MaGIC Academy : Why Is It So Hard To Get Seen on Facebook?

Understanding Facebook

Pages, Ads & Likes (and

why it’s so hard to get seen

on Facebook…)

Josh Lim

MAGIC Academy

24 January 2014

Josh Lim, 31 years old

Founder, LikesBeforeLove.com

• Same birthday as the world wide web (August 6th)

• Has been doing social media even before it was

called social media.

• Has worked with clients such as WeChat, Celcom,

Petronas, Genovasi, Proton, Sony, Honda, Nivea,

Ippudo Ramen & many more.

• Has helped achieve cost per likes for clients even

as low as RM0.05 – RM0.15

• Is admin for over 50 Facebook pages, and helps

them optimize their ads and advises on content.

Josh Lim – Understanding Facebook Pages, Ads & Likes

MAGIC Academy

Today, we will briefly cover:

• A simple explanation of the sometimes confusing terms on Facebook• What you can be doing better – including content & Facebook Ads• What kind of content you should be posting, and how often• The value of a Facebook page – and how you can make money from it

Josh Lim – Understanding

Facebook Pages, Ads & Likes

MAGIC Academy



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“There are on average 1500

potential stories from friends,

pages to follow, and pages to

see and most people don’t

have time to see them all.

The news feed algorithm

responds to signals including

interaction from you and your

friends - in order to prioritize

an average of 300 out of this

1500 stories to show every

day. “

Source: Facebook (edited)

https://www.facebook.com/business/new

s/News-Feed-FYI-A-Window-Into-News-

Feed

“Why does certain content show up more on

Facebook? / Why don’t I see posts from my boring

friends?”

What is EdgeRank?

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/News-Feed-FYI-A-Window-Into-News-Feed



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EdgeRank determines what content you see in your Facebook feed. It’ll be chaos if content shows up from all the pages you liked and all posts from your friends.

What is EdgeRank?



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The following things will help you rank better

and get seen more in the newsfeed:

What is EdgeRank?

• Posting daily/frequently enough. 2-3 posts a day is good for

most pages.

• People commenting more on your posts

• People liking your posts shortly after being seen (50% of all

likes happen within the first 30 minutes)

• Quality, original content (if Facebook can detect your face – it

can detect if the same image/meme/photo is saved and

reshared)

• Content that isn’t offensive (users clicking ‘hide post’ and

unliking your page will affect your reach)

• Paid ads (whether it’s for page likes or post boosts)



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If you forget everything from this presentation,

at least remember this:

Your Page needs to be updated frequently, and you can

save time by queuing in advance. The more you update,

the more chances you have of being seen – I wouldn’t

recommend 10 posts a day though, unless you have over

10,000+ likes.



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What is EdgeRank?

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattlynley/this-is-how-an-ad-gets-placed-in-your-facebook-news-feed#13ynh13

In essence, News Feed ads are basically competing with organic Facebook stories for placement in a News Feed.

Once the number of ads has been whittled down to the 5,000 to 7,000 from the initial wave, the ranking algorithm kicks in and Facebook begins to cull step by step to the hypothetical ten ads a Facebook user sees each day based on the probability that they will achieve the advertiser’s goal, how much the advertiser is willing to pay, and whether it still adds some value to the user’s overall News Feed experience.”

“Using that targeting data including location—Facebook is able to quickly whittle away the number of ads that are relevant to a specific user to between 5,000 and 7,000 ads.

How are ads shown?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattlynley/this-is-how-an-ad-gets-placed-in-your-facebook-news-feed#13ynh13

How many pages have you liked…more than 100?

How many posts from those pages that you liked do you actually see? An

algorithm change that happened in Feb/March 2014 has affected the reach

of pages…it’s now very different from how it was in 2013 or even 2012.



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Some questions…

I’ve liked more than 2700+ pages…rather insane, I know…however from my estimation I only see content regularly from 10-30 of them.

LIKES : the most basic indicator of how many people have seen your page/postings at least once.

