Tag: facebook

4 tips to help get you verified on Facebook

Considering Facebook is the biggest social media network, it makes sense if you want Facebook verification on your page.

Facebook has 2.91 billion monthly active users as of 2022. This is actually a 6.2 percent increase from its 2.74 billion users in 2021, which was already a year-over-year growth of 12 percent from 2019.

With the potential to reach so many users, Facebook verification can help your page build credibility and a trusting relationship with your target audience. Facebook verification is the process of getting a profile or page verified to show other users that it represents your authentic presence on the platform. A blue checkmark appears next to the name of a verified account.

In addition to building trust, Facebook verification helps public figures, brands and companies who are susceptible to being impersonated with fake pages establish that they actually are who they say they are. A common example is the real Facebook page for a celebrity versus pages run by fans or imposters.

Facebook also prioritizes verified profiles and Pages in its search results, which can improve your brand’s reach.

While anyone can technically get verified on Facebook, there are strict verification requirements you must meet in order to get approved. However, these are only the bare minimum and are no guarantee that you’ll get verified.

To officially apply for Facebook verification, you would: 

  1. Open the Facebook verification request form.
  2. Choose your verification type, whether you’re looking to verify your personal profile (if you’re a public figure) or your Facebook page.
  3. Confirm your authenticity with credible documentation, such as a driver’s license, passport, etc.
  4. Confirm your notability by selecting a category for your business page or profile so that Facebook can ensure that your profile or page is something people are interested in or searching for.
  5. Add the country where you or your business is most well-known.
  6. Add your audience and “also known as,” which is an optional step, but keep in mind that the more information you give, the easier it is for Facebook to confirm your verification. For your audience, you can enter basic information about your audience demographics. If you have no other “aka” names for your business, though, you can leave that blank.
  7. Add up to five articles that show your Facebook page or profile is in the public interest. This is optional as well, but by including popular social media accounts, articles that talk about your business, Wikipedia profiles or anything else, you’re proving that people are interested in, following or talking about your brand.
  8. And submit!

But again, Facebook verification is not guaranteed. (Fortunately, you can reapply after 30 days if you get denied.) The following are four tips to help you get verified the first time on Facebook (and stay verified).

Be professional

When it comes to being professional on Facebook as a brand, there are a few things to consider, including:

  • The overall impression of your Facebook page or profile matches the image your brand presents elsewhere.
  • You’re only sharing on-brand, related content to your page or profile. No off-brand logos, personal posts (depending on the context), low-quality images, incorrect grammar and spelling, anything that doesn’t reflect your brand voice, etc.

Put yourself in a customer’s shoes when looking at your page or profile. What do you see? Better yet, ask a colleague for an unbiased opinion with a fresh set of eyes.

Maintain up-to-date business information

Before even applying for Facebook verification, you want to make sure that your entire Facebook business profile is complete. This includes working links to your website (and working links from your website back to your Facebook page).

But on top of that, you want to keep that information as up-to-date as possible. Perhaps you created a new website, moved store locations, changed business hours, added new products or services or something else. Regardless of what might change with your business and offerings, you’ll want to reflect that on your Facebook presence. 

Post engaging content regularly

Content (and engaging content in particular) is everything on social media. Without it, your Facebook page is a shell business listing that likely will not receive Facebook verification.

Of course, when it comes to content creation and publication, you want to keep your audience in mind, as well as their needs, challenges and interests. 

Check out our 10 tips for creating engaging content.

When it comes to frequency, consistency is critical. You don’t want to publish several posts in one day and then not post again for weeks. 

A content calendar can help keep you organized, but also check out how often you should be posting on social media, especially Facebook.

But beyond providing engaging content, you’ll want to engage with your followers as well. Reply to comments and direct messages, comment on relevant posts from other users, offer Facebook Lives that are specifically an opportunity for you to answer questions from customers and potential customers, etc. An engaged audience shows Facebook that you’re a notable brand that people follow. This contributes in your favor for Facebook verification.

Follow Facebook’s community standards

Do you know what Facebook’s community standards are? In short, they’re a robust list of guidelines that you should get familiar with (if you’re not already) that outline the acceptable use of the Facebook platform.

If you’re violating these standards, you obviously risk not getting verified. If you do get verified and then violate the community standards, Facebook can revoke your verification.

Reviewing the guidelines, turning on two-factor authentication and staying true to your Facebook marketing strategy will help you get (and stay) verified.

In conclusion

If you don’t get verified the first time that you apply, you can apply again in 30 days. However, we do recommend that you use those 30 days to review what you can improve about your Facebook presence before applying again. In fact, you may receive from Facebook at least part of the reason that you weren’t verified. If this is the case, you’ll want to address those issues as soon as possible.

Check out our seven tips to get verified on Instagram.

As you begin to optimize your Facebook presence for possible verification, consider leveling up your digital marketing process. This can include automation, audience segmentation and enhanced email marketing capabilities, to name a few. DailyStory can help. Schedule your free demo with us today.

 

Social media posting: How often should a brand really share?

For about as long as social media became a natural component of digital marketing, brands have wondered: “How often should I post?”

Obviously, no one wants to post too much or too little. As of 2022, there are about 4 billion social media users across all platforms, and the average amount of time an adult user spends on social media is higher than ever at 95 minutes per day.

Your target audience is part of these statistics, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with them by not posting at the right frequency.

If you’re not posting enough, you risk being forgotten by your audience. If you post too much, you risk being a nuisance to your audience and probably even the platform’s algorithm that you’re posting on.

Simply put, the perfect frequency on any social media platform is to post as often as you can consistently that’s quality content (not just posting for the sake of posting). But let’s break down the official recommendations by platform (on both frequency and timing) so that you can see how your brand stacks up and whether there are any opportunities to optimize your posting frequency in your social media marketing strategy.

Social media posting on Facebook

The general best-practice recommendation on Facebook is to post once per day, with a maximum of two posts per day.

Pages with fewer than 10,000 fans experience about a 50 percent decrease in engagement per post if posting more than once per day.

On the flip side, you’ll want to post on your Facebook page at least three times per week at minimum.

As far as timing, general recommendations suggest the afternoon, but it’s important to test this out with your own audience. Keep in mind that your specific audience might have different usage habits, and simply following a general recommendation that everyone else might be striving for could just leave you lost in the crowd. Experiment and pay attention to your Facebook Insights to understand what times work best for your brand.

Check out our six Facebook marketing tips that you should know.

Social media posting on Instagram

The general best-practice recommendation on Instagram is to post at least once per day but no more than three times per day.

The bare minimum is at least once per week, with a better, suggested minimum of at least three times per week.

Definitely avoid publishing several posts in quick succession or disappearing for weeks at a time. It’s all about consistency.

As far as timing, general recommendations suggest early morning or midday, but just like on Facebook, you’ll want to experiment to determine what timing is most successful for your audience. Keep an eye on Instagram Insights as you test out different times.

Check out our 16 Instagram marketing tips that you should know.

Social media posting on Twitter

Studies on Twitter posting frequency do vary wildly, with a suggested range of once per day to 51 times per day. But general, best-practice recommendations advise three to 30 times per day, which can still be a big range to consider. This is because tweets have such a short “shelf life,” so regardless of what frequency you go with, you’ll want to make sure to spread your tweet out throughout the day.

Truly, the bare minimum frequency is once per day, but you will do better with three to 6 tweets per day. The optimal sweet spot for many brands is about 15 to 23 tweets per day. Definitely avoid disappearing from Twitter for weeks or months at a time because you’ll lose followers. 

As far as timing, weekday mornings typically perform well, but you’ll want to experiment for your audience. With timing and especially because the frequency recommendation is such a big range, testing is key. Monitor your Twitter Analytics to find the best mix for your brand.

Check out our eight Twitter marketing tips that you should know.

Social media posting on LinkedIn

The general best-practice recommendation on LinkedIn is to post at least twice a week but no more than once per business day.

Ideally, you’ll want to post once per business day.

Just like with other social media platforms, you don’t want to disappear for weeks at a time. Consistency is always key.

As far as timing, mornings are best. As always, monitor the performance of your LinkedIn posts. You never know if a general recommendation is best for your audience until you test it. 

Check out our six LinkedIn marketing tips that you should know.

Social media posting on YouTube

The general best-practice recommendation on YouTube is to strive for uploading a new video weekly. Of course, the challenge is that video content especially can require time and resources to produce quality content. While the recommendation is once per week, don’t overcommit to what you can realistically do.

You also should set appropriate expectations with your audience by sharing your posting frequency on your YouTube channel. Resist the temptation to disappear for weeks, though. Setting a plan and sticking to it can help maintain consistency.

As far as timing, midday on Thursdays and Fridays is recommended, while Mondays and Tuesdays are considered the worst days to upload on YouTube. Test it out, though. Your audience may always vary from nationwide trends.

Check out our 20 tips to grow your YouTube subscribers.

Social media posting on Pinterest

The general best-practice recommendation on Pinterest is at least three posts per day, with a maximum of 25 posts per day. 

Because this is such a wide range (similar to Twitter), consider your bare minimum one pin daily, with a better frequency being three to five pins daily and the optimal frequency being 10 to 25 pins per day. Of course, this entirely depends on your brand’s bandwidth to create and publish new pins for Pinterest.

