Facebook recently held a Facebook Community Boost event in Topeka, and I attended. It was an interesting day and a half of learning about using Facebook and Instagram for a business or organization.
I mostly attended Instagram sessions, but also learned a little more about Facebook Ads.
Here’s what I heard about Facebook:
- Gain more Reach by Boosting a post. That effectively turns the post into an ad.
- Using a Call to Action button on an ad helps drive people to that next step.
- One local restaurant mentioned that they created a Wednesday night special ($5 burgers), boosted that info on Facebook, and went from $4000 in sales to $10,000 in sales. Wow.
- They talked a lot about using the Ad creation tools to help focus your ad on people likely to respond.
Things I heard about Instagram included:
- 50% of Instagram Stories are short videos
- 60% of Stories are watched with the sound on
- Business goals for Stories include sales and promotions, launches of a new product or service, exclusives, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes content.
- People are using the Hyperlapse app to tell a longer story in a short amount of time
- 75% of people will search, share, and shop after being inspired by your post.
- Feed posts are a glimpse into your business; Stories are a more casual, personal way to share
- If you really like your Story, save it to share in your feed, or highlight it to make it permanent.
- Polling Stickers in Stories are pretty cool. They provide real-time feedback in a simple poll.
They also briefly talked about IGTV – Instagram’s new way to include longer videos. There’s a separate app, and there’s a clickable icon in Instagram too (apparently just rolling that out).
When should you use the different ways to post in Instagram?
- Feed – for someone who might not know about your business
- Stories – a way to engage with followers daily.
- Instagram Live – a way to connect to followers in real time
- IGTV – a place to post longer videos
Finally, here’s a couple of useful tutorial and toolkit links:
- Facebook Blueprint – Tutorials on using Facebook for business.
- Instagram | Business – Tutorials and toolkits on how to use Instagram for business.
I’m glad I attended! If you have the chance, attend if one of these events is headed to your area (they said there are about 12 more scheduled at the moment).
Image by Ethan + Anna