Facebook Content Promotion Secrets

How The Pros Leverage Facebook To Distribute Branded Content

A Social Fulcrum eBook707.234.5365 | info@socialfulcrum.com | www.socialfulcrum.com

In This eBook

Let’s Get Started 2

Diversify Your Posts 3

Incorporate Visuals 5

Establish Content Partnerships 7

Leverage Paid Ads 9

Host Your Content On Facebook 11

Next Steps 13

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CONTENT IS KINGDISTRIBUTION IS QUEENIn the world of online communications, it has become increasingly crucial for brands to include content creation in their digital marketing strategies. Consumers want information, and the company that provides it, wins. But all too often, great content is created, posted online, and then... *crickets*

Developing amazing content that is optimized for search engines and readability is only half the battle; perhaps even less than half. But what good is your great content if nobody is reading it?

Digitally-savvy brands will already own large and engaged social communities where they can share their latest blog post/eBook/case study, but especially on channels like Facebook - where only an estimated 16% of fans will actually see each post you make - a single update with a link to your content won’t result in the number of eyeballs needed to make the time and resources it took to create that content worth it.

If you’ve already got great content and are ready to distribute it on Facebook like a pro, read on for content promotion tips designed to increase reach, engagement and brand affinity.

"Consumers want information, and the company that provides it, wins."

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LET’S GET STARTEDBefore we launch into our list of actionable Facebook content promotion tips, let’s start with the basics. Prior to distributing your content, you should first make sure that the following are in place:

There should be a unique location where users can access your content. For the user, finding and reading your content after clicking a link on Facebook should be as easy as possible. In other words, send users to the specific blog post or e-book landing page, not your main blog link or e-book page that would require users to do some digging in order to find what they’re looking for.

Set up Facebook ‘Share’ buttons or links within your content. If your content is really, truly awesome, those who found it useful will want to promote it themselves. Make this as easy as possible by adding social sharing buttons to all of your blog posts, and inserting a Share button or text link in any PDF content.

To create a Facebook Share URL that can be inserted as a text link, use the followingformula:

This will open up the Facebook Share dialogue box with a link to your content pre-inserted.

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=LINK

Insert a link toyour content here,without the http://

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DIVERSIFY YOUR POSTSIf you’ve spent a lot of time planning, creating, editing, and perfecting a particular piece of content, you’ll want to promote it more than once to make sure it garners the reach and engagement it deserves. But continuously sharing the same link on your Facebook page over and over again can actually contribute to losing fans who feel you’re being too promotional and not taking the time to find new and interesting content for them each day.

By diversifying the posts you make, you can get 3,4,5...even 10 or more uniqueFacebook updates out of a single piece of content. Think of it this way: each idea, item, tip, etc., included in your content can serve as the framework for an individual Facebook post. The key is to “pull out” the pieces of information that you believe would be the most useful and/or interesting to your audience, and use those as the basis for each post.

EXAMPLEFitango, an e-health platform, needed to promote their latest piece of content: a 5-day cleanse diet plan. Especially because they feature a new health plan each week, it’s crucial that each plan gets a sufficient amount of downloads in a fairly short period of time.

So how can they continuously remind fans throughout the week that this plan is available in a way that highlights its value but doesn’t bombard users with the same messaging over and over again?

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Notice how each post below is unique — some are moregeneral, highlighting the overarching benefits of this content; others are more specific,featuring particularly interesting tips or insights found in the plan. By creatively diversifying each update, Fitango was successful in making four different posts about their featured content, resulting in more than 6,000 organic post impressions, numerous engagements, and a content download rate of about 15%.

Highlights content benefits; direct sales pitch and call-to-action.INSIGHTS

Gives away a different content snippet; indirect call to action.

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INCORPORATEVISUALSThe visual revolution is in full force, and Facebook posts with images generate as much as 104% more engagement than posts without photos.

