On Social Media: Go Native
Laser-focus your online advertising
BY DANIEL GORDON
Published in the June 2013 issue.
Promoted tweets, promoted Twitter accounts, Facebook “sponsored” status updates and Facebook promoted pages can easily get up to 10 times more engagement than banner ads and textual search result ads. Twitter and Facebook make it easy to create a perfect fit between advertiser and consumer through what users have shared with the site about themselves. “Like” a brand or “follow” a celebrity? Well you just might see more updates and tweets from products that match the demo they speak to. An advertiser can now tap into the Facebook news feed and Twitter stream with a laser-focused promotion to the consumer.
Welcome to the wonderful world of online “native advertising.” Native ads, shared in the form of paid content like “promoted tweets” on Twitter and Facebook status updates, are designed to be more relevant to a targeted audience. That’s what makes this content unique and more engaging than traditional ads. These ads are demographically and geographically engineered by targeted keywords and interests. Sometimes, a user may not even know they are ads. You can target consumers by travel interests, brands they follow, even competitor brands.
These posts also start conversations. If executed correctly, they can reach outside existing fan and following bases. The Facebook “promoted posts” paid ads are always “endorsed” by an existing fan in your network, which helps validate them and usually minimizes negative reaction. Promoted tweets also have a username attached to them that belongs to someone followed by the user seeing the message. It helps to show that someone you know is connected to the promoted product.
In the beginning, I was hesitant to run promoted tweets. Pushing out messages to followers of followers can be tricky. Before you jump into promoted Facebook posts and Twitter tweets, I suggest building up a community by promoting your actual accounts (that is, your Facebook “page” or business Twitter account). Facebook and Twitter offer promoted account products that are different from native advertising and can help build awareness of your business page or account.
I would use native ads only after you’ve established credibility by having some history with building a community. With promoted social ads in general, you can paint a very broad stroke, but if they don’t recognize you, the effort and money could be wasted. Always remember: You don’t pay people to follow you; you pay to be introduced to them.
How you handle that introduction is critical. At the end of the day, we are getting a larger stage, bigger audience and “product” placement (with laser focus) in front of eyeballs we couldn’t reach before. The key is to make them want to see you again, not push you away. So always show relevant content — that is, posts that are intriguing, engaging, and have meaning to those reading them — to the right people. Pick your audience wisely.
Facebook and Twitter have lots of data in the form of captured likes and follows. This allows you to laser target. You’ll be able to tap into that data and use it to target potential customers for all the campaigns you run. In time, you will see that this form of online advertising is a very powerful medium and useful tool to earn new business and reach more customers.
Daniel Gordon is president of Samuel Gordon Jewelers in Oklahoma City, OK. Follow him on Twitter at @DanGordon or Facebook at www.facebook.com/DanGordon.