POST REACH : the indicator of how many people see your posts per week. This should ideally be higher than your likes. A post reach number between 2X – 4X of your likes is good.

‘TALKING ABOUT THIS’ : a number that summarizes the amount of people interacting with your page (egcomments, replies, shares, page mentions). This should ideally be more than 1-10% of your total likes. A page ‘talking about’ between 20-30% is considered very good.



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What are the important numbers?

INDIVIDUAL POST REACH : People don’t normally see posts from your main page most of the time, but through the News Feed. Having a page with 10,000 likes doesn’t mean 10,000 people will see each post. In fact, if you have 300-500 views per post for a page that has 10,000 likes, that’s actually pretty good.

FANS VS PEOPLE REACHED : Notice that although 21% of the fans in this example are women, my posts are reaching 45% of them. Just because someone has liked you for the first time, doesn’t mean they’ll keep seeing it in future. In this case, I need to step up my marketing efforts to reaching more men equally, as my content currently appeals more to women.



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Other things to note – important numbers

CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE :

This message is telling me that

the ad I created, is doing better

than 90% of the ads that other

people have created to promote

their pages (those targeted to

Malaysians, and of the Public

Figure/Individual type of pages)

ACTIONS : This is from

one of the clients that I

work with – notice that

although she has 1,098

page likes from ads, out of

there, those new likers

have seen over 10,000

photos and liked over 400

posts.



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If you’re already buying ads on Facebook…

Are you spending anything on Facebook at all? Did you know that

effectively, Facebook charges a ‘toll’?

Even spending RM1 on Facebook a day will make your page perform 10X

better than nothing at all. Effectively, Facebook has enacted a ‘toll’ of sorts

– pay us, and we will show your content to the customers/’likers’ you’ve

acquired so far.



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Some questions…

Pages by category, reach in July 2013 vs May 2014. Data from agorapulse.com barometer- what’s really worrying is that this data is from savvy users who know how to use a social media analysis

tool – how about the rest that don’t?

What is Cost Per Like?

Facebook doesn’t CHARGE you per like, but it can tell you on average

what you are paying per like.

Your ads are charged either PER CLICK, or PER IMPRESSION,

depending on which you choose (there isn’t a fixed rule on which is

better to choose).

Your cost per like is based on the cost of how many impressions/clicks it

took to generate a like.

In short, the less people you have to show an ad to get a ‘like’ from

them, the lower the cost per like. A low cost per like is good.



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Cost Per Like?

A CAR DEALERSHIP

A NAIL SALON

A WATCH SHOP

A BAG SHOP

A BEAUTY ACADEMY

A HOME & LIVING PORTAL

I’ve managed to achieve

a cost of less than

RM0.10 per like for these

varied clients.

The chart above was

from an informal survey

of my friends on my

Facebook list. The

majority (80% in fact)

are paying RM0.16 –

RM0.61 per like.

Keep in mind also, my

friend list has a lot of

social media & tech

savvy people due to my

work.

So, it’s not just

whether you’re

buying ads, it’s how.



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Growing your page need not be hard

Or expensive.

A MODELLING NEWS PAGE

A SPORTING EQUIPMENT SHOP

AN EVENT COMPANY PAGE

A HOLIDAY DESTINATION (LOCAL)

A HOLIDAY DESTINATION (AUS)

VALUE (HIGHEST TO LOWEST)

ITEM WHY

DIRECT MESSAGE It means they either want to buy, enquire, or communicate with you directly.

MENTION / SHARE They have either tagged your page or shared it with their friends – meaning that they like it enough to share it (could be negative as well, but it doesn’t mean it’s not important)

COMMENT/POST LIKE They feel engaged enough to do something – 10 people liking out of 1000 people seeing it, is good. Don’t be discouraged by a 1-10% like/comment rate based on the number of individual post views.

PAGE LIKE They liked it in the first place.

Likes Before Love – before your

customers/fans love you, they

must first like and interact with

you.



