In our previous article, we talked in some detail about the system of Google AdWords, and how you as a company can use it to your advantage. Today, we are going to complete the social media trifecta by taking a look at how to advertise on Facebook and Twitter.
- Advertising on Twitter is largely done through promoted tweets and accounts. Promoted tweets are regular tweets, but with the added bonus of being able to reach both current and potential followers. Once you have created a free, promoted account for your business, you can begin to target Twitter users for your promoted tweets. This is done based on a series of factors, such as keywords found in their timelines, their geographic locations or even their similarities to other followers. In many ways, the pricing of promoted tweets is very similar to that of Google AdWords. Again, a cost-per-click system is used, so you will only be charged when someone interacts with your promoted tweet by retweeting it or giving it a favourite. Before this can begin to yield results however, you must set up a daily budget and a maximum spend per follow or click. Once that is done, you’re ready to go.
- Seeing as Facebook is the second most visited website on the Internet, maintaining an advertising platform on it could be seen as vital by many companies. To begin the process, you need to create a free page for your business, and start to fill it with basic information such as your logo or brand name. Next, you should give your page a category to make it searchable by Facebook users. Examples of categories include ‘Local businesses and ‘Brand or product’. Once the basic framework of your page has been set up, you can begin to adapt your content to best advertise your brand or service. The best way to do this is by focusing on making your content as engaging and compelling as possible for those who visit your page. Try adding pictures and videos to your page which reveal some behind-the-scenes aspects of your business, as this can help the customer to feel involved in your company. Making sure the page is regularly updated is also a must.
Now that these two different systems have been explained, you might be wondering what benefits they have over Google AdWords. Starting with Facebook, the benefits are not hard to see. The website has around 1.28 billion users, the highest of any social network, and 1.23 of these are active on the site every month. Twitter has ‘about a billion’ registered users, and 87% of the company’s revenue in 2013 came from advertising. Clearly then, both Facebook and Twitter are very popular advertising platforms. In my opinion, there are several main reasons for this:
- Firstly, advertising through a Facebook page allows you to interact directly with your consumer base, which is not really possible through the use of Google AdWords. Positive interaction with your consumers can help you to build brand loyalty and to improve your overall image.
- Secondly, Facebook Ads more flexible than Google AdWords, because they give you the opportunity to make image-based adverts rather than just relying on text.
Twitter also has its unique benefits, although it shares many with Facebook Ads. Twitter is mainly used by companies both as an advertising tool and as a way to quickly respond to the individual problems of its customers.
In conclusion, despite the fact that Google AdWords currently dominates the online targeted advertising market, you can still gain good results through the use of Facebook and Twitter advertising.