According to Wikipedia...Social media is the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social Media is also a great way to advertise events and promotions that are going on in our facilities. The most popular social media website to advertise on is Facebook because it seems people of all ages have a Facebook page to help keep track of friends and family. There have been some changes to Facebook and how it lets you advertise and promote your business. Posts that you put on your page may only be seen by 15% of your followers because Facebook would rather have you pay for your ads to target your fan base than just let you advertise for free. After watching a few You Tube videos on increasing your Facebook page traffic, here are a few tips to try to get more people to view your posts without having to pay for Facebook advertising:
Schedule your posts in advance. Facebook lets you pick the date and time each time you type a new post. By choosing this option you can schedule your posts days/weeks/months in advance to make sure you don't forget to promote an event or promotion. This also cuts down on managers or staff having to spend a lot of time updating the Facebook page.
Post things on your page that your current fans will share on their page. If you post a picture of a new drink or product, a funny quote or picture, etc... that helps engage your current fans and they will more than likely share your post. By fans sharing your posts this helps get other people to visit your business page and hopefully will "Like" it and become a follower. Writing engaging content & be creative in your posts. 50% of your fans are on Facebook each day and they spend about 30-60 minutes scrolling through their newsfeed. If you are not posting engaging content that creates interaction from your followers your posts will not show up in their newsfeed. The more interactions with fans the more people that will see your posts. Facebook users do not like to read. Are you writing a novel when you post to your page??? Try to keep your posts short. Follow the Twitter post rule, 140 characters or less. Many Facebook users just do not want to take the time to read long posts or may just skip over them resulting in you losing interaction with those fans. Time & Days that you post make a difference. Think about the times during the day that you are on Facebook: when you wake up, lunch breaks, after work, while watching TV, at bed time etc... Those are the times that you should be posting on your page in hopes your fans will see it. However, try not to post on your page during the hours of 5-8pm because you will be competing with other pages & friends your fans follow. Fridays is the day when your fans are more active on social media and will "Like", comment or share your posts. Sundays seem to be the worst day for engaging your fans. The best advice is to find your Fan Engagement Sweet Spot by determining when the majority of your audience in on Facebook and the least overall posting by other pages they follow is occurring. If all of these tips fail and you have no other option but to pay for advertising on Facebook it is relatively cheap to do so. Price starts at $5 to reach an estimate of 730-1900 people and then the amount of money and people increases from there. By paying for advertising on Facebook, you can also target the audience you want your posts to reach by choosing between gender, age, location & interests. With the increased cost of newspaper advertising and less people reading them today it may be worth a try to pay for Facebook advertising to see what it can do for your business. Social Media is not going away anytime soon and it the majority of the population is using it in some form. If you are not using it in your facilities, now is the time start advertising your events and promotions through the means of Social Media to increase your customers and boost sales. Cheers!! Karissa Kurth Buffalo Lake | 
