Best Practices for Managing Facebook and Instagram Marketing

Some common questions on Facebook and Instagram marketing strategy.

What Facebook targeting yields the best results for a brand like ours that is not doing e-commerce? What criteria should we always include and which should we not?

• The more specific the target the most it’s going to cost. Without conversion metrics from e-commerce, it’s not possible to track the ROI so it’s hard to justify targeting a specific segment.
• In going for a broader audience, the Facebook algorithm would deliver good content to people who are most likely to enjoy it…
• Test various interests to compare.

Our goal is to get more consumers into brick and mortar stores. How would you suggest targeting to consumers to get them into stores? Remember we do not engage in e-commerce.

• For Instagram create a list of #tags of your retailers. Paste the list of around 30 tags on each of your posts.
• Follow and engage actively with your network of Jewelry retailers. More likes and comments will be seen by their customers.
• Coordinate promotions with retailers. Call to action copy in post text.
• Location Based ads for special events. (ex: new store opening, promotion, etc.)

Do you think it would be more beneficial for us if we focused more on online shopping objectives? If so, how do you suggest we take this initiative with our clients?

• Set-up and monitor online shopping metrics in Google Analytics to get a clear picture of conversion. May require dedicated analytics/e-commerce, expert.

What activities can we perform to keep users inside the Facebook platform? Does this affect the success of a post? We hear that Facebook doesn’t like when you link out of their platform. Can you elaborate on this

• There are three post categories: photos, videos, and links.
• Links to external sites tend to be the lower performing of the three types.
• Instant articles and videos could make user stay longer. The success of a post is engagement/attention, which includes likes, shares, comments and overall time spent.
• The user experience with slow loading links will also cause a user to give up.

Are logos on every photo a best practice, or is that too much?  Please have a look at our Facebook pages to see what we mean.

• Each post already includes your profile image. Users are already scanning the post title so it’s generally not necessary to add logos to images.
• Your logo in the profile image is a bit hard to read. Consider optimizing the design for the profile image;
• There’s a quote: “Social is about people, not logos”

What types of links or posts make Facebook respond better? Does Facebook offer an incentive for creating certain posts over others?

• Facebook rewards highly engaging content. Stuff that makes the audience stay longer. i.e: viral video that grips people to keep watching is the best.
• Good photos would be second after video. Posting links to websites are generally the lowest of the three types.
• All post types seem to benefit from good copy in the post text. Thoughtful effort and relevant keywords seem to make a significant difference in engaging audiences, including the creative use of emoji’sJ
• Here are tips for gaining engagement:
• 1. Ask questions/tag friends.
• 1. User-Generated Content
• 1. Photos with a celebrity wearing your products.
• 1. Experiment posts to optimize the best timing /topics.
• 1. Put lots of heart and emotion into your post.
• 1. Unique lifestyle photo’s (close-ups seem to work better for Jewelry/Fashion/Beauty)

What is the best approach for Instagram vs. Facebook?  How should we post differently on INSTAGRAM? Why?

• Facebook reaches a wider and older audience. Video is more favorable on Facebook.
• On Instagram, good images with creative and artistic quality gain more engagement. Use a combination of “Story”, live, and photo/ short video posts to be discovered by new audiences. Behind the scene, design concept, life of designer etc. Try creative tools like boomerang. Keep videos short/less than 1min.

Because we cannot control our customer’s websites or any activities they perform, how can we take an independent approach to get Facebook users to our customer’s stores or to get really interested in our brand and pull the trigger?  

• Develop a HashTag strategy. Include a list of retailers tagged in relevant product posts.
• Create an offer, discount or deal. This Facebook options might have an application in this scenario.

Should the Instagram account be more personal or more business?  Please look at the current page to see what we mean. 

• “Personal is Business” on Instagram. Intimate creative close-up images/videos are what works well.
• Short video. Try posting some.
• User-Generated Content. Photos taken on iPhone of people wearing your products. Natural is more believable/trusted.
• Instagram Analytics now available with new Business Profile. Instagram Business Pages could be treated differently, such as making you spend more on advertising to gain reach.

Which social media platforms should we focus on more? What is the approach for each platform?

• Facebook and Instagram are the top platforms now.
• Instagram is growing fast, and working well for fashion/beauty businesses where beautify images are central to the brand.

Based on our customer demographics, should we be using Snapchat? Should we be utilizing Facebook live more?

• Snapchat demo is younger. Another factor in entering a new channel is your staffing/manpower ability. It may not be a priority at this time.
• Some analyst predicts that Instagram will dominate over Snapchat because of the large user base and capital provided by Facebook. If this is true Instagram would be the better platform to invest time and energy on.
• Facebook live can be annoying, if not planned well. Live steam tends to be long and uses a lot of data on mobile.
• The “story” function in Facebook/Instagram may be a good opportunity. You have more control to create quick and engaging content. May require some learning and experimentation to be effective with these tools.

Is there a way to see who is following and looking for content every day? How can we check active followers? Who is actively seeking out our content? And what do we do with this information? How can we see who is receiving our posts more than others?

• Basic Facebook audience data is available under the Insights ->People tabs. You can also install a Facebook pixel to gain more analytics of what’s happening on-site.
• Optional for Instagram: New Business profile provides basic analytics.
• Monitoring tools like Fanpage Karma or Hootsuite – to monitor all comments, mentions, etc.

Based on our Facebook Page demographics, what and how should we be targeting? What are the best practices that we should be doing as far as targeting? What should we not be doing as far as targeting and objectives?

• There are many powerful targeting tools. Like recent purchasing behavior, life events like; New Girlfriend, Newly Engaged, Anniversary etc.
• However, without the ability to track conversion you’d be spending more to target specific audiences without knowing what is actually working.

What type of Facebook budget would yield the best results? Where should we spend most of our budget? Facebook gives budget suggestions per ad, is this something we should seriously consider or is this more about Facebook wanting to make more money?

• Organic reach has dropped over the last year. Some people have found focusing more on quality and less on the quantity has produced better results. Basically, without paying you have very limited reach on most things. Given that quality over quantity factor, it seems like investing on creating unique, original, relevant, value-rich content has become what Facebook’s algorithm is pushing for because they don’t want the platform full of ads and spam. We would recommend a balanced approach where you invest both time, energy and money into producing outstanding posts and then selecting the best performing post to boost.

How can we improve our Facebook engagement? What activities can we do? Which posts are more appealing? Which images are more likable? Colors, backgrounds, model shots, product shots, candid shots, videos, animated gifs? Why?

• Close-up, detailed, intimate and colorful images work best.
• Enhance your community responses. Providing quick response counts. which will also promote more people to engage so it’s really important to put the effort into being very active.
• User-Generated Content is more favorable because it’s more real and not too commercial.
• POV Shots help user image themselves wearing the product. Bring products into the world with an interesting background.