Make sure that you’re focusing on new pins since Pinterest has been prioritizing them since 2019 and not overly relying on re-pins. You don’t want to repeat pins frequently or post them to more than 10 Pinterest boards.

As far as timing, late night is a recommended time for publishing on Pinterest. Make sure to test this with your audience to see what the best time might be for your brand.

Check out our six Pinterest marketing tips that you should know.

Social media posting on TikTok

Even though TikTok is a newer social media platform for brands to consider, it appears that the general best-practice recommendation is to post at least one quality video per day. But three videos per day is best.

At bare minimum, you at least need to post several times per week.

As far as maximum videos, opinions vary. Many suggest no more than four or five per day, while some suggest that there is no such thing as posting too much on TikTok. 

As far as timing, general recommendations suggest early morning or late night, but experiment with your content and audience to find what works best for your brand.

Check out our 15 TikTok marketing tips that you should know.

In conclusion

Again, the idea of optimal social media posting frequency for your brand truly comes down to:

  • Your resources and bandwidth to create quality, engaging content.
  • Your target audience’s behaviors and social media usage habits.

If you are considering increasing your posting frequency to meet generally optimal levels, a content calendar can help you stay organized.

While you’re evaluating your social media posting frequency and timing, consider leveling up your digital marketing strategy. DailyStory specializes in automation, email marketing, audience segmentation and more. Level up your process, and schedule a free demo with us today.

9 of the best Facebook groups for marketing conversations

Marketers face a lot of the same challenges along the way. Enter marketing Facebook groups.

Usually, the most common recurring question is, “Am I doing this right?” Yes, there are courses you can take, books to read and blogs (like this one) to engage with, but there is power in joining an online community of other marketing professionals, where you can lean on each other and ask questions as soon as they arise.

If nothing else, it’s simply reassuring to know that you’re not alone.

There are more than 280,000 marketing managers currently employed in the United States, and with Facebook being the biggest social media platform in the world, you have an opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals in various Facebook groups.

Overall, there are more than 200 million Facebook groups, but even when you filter it down to marketing-related groups, you can still feel overwhelmed. 

The following are nine of the best Facebook groups for marketing conversations.

The Daily Carnage

With more than 18,000 members, The Daily Carnage is about “bringing you the freshest news, tools, tips, and tactics in the marketing world.” 

It started in 2017 from an email newsletter that evolved into an engaged group of marketers asking and answering each other’s questions and sharing ideas.

Social Media Managers

Created in 2010, the Social Media Managers Facebook group boasts more than 51,000 members. Part of its About section says, “You have found Facebook’s oldest and most active free group of Social Media Managers. This group is for those who have experience working in the social media marketing industry.”

And they’re not lying. The group offers a ton of engagement and activity. By asking a question in this group, you’ll receive a variety of answers and perspectives. Because there can be so many posts, you might want to turn off the notifications and bookmark the group instead for easy reference and access.

Facebook Ad Hacks

Likely based on the topic, Facebook Ad Hacks has more than 148,000 members. According to its about section: “This is a free community for Facebook marketers, freelancers, and agency owners.”

This group is perfect for discussing marketing best practices, social media ad campaigns and the management of client relationships. You’ll find many insightful discussions to dig into.

The only drawback of this group is its size. There are many posts each day, so it’s possible for some questions to go unanswered. You’ll likely want to turn off the group’s notifications and bookmark it for easy access.

Word Workers

The Word Workers Facebook group considers itself “the only Facebook community for anyone and everyone that writes as a major part of their work.”

This group, with more than 7,000 members, is all about engagement. The value ranges from preferred tools members are using to various tips and tricks. If you write for at least some part of your marketing job, check this group out.

And if you have marketing writer’s block, check out our seven tips to beat it. 

Digital Marketing Questions

The Digital Marketing Questions Facebook group states that “this group is meant for all digital marketing professionals (or people who want to learn) – SEO, PPC, social, Analytics – to ask questions, network and share relevant industry content.”

This group is definitely spam-free. They also have a pinned welcome post for new members that sets the tone for the group and reminds everyone of the rules.

Google SEO Mastermind

Digging deep into search engine optimization? Google SEO Mastermind could be a great Facebook group for you.

This group boasts more than 89,000 members, and conversations range from the Google Search Console to improving your Google Search click-through rates. Specifically, it says it welcomes “questions from the holistic approach of marketing websites in Google and address[es] SEO Methods, Google Ads Techniques, Content Creation, Web Design and more.”

CXL – Conversion Optimization, Analytics & Growth

With more than 17,000 members, CXL – Conversion Optimization, Analytics & Growth is all about “conversion optimization and growth discussions.”

You can rest assured that if you ask a question in this group, it will get answered. Members are eager to help each other.

Marketing Solved

The Marketing Solved Facebook group is all about getting “exclusive access to marketing training, tips and tutorials, articles, business and marketing strategies, success stories, amazing business support, freebies and greatness.” And it’s true to that description.

The group has more than 26,000 members, sharing everything from their own content to job opportunities and more but on specified threads to reduce spam. It’s also clear that this group is judgment-free based on the types of questions asked.

Dumb SEO Questions

If you’re new to SEO marketing, Dumb SEO Questions is a great Facebook group to explore. It has more than 17,000 members and describes itself as a “forum to ask for help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in relation to DNS, HTML, crawling & indexing, structured data, audits, redirects, local search, eCommerce, semantic search, etc.”

Clearly, this group prides itself on “dumb questions,” so there’s no potential embarrassment about asking anything that you don’t know the answer to. Open discussion is very welcome, no matter how “green” you might be.

In conclusion

While there’s no limit to how many Facebook groups you and join, identifying the best and most relevant groups for you will help prevent you from wasting your time. Remember, you also can leave any group at any time if it’s not right for you.

Of course, Facebook groups aren’t just for marketing questions and support. Check out our 12 tips to use Facebook groups to grow your business.

As you’re exploring Facebook groups that can help you connect with other marketers, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory and our 21-day free trial. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Facebook or Instagram: Which is better for marketing your business?

It might not be an age-old question, but many small businesses often ask which is better for marketing: Facebook or Instagram?

Unfortunately, there is not a one-size-fits-all answer.

Sharing about 4 billion users across the two social networks, the opportunities on both are immense. Of course, they’re also both owned by the same company, Meta, so they do share some linkage and features (especially when running paid advertising campaigns).

Facebook remains the most popular social media platform, while visuals-first Instagram has the fastest-growing audience.

The following are four elements you should consider when deciding whether Facebook or Instagram is the best marketing platform for your business.

Usage statistics

Facebook

Facebook currently has about 2.9 billion monthly active users, while about 1.59 billion are mobile daily active users. Around seven out of 10 U.S. adults use Facebook.

About 56 percent of Facebook users are male.

While some think that Facebook is skewing increasingly older, the largest demographic on the social network is between 25 and 35 years old. On the flip side, Facebook’s smallest demographic are seniors 65 years old or older.

About 82 percent of college graduates are on Facebook, and about 75 percent of online users with an annual income of $75,000 or more also are on the platform.

Instagram

Instagram currently has more than 1 billion monthly active users, while more than 500 million Instagram users use the Stories feature daily.

More than 200 million businesses are on Instagram. And more than 50 percent of Instagram users are female. 

Instagram does skew toward a younger audience. About 71 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram. In fact, 72 percent of teenagers in the U.S. use Instagram as well.

Functionality of the platforms

Facebook

The social network is all about information, from the about section on a profile or page (which are more robust than what’s available through an Instagram profile bio) to the types of posts you can share:

  • Text only
  • Images or GIFs
  • Videos
  • Links

In essence, because of the variety of options, it can be a distracting and noisy environment where you’re also fighting against the Facebook algorithm.

Instagram

The app is all about images and videos. Text-only posts are not an option.

But that’s because Instagram is less about the communication of information and more about capturing and sharing moments and then engaging around those moments.

Because of some of the simplicity of Instagram’s functionality, it allows brands to laser focus on how their shared moments represent them. That’s when you see such massive brand popularity blossom. (This is in comparison to the almost too many options for sharing as a business on Facebook.)

Of course, Instagram also has an algorithm that drives user experience on the app, but it doesn’t get complained about nearly as much as Facebook’s.

Content marketing

Facebook

Facebook is a great place to share curated content, where you’re sharing someone else’s content to benefit your own audience. (Check out our four tips for finding great curated content to share, as well as 12 tools to help you.) This is because you can easily share links.

This is also the best place to share any company announcements and/or updates. In fact, you can create actual events on Facebook and promote them.

Instagram

The best content for Instagram is original and authentic (not curated). Yes, you’ll see some regrams, memes and even text images. But go original if you want to be successful.

Going behind the scenes is engaging on Instagram. Real-time images also drive engagement, especially through Instagram Stories.

Instagram also is great for image-based contests that center around a hashtag. (Be sure to check out our guide on how to ensure your giveaways and contests are legal.)

Advertising campaigns

As mentioned earlier, Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta (formally known as Facebook). This means that you have the ability to run a single paid advertising campaign in one place that can run across both platforms.

