to listen to a lot more podcasts. So somewhere within this hectic week, I listened to a terrific episode from Amy Porterfield. Episode number 58 is nearly a year old, but the advice in it is so spot on that I almost choked on my coffee when I heard it. 

Amy takes a question from a fan who leads with, "How do I increase my FB followers?" 

If you've read my post about vanity metrics, you'll know that I hate this question. It turns out, so does the extremely successful (and very succinct!) Amy Porterfield. 

Amy doesn't use the word "hate," though. Here's how she puts it: "This is where we need a reframe."

The reframe: Facebook followers don't translate into the number of clients your business has. Ads can help you build your client base, but only if each of your ads has a clear strategy behind that you implement and monitor, tweaking along the way as you see your results within Facebook Ads Manager. 

As Amy says, " I want to help you see FB as a place where putting in a little bit of money will result in bringing back a lot of money."

Seriously! Or as I have said to new and prospective clients, to friends and family, to my dog Toby as he sits at my feet while I hammer away on my laptop keyboard:

Don't buy a Facebook ad unless you have a clear strategy for how you will receive a return on that investment. If you can't draw a line between that Facebook ad and how it will get prospective buyers/clients in the door, don't spend the dough. 

This doesn't mean you won't have to experiment with some trial and error as you figure out the target audience for your ad, the right text and images, times of day (in some cases), and the most rousing calls to action you can.

But you can only figure these things out if you have a clear goal in mind. You can only know whether the ads are "working" if they are moving you closer to that goal, or if they aren't. 

For example, if you set up an ad with the goal of getting those who see the ad to join your email list, and no one joins your e-mail list, you know the ad didn't work and you need to try something else. 

But I just love how Amy handles this question because she puts to rest the idea that your number of Facebook page likes has much to do at all with the effectiveness of your online marketing. 

Check out the full episode. 

The Difference Between “Boost Post” and “Boost Your Posts” in Facebook Ad Manager

Facebook ads: Have you thought about using them? Even if you have a $5 budget to begin with, I encourage you to test them out. Not just because you'll reach more people. A colleague at my co-working space recently reminded me what else you get for your $5: When you buy an ad, you get a TON of information on who responds to your ads. That information may surprise you. Are you reaching people you didn't expect? Not reaching the people you expected to? 

Both of those insights allow you to take action, either to experiment with your messaging to reach the people you really want to reach, or to re-assess whether your target market is different from what you thought it was. 

Those are actionable metrics, as opposed to the vanity metrics I talked about in previous posts. 

So buying ads can be useful even if you don't make a single sale. (Although odds are you will make a sale if you are sharing good content with a simple call-to-action.)

Today I'm talking about dipping your toe into ad-buying, and a simple what-not-to-do. Don't click on "Boost Post" at the bottom right corner of one of your Facebook posts. Instead, go to ads.facebook.com and click "Boost Your Posts."  Here's why. 

If you click "Boost Post," here are the options you get: 

If you go to ads.facebook.com and click "Boost Your Posts," you get about 8 bazillion more options. (Yes, 8 bazillion is the official number from Facebook's own team.) 

Those include: 

"Detailed target" which allows you to find people who engage in some pretty specific behaviors. Such as... people who are likely to watch home improvement shows and have also recently bought a home in a particular zip code.

That's pretty specific targeting for, say, an interior designer. And it's just the kind of targeting you don't get if you click on "Boost Post" at the bottom right of the post itself.

So don't do it.