When posting a link to your content on Facebook, opt for a photo post with a shortened link in the photo description instead of a boring link post. Which of these looks more interesting and eye-catching to you?

The post on the left received 67% more engagement than the post on the right, largelybecause it stands out in a user’s news feed much more than the standard link post. But adding just any image won’t necessarily have this effect. If you’re distributing content, choose visuals that are either funny (like memes, and yes, even cat photos — if there’s a tie-in) or inspiring (like motivational quotes), as these are emotions users respond to most.

The images should reflect something about the content you are distributing, but do not necessarily need to be directly related. More than anything, they should be interesting and shareable so that users are inspired to hit the Share button. Even if its only because they like the photo, further distribution of your post among fans and

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other users means your link will travel farther, and the reach of your content will increase without any paid advertising.

EXAMPLEWhen DSST, a college credit by exam program, wanted to promote their latest blog posts on studying tips, they knew their Facebook audience would find theinformation useful. But because it was summer — a time when few people want to think about school or anything related to it — it was crucial that the post be as interesting as possible in order to grab the attention of their fans.

By using this funny image that does in fact tie in to the brand as well as the content being promoted, users who were in no mood to think about studying were laughing at and engaging with this post. Ultimately, just under 20% of total page fans clicked through to read this content.

Pro tipLooking for great visuals to include with your content on Facebook?

We recommend checking out these three resources:

-Pinterest.com-Someecards.com-MemeGenerator.com

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ESTABLISH CONTENT PARTNERSHIPSValuable content can be a great tool for generating brand awareness among newaudiences. While you always have the option to leverage paid ads on Facebook in order to promote your content to new users who fall within your ideal target audience (more on that later), mutually-beneficial content partnerships can often achieve the same goal without the need to pay for each new user reached.

Content partnerships work best between two companies who are not direct competitors, but whose target audiences overlap in some way. For example, Social Fulcrum might want to look at establishing content partnerships with companies that provide social media software, but not competing social media marketing services.

You may already have a few brands in mind that would be suitable for a Facebook content partnership with your own brand, but if not, Facebook Graph Search can offer up some ideas. Try searching other pages liked by users who like your page, or pages liked by those with a certain interest, job title, etc., that you know matches up with your target audience

The logistics of a Facebook content partnership can vary, but in its most basic form, itinvolves an informal agreement between two brands to share each other’s content onFacebook. This means that every time you create a new piece of content, you inform your partnered brand so they can distribute it on their Facebook page, and vice versa. You may also want to provide specific copy and a photo (or several options) for the brand to post, making it as effortless as possible for them to share your new content with their Facebook community.

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EXAMPLEFitango had already created plenty of informative health and fitness content before launching their site, but as a relatively new brand still working on growing their Facebook audience, they looked to other more established brands with engaged Facebook communities to help distribute their arsenal of blog posts and detailed fitness plans.

By developing mutually-beneficial content distribution arrangements with brands like Meatless Monday and Greatist, Fitango was able to reach new prospects who were already connected to these popular pages. Additionally, these brands provided Fitango with even more great health-related content to share with their own fans, which contributed to a more engaged audience.

Pro tipTrying using Facebook to begin the relationship-building process with potential content partners by regularly sharing their content on your page prior to reaching out directly to establish a more formal content distribution arrangement. Then when you reach out, you can show them how popular their content has been among your fans, and specifically cite how much traffic or engagement you’ve generated for them.

In partnering on content, Greatist and Fitango work in tandem to reach a wider audience.

INSIGHTS

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LEVERAGE PAID ADSPrecisely targeted ads on Facebook’s unique advertising platform can be used to grow your Facebook community, generate leads, or sell products. But it’s also a great tool for content distribution.

Even with a modest budget, paid Facebook ads can help get your content in front of new audiences, resulting in increased reach and brand awareness. And because most ads on Facebook are promoting a paid product or service, a correctly-targeted ad offering free content is more likely to grab the attention of users and generate clicks.