Facebook Business Manager can make it all happen, so you don’t necessarily have to choose.

In conclusion

Ultimately, brands should have a presence on both Facebook and Instagram, but depending on your target audience, marketing goals and brand identity, you’ll likely drive a larger presence on one or the other.

As you’re evaluating your presence on Facebook and Instagram, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory and our 21-day free trial. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

5 tips to optimize your Facebook Pixel

The key to any digital marketing strategy involves testing, tracking and refining based on the data.

When it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads, you must incorporate the free-to-use Facebook Pixel to obtain the best data tied to your campaign performance.

The Facebook Pixel is essentially a piece of code that you input onto your website. Once installed, it collects data that enables you to track conversions from your Facebook or Instagram ads, optimize those ads, create target audiences and retarget those who’ve already performed an action of some kind on your website.

To accomplish this, the Facebook Pixel places and triggers cookies to track website visitors as they interact with your website.

For example, a user could add a product of yours to the shopping cart but then leave your website before purchasing. Your Facebook Pixel can then make it possible for you to serve related ads about that product to that user while they’re browsing Instagram Stories. This reflects its retargeting capabilities.

It’s a must-use tool.

In fact, about 5.3 million websites use the Facebook Pixel. And they use it not just because of its tracking features, but also because using it helps the overall return on investment (ROI) of their Facebook ad campaigns. It’s all about increased efficiency.

And you can easily install it yourself if you have access to your website’s code. If not, you can contact your website developer. If your website is powered by an eCommerce platform (such as Shopify), Facebook has partnerships that make the installation process easy, as well as the creation of a product catalog and the ability to run related ads.

You can find your Facebook Pixel (and functionality) in the Data Sources interface of your Facebook Events Manager.

The following are five tips to help you best use the Facebook Pixel for your digital marketing efforts.

Understand what the Facebook Pixel can track

The Facebook Pixel offers tracking for 17 standard “events” (aka actions that occur on your website):

  1. Lead, when a visitor submits their information in any way on your website
  2. Complete Registration, when a visitor completes a registration form on your website
  3. Start Trial, when a visitor signs up for a free trial on your website
  4. Customize Product, when a user selects a specific version of a product (by choosing a color, for example)
  5. Add To Cart, when a visitor adds a product to his or her shopping cart on your website
  6. Add Payment Information, when a visitor enters his or her payment information during the purchase process on your website
  7. Initiate Checkout, when a visitor begins the checkout process to buy something on your website
  8. Purchase, when a visitor makes a purchase of any kind on your website
  9. Schedule, when a visitor books an appointment for your business on your website
  10. Submit Application, when a visitor applies for your product, service or program (a credit card application, for example)
  11. Subscribe, when a visitor subscribes to a paid product or service on your website
  12. Donate, when a visitor makes a donation on your website
  13. Add To Wishlist, when a visitor adds a product to a wishlist on your website
  14. Search, when a visitor uses the search function on your website
  15. Find Location, when a visitor searches for your business’s physical location on your website
  16. View Content, when a visitor lands on a specific page of your website
  17. Contact, when a visitor contact your business through the website

Use parameters to add details to your tracking

You can go beyond the standard events that the Facebook Pixel can track by adding details. This can be done through extra pieces of code called parameters.

You can narrow in on such factors as:

  • Content type
  • Currency
  • How much a conversion event is worth
  • Predicted long-term value

This means that you can use the Facebook Pixel to track a specific area or category of your website. For example, a salon website can separate those interested in hair services from those interested in nail services based on which sections of the website were viewed.98\

Be aware of newer iOS tracking limits

While there’s nothing you can do about it, it is worthwhile to understand that due to third-party tracking changes beginning in iOS 14.5, some Facebook Pixel functionality is disabled in updated Apple devices.

This can feel disheartening in your targeting efforts, but know that only about 15 percent of mobile Facebook users access the platform using iOS devices.

Nonetheless, one consequence of this change is that advertisers can only set up a maximum of eight standard events and custom conversions for tracking.

Think about the full picture

Ultimately, your strategy and how you want to use the Facebook Pixel are up to you. That being said, it’s recommended to place the Pixel base code on every page of your website.

Doing so ensures that you:

  • Won’t miss any conversion events.
  • Have complete control over how and what you decide to track.

Consider the logic of what you want to track to best identify the events you choose. Think about your customer’s journey on your website and what matters most to your business. 

What are your company’s goals? What are the goals of your advertising campaign? If you’re not sure, check out our seven expert tips to set achievable marketing goals.

A few suggested strategies:

  • Retarget visitors with true interest by targeting anyone who stayed on your website for at least 45 seconds.
  • Use Advanced Matching features that help match your website visitors with their Facebook profiles when turned on. This improves conversion attribution and helps you reach more people.
  • Segment your audience by browsing behavior based on the products or website sections they engaged with. (You then could target them with specific ads containing related coupon codes, for example.)
  • Create Lookalike Audiences with your data to target users (who haven’t yet visited your website) with similar demographics and behavior as those who have visited your website.
  • Determine your audience’s intent through their URL activity as long as you have smart, clear URL structures.

Just know that you don’t have to wait to install your Facebook Pixel. Do so right away so that you can begin gathering insights as soon as possible.

Monitor the performance of your Facebook Pixel

Obviously, the Facebook Pixel offers you a wealth of information.

You can track your Facebook ad conversions across platforms and devices to better understand your customers’ journey and behavior, for example, and then use this information to refine your strategy as needed.

Just make sure to compare you’re comparing your ad clicks to actual traffic data. Not all clicks convert into a true landing page view. One reason for this is any loading speed issues your website might have.

Keeping an eye on your ad campaign performance and the insights it yields over time will help you pivot your overall strategy as needed.

See our seven tips to better target your Facebook ads.

Looking to level up your digital marketing process beyond the Facebook Pixel? Schedule your free demo of DailyStory today.

Instagram or Facebook Reels: 7 best practices for small businesses

With the increasing popularity of Reels (particularly on Instagram), small businesses should take note as part of your social media marketing strategy.

Reels is a feature where users can create and share fun, short videos using a catalog of music and other media. More specifically, they are 15-second, multi-clip videos that can have sound, music and other effects added to them. 

If you’re familiar with TikTok videos, then you’re familiar with the capabilities of Reels. 

About 61 percent of Generation Z TikTok users are leaning toward using Instagram Reels.

Find out more about Reels and three reasons why you should consider using them.

Of course, any success with Reels doesn’t just happen. The following are seven best practices for small businesses using Reels on either Instagram or Facebook.

Best practice #1: Highlight brand individuality

Reels is all about unique content with a thoughtful storyline. In other words, it’s a blank slate for out-of-the-box creativity.

However, if you’re struggling to brainstorm ideas that you can take to the next level (creatively speaking), consider:

  • Sharing company culture
  • Announcing new product launches or offers
  • Creating how-to tutorials
  • Displaying your product or service in an attention-grabbing way
  • Revealing insider tips and tricks
  • Repurposing past content that has performed well
  • Showing what happens behind the scenes
  • Highlighting before-and-after moments

Experiment with hashtags, text and captions. Research what is trending and what your competition is doing. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box, whether that with the use of camera angels, audio, etc.

Just be wary of hard-selling too much. Viewers won’t have an appetite for it, and over time, you’ll struggle to build your reach and engagement on Reels.

Best practice #2: Think vertical and consider file size

Like Stories, Reels content is vertical. This might not be a big stretch for content creation if you’re already creating content for Stories, TikTok and/or Snapchat. 

But it can be an adjustment if you haven’t stepped into those other features and/or platforms yet.

As far as file size for Reels, it’s not a huge concern if you’re creating your content within the platform (either Instagram or Facebook). However, if you plan on importing any cllips for your Reels video, keep these characteristics in mind:

  • The recommended Reels size is 1080 by 1920 pixels.
  • The recomended aspect ratio for Reels is 9:16.

If the size is not accurate, you could end up with an awkwardly cropped Reels clip. 

Best practice #3: Balance authenticity with quality

Reels allows for fun, authentic content, but on the flip side, you still want to balance that with well-produced clips.

Take the time to plan, execute and edit your Reels video clips so that you can walk that line and hit that balance every time to best engage with your target audience. Choosing the right audio is a big piece, so don’t rush the creation process.

We recommend using a visual storyboard process to plan your Reels clip frame by frame. But truly, practice makes perfect. Keep experimenting and creating.

Best practice #4: Avoid watermarks

It’s probably not a surprise that since Facebook is aiming to compete with TikTok by implementing Reels, your content will not be as successful if it has another platform’s watermark on it.

For example, if you create a TikTok video on that platform and then save it to upload it to Instagram Reels, there will be a TikTok watermark in the corner of that uploaded clip.

To avoid this, you’ll want to create original content within Instagram or Facebook Reels so that it can play nice with those platforms’ algorithms.

Best practice #5: Add a custom Reels thumbnail

By creating a custom Reels cover, you are taking the power of your content into your own hands. The cover is the first image users see when they come across your Reels video clip.

Make sure that you design an image that is not only eye-catching but also true to the content users will see by watching your clip.

You can add the cover by clicking on “Cover” after creating your Reels clip. You can then add the image from your gallery.

Best practice #6: Optimize the sharing of your Reels

Once created, Instagram specifically allows you to share the video clip to the Reels tab, where your followers can then access it easily on your profile.

Be sure to share your Reels clip to your feed as well so that it’ll show on your main profile view alongside your other feed posts. You can also save it and share it at a more optimized time for your audience. While various “best time to post” articles exist online, the key is to think about your target audience’s time zone and when they’ll likely be engaging with your content.

  • When they wake up?
  • During lunch?
  • Toward the end of the traditional workday?
  • After dinner?
  • Before bed?

From there, experiment with timing to get the best sense for your brand account since every brand is unique with a different audience.

With a public Instagram business account (rather than a private personal account), your Reels clip could be picked up and suggested to users at large in Instagram’s main discovery Reels tab.

Learn more about the difference between personal, creator and business accounts on Instagram.

Best practice #7: Monitor your Reels performance

Just like with any other feature or even platform, tracking your metrics is critical to understanding what works best for your target audience and what isn’t working at all.

You’ll be able to view reach, likes, saves, shares, comments and plays. Keep in mind that the number of plays can be higher than your reach since users can watch a Reels clip more than once.

Your Reels analytics are located within Instagram Insights on the Instagram app, which is only available for business accounts.

Reels analytics for Facebook pages appear to be in the works as of 2021.

Still embracing TikTok? See our 15 tips to better market your brand on the video platform.

As you’re looking into expanding into Reels, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory and our 21-day free trial. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Reels: What it is and 3 reasons why you should use it for your business

Reels is among the new features you’ve likely noticed on either Facebook, Instagram or both.

It’s definitely how Facebook (which owns Instagram) is attempting to combat the popularity of TikTok, a newer social video app that is exploding among younger audiences.

As of 2021, Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users, while TikTok has reached 1 billion monthly active users.

Similar to how Facebook copied the Stories feature from Snapchat, it’s going with the same playbook for Reels from TikTok. The strategy effectively rocketed the use of Instagram Stories over Snapchat Stories. However, time will tell if this will happen against TikTok with Reels.

But what is Reels? And why should your business use them?

What is Reels?

Reels is a feature where users can create and share fun, short videos using a catalog of music and other media. More specifically, they are 15-second, multi-clip videos that can have sound, music and other effects added to them. 

If you’re familiar with TikTok videos, then you’re familiar with the capabilities of Reels.

The purpose of Reels is to entertain and inspire creativity.

Why you should try Reels

There are three reasons why you should consider incorporating Reels into your social media marketing strategy.

Improved visibility and discoverability

Because Reels is a prioritized feature on Instagram and Facebook, the platforms are giving prioritized status to all Reels-related content you post.

This expands to users’ news feeds, the “Explore” section of Instagram and a dedicated Reels section on Instagram (located in the center of the navigation bar).

In other words, prime-time visibility for your target audience.

The reason for the prioritization is because Facebook and Instagram want to encourage users to start using the feature, so now is the time to jump in and experiment.

Opportunity to make your brand more personable

Because of the nature of Reels, the feature offers your brand the opportunity to share fun and personable content that will entertain your audience and show a potentially relatable side of your brand.

Just make sure that whatever you experiment with and create on Reels is true to your brand. Being fun and using music and effects in your video clips can quickly go off track if you’re not paying attention.

Lower competition

When a social media feature is new, it can take many brands a while to adapt to it and start using it.

The sooner you can begin experimenting with Reels, the further ahead you can get on your own competition. Think of it this way: Even just experimenting now will make you the experienced brand when your competition is just starting to experiment.

In conclusion

Keep in mind that the use of Reels on Facebook or Instagram is not a substitute for your brand’s presence on TikTok. If you’re trying to reach a younger target audience, TikTok should be part of your strategy as long as it’s a relevant space for the users you’re trying to reach. 

In other words, it doesn’t matter how the battle for users between Facebook and TikTok ends up. TikTok is a relevant social media app for now and still deserves consideration.

See our 15 tips to market your brand on TikTok.

For some inspiration, check out Walmart and Sephora since they are major brands that are already using Reels.

While you’re considering how to set achievable marketing goals, think about your digital marketing process. Is it everything you want it to be? DailyStory features automation, audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

7 ranking factors to know about the Facebook Algorithm

Facebook is still the largest social media network today.

As of the second quarter of 2021, Facebook had about 2.89 billion monly active users.

At the core of the platform is the news feed, which is controlled by the Facebook Algorithm. The Facebook Algorithm controls what each user sees in his or her news feed, based on perceived interests, past engagement and other user data. The posts are not chronologically ordered. The goal is to provide the best user experience, but the downside impacts organic reach for brands through Facebook pages.

The Facebook Algorithm is essentially a series of calculations, but the specifics are not publicly shared in order to prevent anyone from “gaming the system.” Of course, Facebook has shared the overall logic of the algorithm.

In a nutshell, Facebook prioritized interactions with other users over brand pages years ago, which shook up Facebook marketing entirely. But understanding best practices as they relate to the Facebook Algorithm will help your content reach more people organically.

With small businesses alone comprising about 90 million Facebook pages on the platform, you’re already in a hyper-competitive environment that still will prioritize the wedding photos, for example, of a user’s friend over your content.

The following are seven key things to know about the Facebook Algorithm news feed ranking factors as of 2021. All of these factors directly impact the organic reach of any of your organic posts.

Inventory

Inventory is another word for available content on Facebook. From a user standpoint, it includes posts from users you’re connected with, posts from groups you’re part of and posts from any pages you like or follow.

The more content there is, the more competition your post has on Facebook.

Engagement

The Facebook Algorithm prioritizes meaningful interactions. This includes:

  • Comments and comment replies
  • Likes (or reactions)
  • Interaction with page content that’s shared by friends
  • Shares on Messenger

Relationships

Essentially, this ranking factor involves the user and interactions between users.

Think of it as including:

  • Who the poster of the content is and how complete his or her profile is
  • Who users interact with
  • Interactions between people (which weighs more than interactions between people and pages)

Content type

Mixing up the type of content you post is a popular approach to Facebook marketing in general. 

As far as the Facebook Algorithm is concerned, though, it’s looking at:

  • The type of post it is (whether it’s an image, link or video)
  • How informative that content is
  • The amount of time spent on that post

Dive deeper with our six Facebook marketing tips.

Timeliness

Timing is everything, right? For the Facebook Algorithm, it’s looking to show newer posts first on your news feed, but still not in a chronological order (since there are other factors in play). 

It considers the time of posting and the current time as it weighs the recency of posts.

Predictions

In the simplest terms, the Facebook Algorithm uses your actions (such as searches, for example) to predict what you might engage with in your news feed.

It’s a calculation that aims to understand your likes and dislikes so that your news feed is something you’ll want to stay on (and return to).

Relevancy score

Ultimately, with all ranking factors in play, the Facebook Algorithm assigns every piece of content a relevancy score that indicates how relevant it is for any given user. This score differs, based on the user in question.

A higher score means that your content will more likely be shown in the user’s news feed, while a lower score is far less likely.

In conclusion

While it’s important to be aware of how the Facebook Algorithm views your content, no one knows exactly how each calculation works.

Instead, focus on your overall content marketing strategy, optimize your Facebook page while you’re thinking about it and avoid these 13 biggest mistakes that many businesses make on the world’s largest social media network.

As you better understand the Facebook Algorithm, consider optimizing your digital marketing process, such as automation, audience segmentation and enhanced email marketing capabilities, to name a few. DailyStory can help. Schedule your free demo with us today.

6 Facebook marketing tips you should know

It’s hard to imagine a business that doesn’t at least have a presence on Facebook. But is your brand taking advantage of all the marketing opportunities that exist on the platform?

With more than 2.8 million monthly users, Facebook still holds the title of being the biggest social media network. And while a primary use for users is to connect with friends and family, two-thirds of Facebook users visit a local business Facebook Page at least once per week.

See our 12 tips to optimize your Facebook business page.

The following are six Facebook marketing tips that you should know to better reach and engage with your target audience.

Set your Facebook goals

While obvious, determining your goals for Facebook is critical to moving forward with any marketing strategy.

For instance, you might want to generate sales leads, increase your website traffic or improve customer service.

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong goal here. Just be sure to evaluate what’s most important to your brand. Then, get specific and set a timeline to achieve it.

Define your target audience on Facebook

Understanding who you want to reach should be at the core of any digital marketing strategy. 

If you’re an existing business, auditing your customer database is a great place to start. Who are your best customers?

If you’re new, part of your overall business plan should already have identified your target audience.

Either way, you want to answer the following questions:

  • How old are they?
  • Where do they live or are they traveling? If traveling, where from?
  • What are their needs or problems that you can solve?
  • How often and when are they using Facebook?

Of course, the more demographic information you can determine, the better. Marketing too broadly is less successful than finding your niche.

On the flip side, if you have an existing Facebook page, take note of your follower demographics. You can find this in the Insights section of your page and then click on Followers.

It helps to understand both who you want to reach and who is already following you. This will help shape your messaging and even specific campaigns you might want to run.

Plan your mix of Facebook content

When it comes to the content you publish on Facebook, there are several factors to keep in mind.

First, your goals, which should already be set. Second, your target audience. Who are you talking to?

Then, variety is imperative. However, to simply advise “variety” is a disservice. There’s more to it than that. 

One general rule of thumb is to strive for the 80-20 Rule, where about 80 percent of your posts inform, educate and/or entertain. And the other 20 percent is used to promote your brand and/or services and products.

Another approach is the Rule of Thirds, where one-third of your Facebook content is intended to share ideas and stories, another third strives for personal interactions with your followers and the last third promotes your business.

The key is to not go too hard on the sales posts. Not only will you struggle to reach and engage your target audience, but Facebook’s algorithm does not like overpromoting pages.

So, while you’re striving to break up your promotions among other content that’s intended to purely reach and engage with your target audience, you also must consider mixing up the actual content types:

  • Text-only posts
  • Link-preview posts
  • Image posts
  • Videos
  • Facebook Lives
  • Facebook Stories

A content calendar can help you plan and stay organized. In addition, refer to our tips for curated content so that you’re not having to spin your wheels creating every piece of content from scratch.

And it never hurts to approach your Facebook publishing with an overall content marketing strategy.

Explore other Facebook tools

Facebook is a more robust platform than just what you can do with a business page. And, of course, because every business is different, it’s worth experimenting to see what additional options could work for your brand and audience to attain your goals.

Other Facebook tools include:

Experiment with Facebook ads and pixel

Organic reach is not what it used to be, largely due to changes in the Facebook algorithm, which controls what is shown to users in their news feeds based on a number of engagement and other factors.

While the actual formula of the Facebook algorithm is always shifting (and always a secret), posts from friends and family take priority. This puts pressure on brands to stand out in order to reach their target audience. 

And even if your brand is creating and publishing great, engaging content, you may still need to consider paying for the boost you need to reach your target audience.

The Facebook Pixel is a simple piece of code that you can embed in your website to track conversions from Facebook, retarget those who’ve already visited your website and build custom audiences for future ads.

See our seven tips to better target your Facebook ads.

Measure your Facebook performance

Facebook is a living, breathing social media platform, and your marketing not only has to rise to the occasion but be monitored and tracked as well. 

You must understand what’s working and what’s not so that you can pivot your Facebook strategy as needed.

Fortunately, Facebook Insights is a section on your business page that can help you for free. It can help you monitor:

  • Post reach
  • Post engagement
  • Which posts result in followers unliking your page
  • Overall audience and follower demographics

Check out our snapshot of Facebook Insights to help you better understand all the metrics available to you.

Of course, Facebook metrics also can be tracked through various social media management tools. So, you can choose the best approach and methodology for your business.

As you’re working through your Facebook marketing strategy, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

13 biggest mistakes businesses make on Facebook (and how to avoid them)

An obvious tool in many digital marketing strategies, Facebook gives your business the ability to share content, engage with your followers and target potential customers. But it’s also an easy space to make any number of mistakes.

The good news is that done right, Facebook can contribute to the success of your business.

About two-thirds of Facebook users visit a local business Page at least once a week.

Dig deeper into the challenges and opportunities of the world’s largest social network.

The following are 13 of the biggest mistakes businesses make on Facebook, as well as tips to avoid making them in the first place.

Not defining your Facebook goals

When you haven’t defined your goals for your Facebook presence, your page is going to reflect that indirection. 

Possibilities for goals include (but are not limited to):

  • Driving sales
  • Generating traffic to your website
  • Building awareness of your brand

It’s easy to think that Facebook isn’t working for your business when you don’t have a set goal. Take the time to determine what you want to achieve. Then, it’s easier for you to build a strategy to support that goal.

Using a Facebook profile rather than a Facebook page

It’s very important for you to use a Facebook business page to represent your business. Not only does it appear unprofessional, but it also:

  • Does not offer any analytics tools, so you won’t fully understand what is working and what isn’t at a glance
  • Makes it impossible for you to run any paid Facebook ads (either boosted posts or full ad campaigns)
  • Could violate Facebook’s Terms of Service, which could end up in a deletion of your profile without warning

To avoid any other issues in addition to those, be sure to create a Facebook business page for your business. It’s free and simple to do.

Failing to show a personal side of your business

Because most users join Facebook to connect with their friends and family, you’re missing an opportunity by hiding behind your brand.

Impersonal (robotic-like) posts will unfortunately never gain traction with your target audience.

Instead, think about communicating like a real human when posting. Get personal. There is a human side of your business. This is a great place to showcase that.

You can share employee stories, upload photos or videos of your workplace and/or customers and even host Facebook Live videos, where you can really share your personality as you discuss common questions, talk about new products and more.

Making everything about you

If you’re thinking that social media is merely another place to broadcast about your business, you’ll never see the engagement you’re aiming for.

And, of course, Facebook (like all social media) is intended to be a platform of connection and conversation. Your target audience is only going to follow you or share (or engage with) your posts if your content is relevant, informative or empowering to them in some way.

For example, instead of boasting about how great your business is because of a milestone you hit in follower or sales, use the opportunity to thank your audience for their support in a personalized post.

Whenever you have the opportunity to make your content about your customers and potential customers rather than yourself or your business, do so. That will always be the most engaging approach.

Using only one content type in your posts

It’s important to perform a quick audit of your posts. Are you using only one content type?

For example, is every post a link? Or, are they all generic stock images? 

Understandably, a mix of content will perform better on Facebook. In particular, you’ll want to incorporate videos into your posting strategy.

The average engagement rate for Facebook video posts is 0.26 percent, while the average engagement rate overall is just 0.18 percent.

Ideally, you’re also incorporating some element of humor, attention-grabbing visuals, event announcements and so on.

Creating weekly or monthly themes can help boost the execution of a thoroughly executed mix of content. A content calendar, in particular, can help you organize your planning.

Posting without a plan

A relaxed demeanor on your Facebook page has engagement perks, for sure. You’ll appear more human, relatable and engaging.

But operating without any sort of plan or strategy is a problem for many businesses on Facebook.

It’s very difficult to be consistent and hit your goals if your posts are more “shooting from the hip” than “sniping a specific target.”

Again, themes and a content calendar can help you overcome this.

Never measuring your performance

This sounds obvious, but it’s easy for businesses to neglect monitoring the performance of their Facebook pages.

Fortunately, it’s easy enough to stay on top of. See our guide for exploring Facebook Insights.

Knowing what works and doesn’t work for your target audience helps you pivot as needed and adjust your strategy so that you’re content can continually improve and be that much more engaging.

Not knowing what is happening on your page is a big mistake and a lost opportunity.

Inconsistent posting

It’s more common than you think. A business posts several posts a day for several days and then, boom. Disappears. Possibly even for weeks.

This isn’t just a problem from the perspective of your followers and potential customers, it impacts the consideration of your Facebook page in the platform’s news feed algorithm. 

Facebook’s algorithm works in the back end of the social platform with the goal of showing content in each user’s news feed that the user will most likely engage with. 

Inconsistent posting on your part is a red flag to the algorithm. Posting fresh content consistently is a good signal to the algorithm.

Don’t stress over the quantity. Once a day or even once every other day should be fine as long as you’re consistent with your overall schedule.

Unbalanced sales posts

There is a difficult balance you must strike when it comes to mixing in your sale posts amid other content you’re sharing.

Some businesses post too many and appear pushy.

Some businesses post too few and lose the opportunity to drive any sales from Facebook.

Mix in your sale and discount posts among your other content. Peppering in is not an exact science, but strive for one in five posts at most.

Lacking an optimized Facebook page

First impressions are everything, whether that’s your website or Facebook page.

If your page is vague or unclear in any way, especially with the key information most users are seeking (such as address, contact information and description of products or services), then you lose the potential customer.

See our 12 tips to optimize your Facebook business page.

Improper use of Facebook groups

Don’t get us wrong, there is potential for Facebook groups to be a useful tool for your business, when done right.

See our 12 tips to help grow your business using Facebook groups.

When businesses create Facebook groups for the sole intention of selling to members, the success can be hit and miss (and often miss). Just remember that Facebook created the groups feature for users to connect with each other over common interests. The more you can leverage that desire from participating group members and the more you can leverage multiple voices and viewpoints, the more engaging your group will be.

Not investing in at least some paid advertising

Gone are the days where a business can often see great organic reach and growth on social media platforms.

But living in denial is not going to get your business anywhere.

Whether you’re boosting a Facebook post or creating a specific Facebook ad campaign, it’s wise to consider investing at least some of your marketing budget into the platform.

See our six tips to maximize your social media advertising budget.

The benefits of at least some advertising include:

  • Targeting the demographic of your best potential customers
  • Reaching beyond your Facebook following
  • Controlling your daily or lifetime budget so that you’re only spending what you want

Check out our seven tips to get more out of your Facebook ads.

Ignoring comments

This can easily be a deathblow to any brand on social media if comments are left entirely unmonitored.

First, remember that users are making the effort to comment on your post. They want you to know that they’re listening. If they are not responded to in some way, they’re less likely to engage again.

Pages that engage with their commenters are typically more successful than pages that don’t.

In addition, a negative comment thread can easily spiral out of control and impact your brand in long-lasting ways.