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Q: Why would I need more likes?

A: If you’re not interested in reaching more potential customers, or having more people

see the content that you work hard to post, then this slides are not for you.

Q: Why should I buy through LikesBeforeLove or a company, instead of directly

from Facebook?

A: You could cut your own hair, but the result may not be as good. So far, Facebook tells

me that some of my ads perform better than 80-99% of other ads targeted to Malaysians

across multiple categories – and I’ve helped my clients cut down their ad costs by 30-

80%. The costs and time involved in mastering social media advertising is high.

Likes do not always translate into

cash immediately. But your

customers must ‘like’ you before they

‘love’ you.



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PUBLIC FIGURE PROFESSIONAL CONTENT & NEWS RETAIL

• Sponsored postings & endorsements

• Solicit donations and pledges (especially for politicians & those running causes)

• Use your page to sell your services, showcase your work and stay in the loop with potential customers

• Sponsored postings that relate to your audience (eg if you have a parenting related page, those that sell baby products may be interested to advertise.

• Pushing your audience to your website (which presumably has advertising)

• To answer customer queries that could convert to sales

• To push people to your e-commerce store

USEFUL TIPS:• Install the Facebook ‘Pages’ app for iPhone / Android.• Make sure you allow people to message your page (don’t turn it off!)• Reply to people with the @ tagging function, they might miss it if you

don’t• Always include a phone number or an e-mail for your page for people

to call.

Tip: Most pages above 10,000 or so likes can charge RM50-200 per posting. And some local influential social media influencers/pages can charge as high as RM500-RM1000 a post, especially if they have high reach (eg, post goes out to 25,000 people, at RM300 for 1 post – that’s a cost of only RM0.01 per person reached.

Tip: Not everyone who has liked your page before will see your posts. Treat Facebook advertising as a retargeting cost to those that liked your page before.

Model, actor, blogger, hobbyists, politician, etc.

Online marketer, dancer, feng shui expert, architect

Joke & meme page, news sharing, specific interests (eg home furnishing,

religion)

Blogshop, e-commerce, online catalog

• Turn on your ‘message notifications’ for your page.• Look at your competitors to find out what they are doing

well• Always take a look back at what posts of yours have

performed well previously, and try to identify why• Invest in growing your page, and don’t stop posting!



MAGIC AcademyHow Do You Monetize A Facebook Page?

GOOD, RELEVANT CONTENT

REACH &RESPONSE

TIMELY,FREQUENT

UPDATES

1. DIRECT MESSAGE2. MENTION/SHARE3. COMMENT/POST LIKE4. PAGE LIKE

VALUE (HIGHEST TO LOWEST)

• Do your posts do a good job of explaining what you have to offer?

• If you have to repeat your message, can it be reworded in an interesting manner the next time?

• How often do you post? At least once a day?

• Does relevant content get posted on time?

• Do you respond to your comments?

• Do users interact with each other?

• Do you know how to queue?

• Do you have a content plan?

• Do you post engaging stuff as well as on-topic things?

• Are the funny/interesting things you post relevant to your audience?

It takes time to craft good content, but money can be used to make bad

or mediocre content more popular. The best is a combination of time & money (quality content & a budget

spent to promote it)

Having 1 excellent post does not make up for not updating for the rest of the month. The key to getting more reach is consistency.



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What makes a good Facebook Page?

Thank You! And May your

Facebook Page Grow Famously!

• [email protected]• +60123995674 (Whatsapp/SMS/Call)• ‘YourFavouriteJosh’ (WeChat)• www.likesbeforelove.com• www.facebook.com/likesbeforelove

Contact me on how you can get more reach and response for your Facebook page, starting from just RM200 per month.

E-mail or contact me via any method below for a copy of these slides.



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mailto:[email protected]

http://www.likesbeforelove.com/

http://www.facebook.com/likesbeforelove

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MaGIC Academy : Why Is It So Hard To Get Seen on Facebook?