The key to getting the most out of this strategy is a mix of:

The right targeting1

An enticing ad headline2

Copy that clearly communicates the value of the content you’re promoting3

While you may not want to pay for blog post views, larger pieces of content, like whitepapers or e-books with a lead generating download form, can make any advertisingdollars spent worth it.

Pro tipYou may be giving away free content, but that doesn’t mean you want to pay to attract users that will never become paying customers. One way around this is to refine your targeting parameters so that your ad is only shown to people who are likely to make a purchase at some point. Reach higher-income prospects by targeting users who are college-educated, and/or users who live in affluent zip codes.

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EXAMPLEDiabetesWellBeing.com, an informational website for people with diabetes, wanted to extend the reach of their most popular content: diabetic-friendly dessert recipes.

By targeting users who “like” other diabetes related pages (American Diabetes Association page, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation page, etc.) and using simple copy that would appeal to the targeted audience, this adresulted in:

- 153,000+ impressions- 476 clicks with a total budget of $82.55- An average cost-per-click of just $0.17- 193 page engagements (due to the ad’s mention of the Diabetes Well Being Facebook Page)

Furthermore, users that clicked on this ad spent an average of 2 minutes and 50 seconds on the page consuming the advertised content and 59% clicked through to read additional content on the site.

Pro tipIf you’re using a newsletter to promote your content, why not use Facebook Advertising to reach this audience a second time? With Facebook’s email address targeting, you can.

Since it’s highly unlikely that your newsletter will achieve a 100% open rate, email-targeted Facebook ads present a second opportunity to get your content in front of your email list. Just upload your email list to Facebook’s Power Editor, and Facebook will allow you to show ads only to those users on your list.

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HOST YOUR CONTENTON FACEBOOKWhile website traffic is great, it can sometimes be beneficial to host your content onFacebook, via a custom tab/application on your brand’s Facebook page. Some of the top reasons for this include:

• When using Facebook Advertising to promote your content, ads that keep users within Facebook tend to generate a lower cost-per-click.

• It is generally easier to send your Facebook audience to a destination within Facebook, instead of directing them away from Facebook.

• When you host your content on a custom app, you can use your cover photo to promote it, in addition to regular page posts (notice the arrow that points to the app hosted content in the example below).

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EXAMPLEWhen Prometric introduced a new certification exam, they sought to promote the exam by distributing content — like white papers and reference materials — around this new test.

While this content was made available on their own website, Prometric also opted to place a custom app with a lead-capturing content download form on their Facebook page. This decreased Facebook Advertising costs, and also increased overall content downloads because anyone who visited the Facebook page would see the app, as compared to the smaller number of users who would only be exposed to the content via a post made from the page.

Overall, this custom app resulted in 27% more content downloads than the landing page hosted on Prometric.com.

Pro tipUse Facebook application software solutions like ShortStack, TabSite, or NorthSocial to easily build a custom app — no graphic design or development skills required.

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NEXT STEPSNow that you’re ready to start promoting your content on Facebook, consider these other digital marketing resources designed to help you ramp up your social media marketing:

More Gudiance?707.234.5365 | info@socialfulcrum.com | www.socialfulcrum.com

6 Steps to a Successful Facebook Contest1

How to Get 7,500 Likes in Two Weeks for Just $802

6 Reasons Why Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Getting Any Clicks3

You Can’t Measure the ROI of Social Media4

SHARETwitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Google+

ABOUT Social Fulcrum is a digital marketing agency that specializes in Social Media Marketing. We work with mid-market clients who have a marketing department but need a multi-faceted team to execute and drive online results.

Social Media MarketingWe find the places online where your consumers live and breath, and establish loyal connections with them on behalf of your brand through community building and leveraging assets.

Search Engine OptimizationWe make sure that the prospects who are looking for what you offer are able to find you by implementing SEO best practices, both on-site and off-site.

Content CreationWhether it supports social media efforts, search engine optimization, or both, we help brands create engaging content from the digital assets they already have.

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