As you’re working to avoid the most common mistakes that businesses make on Facebook, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

12 expert tips to optimize your Facebook business page

Considered the world’s biggest social network, Facebook likely already has some of your attention, one way or another. And, if you have a business, it’s important you optimize your Facebook business page to its full potential.

Check out our six tips to boost your marketing on Facebook.

Why you need a Facebook business page

About two-thirds of adults in the U.S. say that they are Facebook users, according to Pew Research Center, and about 74 percent of Facebook users visit the platform daily.

And to be considered relevant these days, every business must at least consider an active Facebook business page. Beyond just relevancy, though, a Facebook business page can help your business promote and/or share its services or products and engage in effective customer support. In addition, social media accounts do rank fairly high on search engine result pages. In other words, your social media presence can boost your search engine optimization (SEO).

A Facebook page can be considered your “micro-site” within the platform that highlights your business and shares various details with users.

Be sure to check out our snapshot of the challenges and opportunities of Facebook for small businesses as you’re optimizing your Facebook business Page.

The following are 12 tips to optimize your Facebook page and grow your business on “the social network.”

Choose the correct Facebook business page type

When creating your Facebook business page, you’re asked what type of page applies best to your business and purpose.

It’s important to choose wisely:

  • Local business or place (Only pick this category if you have a physical location address. Don’t worry if you have multiple locations or more locations in the future.)
  • Company
  • Brand or product
  • Public figure
  • Entertainment
  • Cause or community

Change your Facebook business page type

For the right messaging, it’s key to set up your page correctly from the start. However, if you’ve already created your Facebook page (or someone else did) and it’s not the right category, here’s how you can fix it:

  • Navigate to your Facebook page
  • Click “Edit Page Info” on the left side of your page
  • Next to “Categories,” you’ll be able to select an option from the dropdown list
  • Click “Save Changes”

Branch out with Location Pages (if applicable)

If your business doesn’t have multiple locations, you can skip this tip.

But if it does (or will), read on.

Think of Facebook Location Pages as the ability to set a “parent-child” page relationship for your business. Your main Facebook business page should be the “parent” for your brand, while the “child” pages are the location pages for your multiple locations.

Franchise Facebook location page example

As a simple example, consider the franchise business McDonald’s (and assume it only has three locations for the purpose of this example). There would be the main McDonald’s Facebook page and then three separate location pages for each of its physical locations. 

This relationship means that you can post content to your main page that then automatically filters down to your location pages. It also means that users can interact with your location pages separately by checking in, giving you a rating, posting reviews and so on. And, of course, a location page can share its own content in addition to whatever is filtering down from the main page.

Find out more about how to set up location pages on Facebook.

Create a unique username for your page

A custom username for your Facebook business page helps users find your page (and tag it in posts) more easily. It also will give you a shorter and cleaner-looking URL.

So, instead of a “facebook.com” followed by miscellaneous numbers and more, it can simply be your brand name at the end.

Of course, you’ll want to keep your brand name in mind when creating your unique username. If your preferred username is already taken (which is always possible), consider slight variations, such as adding “the,” “co,” “inc” or other relevant options. Do your best to keep your username as consistent as possible across social media platforms.

Example Facebook page variations

Other Facebook page username variations include (but are not limited to):

  • You must be an admin to create a username.
  • Spaces or underscores are unavailable to use, but you can have periods separating words.
  • Capitalizing any words to enhance readability won’t have an impact if users type lowercase letters to find you.
  • Usernames must be between five and 50 characters.

Find out more about creating a custom Facebook page username.

Maintain an ‘SEO mindset’ when optimizing your Facebook business page

As we’ve already mentioned, active social media profiles rank well in search engine queries. 

Therefore, it’s only in your best interest to include relevant keywords throughout your Facebook page. The keywords that matter for your website should matter on your page. 

Don’t overdo it, though. Just like on your website, you want to consider the user experience first. Keyword dumping not only makes for an awkward (and ineffective) first impression, search engines often catch and flag such practices.

Fill out your page information fields

Sometimes, in the haste of creating a Facebook business page, a few (or many) relevant page information fields may go overlooked. The “About” section includes such information as your page name, description, categories, contact information, location and operating business hours. 

Every field matters and should be filled out in a thoughtful manner. Remember, this is your opportunity to maximize the SEO value of your Facebook page and provide added value for your visitors as well.

When it comes to your operating hours, keep in mind that while Google My Business will allow you to set custom hours for holidays, Facebook does not. If you have special hours to communicate to your audience, be sure to post and/or advertise those separately on your Facebook page.

Go beyond the traditional cover photo

Cover photos have long been a fixture of Facebook page features. But now, you can go beyond the traditional image.

You can treat the top spot on your Facebook business page as a featured photo section by clicking on the “Edit” button and then “Edit Slideshow.” You also have the opportunity to upload a video to share even more about your brand with Facebook users.

Cover photos display at 820 by 312 pixels on computers and 640 by 360 pixels on smartphones. Any cover video should be at least 1250 by 312 pixels and between 20 and 90 seconds long.

There are still Facebook guidelines to follow, however, so be sure to review them.

Use the call-to-action button on your Facebook business page

The call-to-action button can enable users to easily interact with you, help them learn more about your business and so on.

Because there are a number of options to use this button for, consider your goals, what might make the most sense for your business and what users most likely would want or need to do when they visit your Facebook business page.

If you’re looking to increase website traffic, the best option is likely the “Learn More” button linking to your website homepage.

Generate leads from your Facebook page

For lead generation, consider using the “Sign Up” button to link to a webinar sign-up page.

Review all the options and see what fits best, and remember that you can change your CTA button whenever your goal or intention changes.

To edit your CTA button, click on it when you’re signed in. Then, “edit button.” You can select the preferred action from a list. You’ll be able to monitor the activity it generates in Facebook Insights.

Activate reviews for your Facebook business page

Engagement and real-time feedback are critical components to all social media. But before you blindly turn on the review section of your Facebook page, be advised that you should consider and plan an entire review strategy:

  • What should you do if you receive a negative review? How should you respond?
  • How about a positive review?

Know what your plan is and then definitely feel empowered to go for it. To do this, go to your Facebook business page, click on “Settings” and then under “General,” click on “Reviews.” You can then “allow visitors to review this page.” 

Of course, if you’re not ready, be sure to “disable reviews” until you are. 

Just remember that reviews are a great way to gather testimonials and highlight the value of your business.

Embrace Messenger on your Facebook business page

Facebook Messenger is a valuable customer service tool. However, just like reviews, you should have a strategy in place on how quickly you can respond and how you should respond to incoming messages.

Your responsiveness rate will appear on your page and shows users how efficient you are at responding to messages. 

Of course, there are Messenger bots that can be used to help with the most basic of inquiries. 

To activate Messenger for your page, click on “Settings.” Under “General,” click on “Messages” and then click on the button that says “allow people to contact my page privately by showing the message button.”

Organize your page tabs

This is an easy optimization to overlook, but it’s worth doing. Depending on your business, some of the available Facebook page tabs might be more of a priority for your business.

Facebook offers some templates that can help suggest a relevant arrangement of tabs. Under “Settings” and then “Edit Page,” you’ll see the various templates. You can also drag the tabs into a custom order that you prefer.

Claim any unofficial pages

If you search for your brand’s name and find other pages that appear to be your brand but aren’t yours, these are often unofficial, automatically created pages.

Fortunately, this is a solvable problem.

Facebook creates automatic pages almost as a placeholder, which gives visitors an opportunity to check in and post reviews and/or comments about the location. This can happen before or after you create your own page.

To solve for the existence of an unofficial page, you can claim the page and even merge it with yours if you want. The key is that you verify your main Facebook page.

Verify ownership of an unofficial Facebook business page

You can do this by:

  • Phone call
  • Email
  • Utility or phone bill
  • Business license
  • Business tax file
  • Certificate of formation
  • Articles of incorporation

Once the page is verified (usually within 24 hours), you can navigate to the unofficial duplicate page, select “Is this your business?” from the drop-down menu. Choose “Merge into a verified page you manage.” Then, select your page from the drop-down menu and submit.

Because unofficial pages can pop up from time to time, it’s a best practice to regularly check for them.

Review your Facebook Insights

Monitoring your Facebook metrics and understanding what’s working on your Facebook page (and what’s not) plays a big role in continuing to optimize your page and your content as your brand, audience or even Facebook itself evolves.

Keep it simple but consistent when reviewing your page’s performance. Set at least one time a week to review and determine if anything needs to change about your strategy.

Conclusion

Regardless of the time and effort you invest into your Facebook business page and overall presence, it is not an adequate substitute for your own website. Think of it this way: If Facebook was shut down tomorrow, where could you be found online? Or, in a more realistic sense, what if you were reported and banned on Facebook? Always make sure that you exist on a platform that you own and control (such as your own website).

See the 13 biggest mistakes businesses make on Facebook (and how to avoid them).

Now that you have your Facebook page working for you and not against you, consider leveling up your digital marketing process. Consider DailyStory, with such features as automation and audience segmentation. Schedule your free demo with us today.

7 tips to better target your Facebook ads (and see more results)

Advertising on Facebook is a great way to reach a lot of people. 

