Q-Online had the chance to attend a special event, a Masterclass which aimed to offer valuable tips and advice to boost small businesses social media output. This event which was organised by the Federation of Small Businesses and Facebook had a panel of Facebook trainers, subject area experts who delivered the content of the special night. The Masterclass was divided into two parts: a Facebook workshop, for those who intend to learn how to reach more people and an Instagram workshop with the goal to offer insights for those who want to level up the Instagram presence of their small business. Something made easier with new features like Instagram Stories ads, Actions and Shopping Tags designed to make it easier for customers to engage with any brand.
Taking FB Ads to the next level
The first one to speak was Matt who is working on Facebook managing the Small Business Team.
“The importance of using Facebook platform and advertising your business through it is really high, if you consider that nowadays 19 million businesses use Facebook. 66% of this number refers to small businesses which aim to use Facebook strategy for their own benefit. As a consequence, according to the latest reports, 45% of these businesses increased significantly their sales and 38% increased their number of employees. This indicates why social media remains a critical method of spreading the word about your business, no matter what kind of business it may be”.
After an introduction that he made explaining to us where his passion for small businesses is coming from – his father is an accountant and he could still recall those days during his childhood that he was helping him setting up the business in their house – he highlighted the three very important steps every small business owner has to think, before making any decision of promoting through Facebook:
- Choosing your objective
- Defining your audience
- Measuring your results
The first step while thinking about advertising on Facebook is to define your business goal. We all have a goal, especially when it comes to run a business. In order to increase the effectiveness you have to marry this goal with the right objective. There are various objectives to choose from.
The second action you have to take is to define and the ideal community you want to build around your brand. You can reach out as many people as you can; there are several criteria, interests, behaviours you take into account before setting up a Facebook campaign. You can also create more traffic on your website; generate leads through a lead generation campaign.
On the stage of consideration, the stage you begin to strengthen your relationship with potential leads you have to select the best option for your content in order to help the customer make the right decision: to purchase your product or service. There are several different formats for your Facebook ads. With a carousel you can showcase up to ten images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link, video, image, slideshow, collection etc. Today more people
than ever are watching mobile video. It is estimated that 78% of all mobile data will be video by 2021.
Key Takeaways
- Use Ads Manager for more advanced advertising
- Create Custom Audiences to re-target
- Utilize Lookalike Audiences to reach new customers
- