Boosting Facebook posts can be an effective social media marketing strategy. Without knowledge on how it works or the benefits it offers, however, marketers may be unnecessarily wary of taking advantage of the great tool. Boosting posts is not a tactic to be used all the time, but is one that should be used intentionally to support your organization’s social media marketing efforts.

What are boosted posts?

When marketers create a Facebook post, it enters the views news feeds and is seen by a fraction of the audience. This number varies based on a number of factors decided by the Facebook algorithm that attempts to measure the relevance of posts to audiences to avoid flooding their feeds with poorly written posts or ones that aren’t relevant to the viewers. Boosting a post ensures the post is found more frequently in the News Feed, which means more people will see your post (and hopefully in return your organization will receive more social media marketing benefits from the post). Below are some simple dos and don’ts of Facebook posting.

The Dos

1. DO boost posts that help your audience. The point of boosting posts is to get more eyes on your post. Getting more people to see how your organization provides value for them is a great way to gain new customers or reinforce the relationship with existing ones. Besides, viewers can tell pretty quickly a promotional post advertising a product or service from one that’s helpful content for them. Why pay money for an advertisement-type post that viewers are just going to glance over and ignore?
2. DO boost posts that offer a call to action. Posts that encourage visitors to check out your website, join an email list, download a free ebook, etc. (while still offering valuable content to the audience of course) are great ones to promote. Ideally, a boosted post will not only get more individuals seeing the value you offer them, but will direct them to an action that builds your business.
3. DO know exactly what you want to gain from the boosted post. Strategy is key to social media marketing, and it’s no different with boosted posts. If you do not know what you are trying to achieve, you will not be able to measure whether it was successful and it will be more difficult to pin point what made it perform well or poorly. Clearly articulate what you hope to get out of the boosted post (x number of people read about our new website launch, reach new audience members with our content post, etc.) before you boost it.

The Don’ts

4. DON’T be overly hesitant to spend money. It can be hard to press that button to spend money on a post. Besides, if you did your job right and created a great post it should perform as effectively right? Wrong! The Facebook algorithm results in organic reach having unpredictable and less effective reach. It’s part of Facebook’s business plan to gain money from marketers. Unfortunately, spending money to boost important posts is just part of the game. You don’t have to play the game with every post, but you should when it is relevant.
5. DON’T boost the post and never look at it. After you boost a post, make sure you monitor its success to gauge whether the return on investment was worth it. If it was, figure out what made the post so successful. If it wasn’t, figure out how to avoid that mistake for the future. Analytics are a big part of being successful at digital marketing. You have to adjust your plan when it isn’t working, and you have to know what worked. Make sure you are watching.
6. DON’T slide into a boosting rut. It’s important to always be tweaking social media efforts to figure out the most effective tactics and get the highest return on investment. If you boost an evergreen post that performs well, fantastic! But don’t hesitate to boost a timely post, a video post, and the like. Know that it’s important to test out different types of posts. Some might not work well for your organization or audience, and that’s okay. Trial and error is a key part of social media success.

If you’re convinced you want to take advantage of the benefits of boosting Facebook posts, but are still hesitant on the best way to do so, do not fear. Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We understand the ins and outs of boosting Facebook posts to meet businesses needs and would love to help you use this tool to help your organization. Simply email us or give us a ring for help on this, or any aspect of business building.