Facebook Advertising? Four Reasons Why You Should!
5 February 2013 at 9:35 am
Not for Profits are becoming more savvy with their social media, but what about social media advertising? Ntegrity’s senior social strategist Joy Toose gives her reasons why Not for Profits should invest in Facebook advertising.
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen more and more Not for Profits’ ads showing up alongside the usual culprits – banks, fashion and tourism.
Any hesitancy to engage in social media seems to be well and truly gone. For many Not for Profits, this has been a long journey. One that started with the crucial, sometimes painful, recognition that engaging in social media is not free.
At the very least, you need resources to develop good content and respond to users. More mature social engagement requires strategy, channel integration and ongoing optimisation. Paid advertising on Facebook is another level of investment, which shows social media is now valued enough to command a proportion of Not for Profits’ limited resources.
So why is it so highly valued? Four reasons come to mind.
1. Size. Facebook alone claims over 11 million Australian accounts.
2. People like Not for Profits! Not for Profits have an advantage over other brands in reaching social media users, because general goodwill toward them translates into likes, retweets and shares. Facebook has capitalised on these likes and shares, and knows that brands see it as powerful word of mouth marketing. Their ‘sponsored story’ ads ensure these likes, and other actions related to a brand, receive a prominent position in the newsfeeds of those connected to the ‘liker’.
3. People REALLY like Not for Profits! Because Not for Profits are relatively popular, they can achieve a low cost-per-click in Facebook advertising. Basically, Facebook’s model means that the more engaging the ad and the more likely people are to click, the lower the cost of each click will be.
4. Hyper-targeting. Using the data it notoriously collects, Facebook allows you to target your ads to an unprecedented level of detail. You can use gender, age, location and even interests. This is great for local organisations, or those with a narrow mandate, as it means they can avoid the waste associated with other broadcast media.
Of course, it’s not all peaches and cream. Despite increased use of social media platforms, there are still many, very legitimate, reservations about using Facebook advertising.
We’ll dive into these issues, from the little annoyances to the giant looming risks, next week.
About the author: Joy Toose is a senior social strategist at social media agency, ntegrity.
