BY MATT DE SARLE
I produce videos for small businesses for a living. I see a lot of great ways that local companies are using social media. Unfortunately, I also see a lot of small businesses making rookie mistakes when posting video. Despite what you might think, a lot of small business owners are focused on actually running their business. Therefore, they don’t have the time to keep up on all the social media trends, bells and whistles. That’s why I created this quick 5-point check list to make sure you’re doing it right. Trust me, if you’re not up to speed on the mechanics of Facebook business pages, you’re not alone.5. Keep it short
Video posted to Facebook reaches a lot more people than the average photo and certainly reaches more people than a text-only update. If you are posting a compelling video to your company’s Facebook page, be prepared to reach a larger audience. Consider keeping the text within the Facebook post short and let the video speak for itself. Treat it like a first impression. Don’t overwhelm your viewer with too much information. Give them a sample of what your products/services are, and entice them to browse your Facebook page (or website) a little more. Too many business owners get so excited that they cram way too much information into that initial post. Brevity is also important in the length of the video itself.
4. Utilize word-of-mouth
Skilled communicators know that the best use of new media is the incorporation of older media. Just because you’re posting an attractive new video, don’t abandoned good ol’ fashion word-of-mouth. If you’re the business owner, make sure that your employees know when the video will be shared and get them excited about liking, sharing and commenting. If you have regular foot-traffic of loyal clients, give them a heads up too. Also use different media platforms to promote your new video. For example, if you have a larger Twitter following than your Facebook audience, tweet an invitation for your followers to check out the video.
3. Don’t tell the audience what to do
At this point, we are all well-aware of how Facebook works. Audiences don’t need to be told to like, comment and/or share. If your content is good, they will like, comment and share. I have seen subtle calls to action, such as, “you can register for tickets on our website,” have success.
2. Don’t sabotage your own post
Many times, a good Facebook post performs like a good investment. Let’s pretend that you started an investment on a Wednesday. If it didn’t perform well on that business day, would you cash it out and start two new investments with that money on Thursday morning? Probably not. Unlike the investment analogy, the first 24 hours of your Facebook post’s life is very important. However, like an investment, a post can gain momentum and provide more return over the course of its lifespan. Some Facebook posts even get the nickname “Zombie Posts,” when they receive new-found attention weeks or months later. This scenario is unlikely. However, it will be less likely if you share your own post on the identical timeline just hours after posting it initially. Facebook frowns on this. It’s like taking two audiences and separating them. If you wanted your post to appear popular, you wouldn’t divide the party of individuals reacting to it into two separate groups. You want everyone rallying around that one post. You can take a post and share it from your business page onto your personal page. That’s less offensive. But if your business page timeline looks like a wallpaper of new excuses to post the same content, that’s an amateur play.
After a few weeks or month, however, you create a new post with an older video from your library. See the video demo below on how to do that.
1. Don’t boost without a plan
You wouldn’t throw $400 towards a magazine ad without knowing where that magazine was being distributed. Don’t just throw $400 at your Facebook video post because you’re not happy with its reach. If you have budgeted money for advertising spending, make sure you are using all of the targeting tools at your disposal. Facebook ads manager will let you target very specific demographics and even exclude specific interests. Even though the boost option has been given more options in terms of targeting an audience, going through all of the categories that Ads Manager has to offer is still a more robust way to cater your campaign details.
