We’ve posted recipes for getting started with social media in the past (most recently this one), focusing on such things as listening, engaging, demonstrating thought leadership …pretty much everything except advertising, which was typically treated as something you wanted to avoid even the appearance of in social media.
Well, times change and vehicles mature. In particular, the major social networks have all discovered businesses as a must-address segment, and in recent months have been busily adding features that accommodate marketers’ venerable desire for one-way mass communication: i.e, advertising …which of course can be used to create awareness, keep a brand top of mind, or to suggest timely and relevant offers.
This raises the need for a summary of these new features and tips for the beginning user; and we found just that, spread over two posts by Lee Odden on the Online Marketing blog. Lee treats four of the most-used platforms; we’ll follow suit here, albeit much more briefly.
Facebook
Its ad costs are pretty reasonable, which allows companies of just about any size or budget to test them out. There’s also a pretty thorough Guide to Facebook Ads, and a Help Center in case that leaves some questions unanswered.
Facebook advertising best practices are not unlike those you’re probably familiar with from running pay per click (PPC) programs on the major search engines:
- Set goals
- Target your audience
- Be sure the product/service stands out
- Keep your ad simple, with a strong call to action
- Ensure that your ads point to relevant landing pages …although often the landing page here won’t be one on your brand website, but a Fan page within Facebook.
YouTube
As the 2nd most popular search engine (after Google), it’s a safe bet that at least some of your B2B prospects and customers are on it frequently. Ads can appear within your videos or alongside them; you can promote your own video or advertise next to other related videos.
Direct advertising on YouTube can get pretty spendy, but you can also run campaigns there via your trusty Google AdWords. YouTube provides a robust array of advertising resources, including best practices, how-to’s, specifications, analytics and tools. (You can even get a YouTube guide to Best Practices for the B2B Marketer from Google!)
YouTube video ad best practices include…
- Keep it short – too long, and users will tune out; 60 seconds is a good benchmark.
- Keep it engaging – entertain, inform, be relevant; inspire, don’t just educate.
- Deliver key messages early – users often tune out near the end of the video.
- Include a call to action.
LinkedIn
It’s the grand-daddy social network that – with 90 million members, including execs from each of the Fortune 500 – no B2B can afford not to be on. LinkedIn launched its own ad network a few years back, called DirectAds. (There are also options for display ads and sponsorships.) Supporting material includes an FAQ, best practices, and this step-by-step cookbook for creating a DirectAd.
Best practices for DirectAds include:
- Create multiple ads for each campaign
- Target the right audience
- Set a workable daily budget (ad rates vary according to site usage)
- Understand how bidding works (CPM or CPC)
- Monitor click-through rates and experiment, refine
Twitter
Twitter now offers 3 distinct advertising options, each offering its own dashboard and Timeline of Activity view. However, the budgets you can select on the inquiry form range from under $10K to over $100K per month, so this is not really a startup / small business offering at present. Those who can play at those levels should click on over to Lee’s post for his full treatment; it posted the day after Twitter’s announcement, so it couldn’t be more up to date.
It’s clear the social networks are maturing rapidly now; with straight-up advertising becoming available, what additional capabilities might lie just down the road a piece?