It is the No. 1 social media network, after all, reaching about 59 percent of the world’s social networking population.

But just like with any advertising, Facebook ads are only as effective as your audience targeting. And while Facebook offers many ways to reach the audience most likely to engage with your ad, the strategy falls on you.

But the work is worth it. Facebook ads reach about 2.14 billion people. In addition, the average Facebook user clicks on 12 ads per month.

Check out our six tips to boost your Facebook marketing overall.

The following are seven tips to better target your ideal audience with Facebook ads so that you can boost your results and avoid burning ad dollars.

Start with the basics

When you’re creating Facebook ads, the first thing Facebook asks you to do is choose your target market by:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Gender

These are a great start, but they’re still just the beginning. Leaving your audience demographics at these three parameters is far too broad to ensure effective targeting (and results). When the audience is too large, the performance of your Facebook ads suffers.

Of course, on the flip side, you don’t want to ignore these selections either. Be sure that you’re selecting a geographic area that makes sense and an age range that you’ve thought through. For example, just because everyone between the ages of 18 and 65 could use your product and/or service doesn’t mean that’s who you should be targeting. 

When it comes to gender, maybe your ad could appeal to either choice. However, it’s always worth considering tailoring your ad creative to each and running two different ads that are that much more specific. In other words, don’t be afraid to think outside the box as you drill down into the most specific message for the most specific target audience.

Identify your audience’s interests

Facebook offers thousands of interests to choose from when narrowing your target audience for your Facebook ad.

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

We recommend brainstorming specific topics and even people whom only the most avid fans you’re looking for would be interested in. For example, let’s say you’re looking to target people who like boxing. George Foreman is a popular boxer, but many people know who he is (and may only like him for his grills). You’d fare far better with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez as an interest to get to avid boxing fans.

Once you have some key interests identified, you can go into the ad settings and click on the “Interests” section. Take note that as you type in interests, Facebook will auto-populate some suggestions for you as well. You’ll see a description of the interest and how many people on the platform currently have it.

Definitely select multiple interests. Again, going too broad won’t help your Facebook ad or your advertising goals.

If you’re only looking to target one interest, be sure to cross that with additional demographic filters so that you’re narrowing your audience as much as possible.

Find who is already looking to buy your product (or service)

Facebook collects a lot of data, so the platform generally knows if you’ve been searching online to potentially buy something.

There’s a lot of potential for audience targeting there since about 73 percent of consumers research a product online before making a purchase.

So, even if these consumers haven’t heard of your business before but are searching on your competitors’ websites, you have the opportunity to target them with your Facebook ads (and hopefully convince them to purchase from you, not your competitors).

To do this, there is a “Behaviors” section in the Facebook ad settings.

There are many folders to choose from (and even more sub-folders within those), including “purchase behavior.” 

We recommend browsing through the available behaviors to choose what is most applicable to the type of person you’re hoping to reach.

Get creative with your demographics

Filter by income level

Facebook has shifted how you can target your audience by income level, but it’s still an option (and definitely an option you should consider).

By clicking on the “Demographics” section in your ad settings, you’ll now see options tied to “top percentage” based on household income. Of course this data is inferred by Facebook through publicly available data, but narrowing your audience by general income level can also help boost your ad performance (particularly if you’re seeking individuals with more disposable income).

Look for your target audience’s profession

When thinking about your target audience’s interests and behaviors, you likely have an idea of ideal professions or workplaces for that potential customer.

Navigate to “work” within the “Demographics” section of your ad audience settings to make your targeting selections.

You can select by “Employers,” “Industries,” “Job Titles” and so on.

Choose an education level

Whether it relates to the product and/or service you’re selling or just the type of voice and message you’re using in your Facebook ad, you can filter by education level.

You’ll find the education-level filters under the “Demographics” section.

In addition, you can narrow your audience down by “field of study,” “school attended” or “undergrad years.”

Know that about 82 percent of college graduates are on Facebook.

Identify parents

The great thing about the Facebook ad parent filter in audience targeting is that not only can you target parents, but you can target them with children of a certain age.

This is important because how you might connect with a parent of a toddler is a bit different that what you might say to a parent of an older teenager.

You’ll find “All Parents” under the “Demographics” section and can narrow your search from there using the options within it.

Life events can be an effective targeting filter

Whether someone just began a new relationship, is coming up on an anniversary, started a new job, have a birthday coming, know someone with a birthday coming up (and so on), these are pivotal life events where you can get your message to key potential customers at just the right moment.

There are a number of “Life Event” filters under the “Demographics” section that you can choose from.

Likely, one of these could inspire an all-new ad for you to create.

Think outside the box with behaviors

Narrow down with politics

Depending on the goal of your Facebook ad, finding those who are likely to engage with political content could be ideal.

You can find the “Politics” filter under the “Behaviors” section.

Looking for gamers?

If your Facebook is trying to connect with gamers, you’re in luck.

Under “Digital Activities” within the “Behaviors” section, you can filter your audience by type of gamer and more.

Filter by the device used

Whether someone is on Facebook through a mobile device or not, may or may not matter to your business. 

But it definitely could if you’re promoting an app download or something else tied to a smartphone.

You can narrow this down by going to the “Behaviors” section and then “Mobile Device User” and/or “Mobile Device User/Device Use Time.” 

Just keep in mind that when you’re specifically advertising to mobile users only, you want to make extra sure that your Facebook ad is eye-catching even on a small screen.

Find frequent travelers

Depending on who you’re trying to reach, traveling might be an identifying hobby or activity for them.

Whether it’s frequent travelers or simply those who commute, you can locate the “Travel” filter under the “Behaviors” section.

Not sure why you would factor in traveling unless your in the travel industry specifically? Thank about commuters. They have a lot of passive time to kill and would be a great target for the promotion of a new podcast, for example.

Remember, you’re identifying the interests, behaviors and demographics that will get you in front of the people most likely to engage with your Facebook ad and potentially convert into a customer.

Exclude whoever you don’t need to reach as well

Almost as powerful as targeting key audiences is the ability to exclude those you don’t want or need to reach as well. 

This can work in a number of ways, depending on your goals. You’ll see the “Exclude” option in your ad settings.

Consider using different types of audiences

Custom Audiences

Custom Audiences on Facebook ads are an advanced feature where you can use Facebook to reach your existing contacts.

You may want to do this to reinforce your brand and brand loyalty among your customers. Of course, you can exclude your existing customers from being shown your Facebook ad as well.

Lookalike Audiences

Whether you have a Custom Audience to build a Lookalike Audience off of or not, you can also create one by using a Facebook tracking pixel on your website.

Either way, Facebook does the work by creating a similar audience based on the data available. You have the option to expand or shrink that audience in terms of broadening the search or not (similarity versus reach).

Want to learn more? Facebook actually offers free courses on how businesses (like yours) can best use their ad targeting options.

As you’re diving more into Facebook ads, it’s good to refresh yourself on the overall opportunities and challenges of Facebook for your business as well.

Plus, dive deeper into how to identify your target audience.

Looking to level up your digital marketing process beyond Facebook? Schedule your free demo of DailyStory today.

6 ways you can collect email addresses without a website

We’ve said it before. Email marketing is a critical component of any overall digital marketing strategy.

For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42.

Check out these 48 statistics that show the value of email marketing for your small business.

But what if you don’t have a website? How do you collect email addresses?

First, you can use DailyStory to not only host a landing page with a web form to physically collect email addresses, but also to then develop campaigns to message those email addresses.

(Landing page, web form or not, you at least want to have an email marketing platform.)

The following are six ways you can feed email addresses into your database to then market to later on.

Facebook ads

Facebook features a multitude of different ad campaign types, depending on your goal with any given ad campaign.

As far as capturing leads, Facebook offers lead generation ads, where email addresses can be captured within a form hosted on Facebook itself. You also can use a Facebook ad to drive traffic to a landing page (if you have one) with a web form to capture those email addresses.

Facebook ads can target your ideal audience. Just remember to offer a reason enticing enough for users to give you their email addresses. It could be a discount offer or a piece of premium content, so on.

Check out these seven tips to better target your Facebook ads.

Host contests

Even with a website, social media is often the best place to promote contests and giveaways.

Of course, we recommend reviewing required terms and conditions you need to provide in any contest, and it’s especially helpful to have a web form to capture email addresses and add them to your database.

A landing page (available through DailyStory) is the perfect solution to show the parameters and rules of your contest, as well as collect email addresses for entries.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to give away your own products or services. It can easily be something else that appeals to your target audience if you want. You also could partner with another company for a contest as well.

Dive deeper into Terms and Conditions and how to confirm your giveaways are legal.

Organic posts on social media

It’s the idea of not necessarily feeding all your content to a website blog but publishing it where your audience is. Potential social media platforms include (but are not limited to):

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

In addition, Medium.com could be an option for content publishing. The key is to decide who you’re trying to reach and what platform(s) you’re mostly like to find them.

You can include email newsletter sign-up call-to-actions within your content mix, giving those you are reaching an opportunity to get more from you.

See what every startup company should know about social media.

