Articles and News

Merrick, NY—Social media, especially Facebook, is an evolving, fluid channel to connect with your customers. How one uses it continues to change. And as many marketers have found, the rules, guidelines, and best practices can—and often do—change from week to week until it becomes a real headache to figure out what's best for your company, especially within a budget.

Because of the dynamic nature of social media, keeping up with what works is always a challenge. While the strategies we've covered in the last few months are still workable (insights, boosting, and HootSuite, to name a few) we've been talking with the heads of some smart companies who do nothing but think about how their customers can better use Facebook to create more relationships and more sales.

The Centurion learned a few great strategies in our talks with TheJewelerBlog's Howard Cohen and Red Rocket Video's Damian Capello. The pair recently launched a new program to offer Facebook advertising plans for jewelers. Here are a few pearls of wisdom to consider as you plan your social media efforts:

If you run a business page, only 10% of your fans see a post. "Yes, really. If you've got 2,000 fans, only 200 of them see a single post," says Cohen. Cohen points out that some posters are annoyed that they now have to pay to 'boost' a post instead of getting distribution for free, but that paying for distribution is where Facebook is going."

Cohen also points out that having a strategy for 'liking' posts among family and close friends works. One of his clients, a jeweler and his wife, both comment on his company's posts. That way, his friends and her friends both see the post and suddenly that share may go from 10% to 50% effective - at no additional cost.

Facebook knows what you like and targets ads accordingly. To target ads, Facebook takes information from your profile and your history of 'liked' pages. While this isn't 100% accurate, if you see an ad that's not applicable, you have choices to remove it and let Facebook know why. Yes, that feedback is another way that Facebook has to keep up your preferences.

Ads on the right-hand side are so last decade. Why? "Because only desktop users still see them," says Capello. "Today's most effective ads are in the timeline or newsfeed where a smart phone, laptop, tablet, etc. user sees them. Your posts communicate with the customer in a friendly manner, a manner more likely to engage the customer." As a company/brand, your posts have become your ads, your brand message.

Don't be afraid of negative feedback. "Most business are afraid of negative feedback," says Capello. His advice? "Don't run from it. Face it and deal with it." Handle negative feedback online the same way you would in your store and salvage what you can with your customer if it comes to that. An honest effort goes a long way towards making an unhappy customer not post about his/her experiences. 

Your mix of posts should be both business and social. "Social can include weather, the local football team, etc." says Capello. His company has a precise ratio of business to social posts that they provide to clients.  He recommends posting at least once a day, noting his most successful clients post four and five times a day.

"Not posting is the worst thing you can do," says Capello. "Good or bad content is irrelevant, just say something! You'll learn what works and doesn't work instantly." (Editor’s note: there are differing schools of thought on this topic—some experts believe irrelevant content makes viewers tune out, so make sure to quickly identify what is and isn’t working, as Capello suggests.)

Newsfeed ads are the future—and the present. Consider what happens when you post on Facebook at 8am. "Much of your audience might not see it until 8pm and then they'd have to scroll through a lot of posts to find yours," says Capella. "With certain Facebook advertising, instead your posts will pop up first when they log on, not be buried further down, ensuring that it is seen."

"Not only that," says Cohen, "but you can cherry pick your demographics of who receives your ad/post. You can overlay demographics of income over zip code as well to hit your target market." Cohen notes that you still need a compelling message to turn your social media presence into sales.

For more information on Capella and Cohen’s Facebook advertising programs for jewelers, contact Cohen via TheJewelerBlog.