Guest appearances

Whether this is guest blogging for a popular website among your target audience or guest appearing on a podcast, the power of this approach resides in the fact that you’re getting in front of an audience you don’t normally connect with.

Be ready with both your call-to-action and an offer that makes people want to act.

Again, having an easy-to-find web form (via a link or other means) is imperative.

Speaking of guest blogging, see our seven tips to grow quality backlinks and improve your SEO.

Content upgrades

No matter where you’re publishing (social media, Medium.com, elsewhere), you could always deliver a little bit more in a nicer package.

That’s where content upgrades (or premium content) comes into play.

Developing a PDF version of a guide, a deeper dive into a topic or something else that addresses a pain point of your target audience is a great way to collect email addresses.

Ideally, this is evergreen content that’s consistently relevant and designed in a visually engaging way.

All you have to do is offer it for free and use a web form to collect a user’s information. Then, have that content automatically sent to that user. 

Users get the content upgrade. You get their email addresses. Win-win.

Dive deeper into what premium content is and how you can leverage it in your digital marketing.

Webinar hosting

As an expert in your industry, consider what topic you might be able to educate others on via a webinar.

Sign-ups can be promoted through your social media and other channels (and email addresses collected).

Even if you don’t get a lot of sign-ups (or any), the session can be recorded and repurposed for later and alternate uses.

See our 12 expert tips to help you host your first webinar.

In conclusion

Obviously, there are ways to collect email addresses and use email marketing to grow your business without a website.

However, we definitely recommend creating a website as soon as possible since it offers a consistent home for your promotions, lends credibility to your brand in the eyes of your customers and can help drive search engine rankings, among other reasons.

Check out our beginner’s guide for choosing and acquiring the perfect domain name for your business.

Need assistance not only capturing email addresses but maximizing your email marketing efforts? DailyStory features email automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Snapshot: Understanding your metrics on Facebook

If you’re managing a Facebook page, it’s critical to know what’s working (or not) with what you’re posting. It’s also important to get a real sense of who your audience is.

And all that data can be found in Facebook Insights.

You’ll find Facebook Insights by navigating to your Facebook page and clicking on “Insights.”

Meet the Overview section of Facebook Insights

It defaults to the Overview section, which gives you a one-stop-shop of sorts to get a sense of what’s happening on your page.

Notice that it also defaults to looking at the past seven days and is comparing those days to the seven days before that. This can be changed in the top left corner of the screen to today, yesterday or the past 28 days.

Use the Pages To Watch section at the bottom of the Overview page. The value of this is only limited to the pages you select to compare yourself to (competitors or similar pages are best). However, it will give you an overall gauge of how your page is doing.

There are a number of sections you can explore in depth in Facebook Insights, but two of the most helpful tend to be Posts and People.

Meet the Posts section

In Posts, you can see at a glance how your posts are performing, as well as data showing when your fans are online (which may help shape your post timing).

You also can control how the reach and engagement data are displayed, but the available list graph will show you how your latest posts compare to one another.

Ultimately, your strategy will dictate whether you value reach or engagement more. Typically, you should be taking both into consideration. Take note of what worked and what didn’t. Over time, these successes and misses will help shape your posting.

Meet the People section

The People section also holds a lot of relevant data for your Facebook strategy.

In it, you can see the gender, age and geographic breakdown of your audience, who you’re reaching and who you’re engaging. Plus, you’ll see how they stack up against Facebook’s overall audience.

Take a moment to explore Facebook Insights on your page. Get comfortable with the navigation of the data there, and make it a regular habit to check it. This will build an ongoing library of takeaways that will help you make better content and posting decisions on your page.

For more, hear from the social network itself.

While you’re at it, dive deeper into the opportunities and challenges of Facebook for small businesses and check out our 12 expert tips to optimize your Facebook business page.

Then, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentations and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Which social media platform is right for your company?

At a time when there are so many social media platforms and businesses know that they need to be relevant online, which platform is best?

The answer isn’t one size fits all. Most importantly, don’t assume that you have to spread out across all platforms. Without a planned strategy and the needed resources, you can do more harm than good by spreading yourself too thin across social media.

Here is a breakdown of each major social media platform, with a few posting tips for each:

YouTube equals billions of hours of videos

Every day, users watch a billion hours of video on YouTube, according to Hootsuite, and it is the 2nd most-visited website in existence, according to Alexa.

In 2018, 73 percent of Americans now use YouTube, according to Hootsuite.

If you’re targeting a younger audience, the top three platforms for teens are now YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, according to Hootsuite. In fact, Statista says that 96 percent of 18- to 24-year-old American internet users use YouTube.

For companies, YouTube might have a low barrier of entry, but video can be intimidating to jump into.

If you need a little inspiration, check out Lego, which has almost twice as many views as any other brand on YouTube. They put out consistent original content on multiple channels.

But remember that you’re an expert in your field. What are the micro moments that you’re always educating your customers on? Each of those can be a separate YouTube video.

Does your business create a product? Product review videos are huge. In fact, people have watched 50,000 years of product review videos.

For the best chance of being discovered on YouTube, optimize everything for search. Otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), think about keywords and phrases that users will search that your video should appear as a result. Then, use them in your caption and title.

Check out our 20 tips to grow your YouTube channel subscribers.

Facebook can’t be ignored

Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms, currently only ranking behind Google and YouTube as most visited website worldwide.

There are over 2.38 billion monthly active users globally as of March 31, 2019, according to the social network, which saw an 8 percent increase year over year.

To put it another way, 63 percent of all Americans used Facebook in 2018, according to Hootsuite.

For mobile specifically, Facebook Messenger is the most downloaded app, followed by the main Facebook app, according to Hootsuite.

Not only are your customers (and potential customers) on Facebook, your competition is likely there as well. For most businesses, Facebook is a good platform to start with.

Dive deeper into the opportunities and challenges of Facebook for small businesses.

As far as posting, the highest traffic on Facebook happens between 1 to 3 p.m., according to Bit.ly.

But a Facebook post at 7 p.m. will result in more clicks on average than posting at 8 p.m., according to Forbes. Engagement also is 18 percent higher on Thursdays and Fridays (as people start thinking about the upcoming weekend), according to Bit.ly.

Learn how to better understand your metrics on Facebook.

So, while you have the ability to reach more people during peak times, increased engagement happens in the evenings (think post-dinner).

Check out our guides to optimize your Facebook business page or Facebook group to help grow your business.

Instagram great for visuals, retail

Instagram is a visual-first sharing social media platform. The audience has grown from 90 million monthly active users in January 2013 to 1 billion monthly active users as of June 2018, according to Hubspot.

It’s a solid No. 3 most-used social media platform in the United States, but it’s important to remember that Instagram is owned by Facebook, which can lead to cross-posting and advertising opportunities.

But more than anything, Instagram is known for its younger audience. About 71 percent of young adults (ages 18 to 24) used Instagram in 2018, compared with 37 percent who did so in 2013, according to the Pew Research Center.

Dive into the opportunities and challenges of Instagram for small businesses.

Retail brands do particularly well on Instagram. Eight of the top 15 most followed brands on Instagram are retail businesses, according to Statista.

With posting, photos showing faces on Instagram get 38 percent more likes than those not showing faces. SproutSocial also reports that images with a single dominant color generate 17 percent more likes than images with multiple dominant colors.

In addition, more negative space and blue (versus red) perform better.

There’s also not a lot of evidence to suggest any particular caption length drives increased engagement. So, shorter isn’t better or worse than longer captions. Focus on the quality instead.

See our six tips to master hashtags on Instagram.

Twitter smaller and more urban

About 326 million people use Twitter every month, according to the platform. This is 9 million fewer than it had in mid-2018, and 4 million fewer than late 2017. The decline is largely being attributed to the purge of spambot accounts.

Nonetheless, Twitter is a smaller social platform, with 24 percent of American internet users on it, according to Statista. The audience also skews more urban than rural.

Dive into the opportunities and challenges of Twitter for small businesses.

The typical half life of a tweet is about 24 minutes. This means that a tweet gets half of its interactions in the first 24 minutes, with the rest slowly coming in over time at a slower rate. Brands tweeted an average of 122 times a month last year, according to Statista.

Learn how to better understand your Twitter metrics.

While Hootsuite says that the best time to tweet is 3 p.m. on weekdays, keep an eye on your analytics. Everyone’s audience can act and engage a little differently. Tweets with GIFs also perform 55 percent better, according to Twitter. Video and images enhance engagement as well, so think about mixing your tweets up and going beyond the text-only tweet.

Check out our eight expert tips to market your business better on Twitter.

Any other social media platforms?

Depending on your business niche, TikTok (a Gen Z video platform), Snapchat (a dynamic messaging platform) and Pinterest (an aspirational idea platform) could have a place in your strategy. However, do your research first, and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is my targeted audience on this platform?
  • Which brands are successful on this platform?
  • Do I have the time and resources to invest in a niche platform?

Unsure whether to use Instagram, Snapchat or Tiktok to reach a teenage audience? See our guide.

Every social media platform is different, with its own nuances and audiences. As a brand, focus on one first, find your rhythm there and then branch out to the next.

To expand beyond social media in your digital marketing, see our Digital Marketing 101 Guide for Beginners.

Then, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentations and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.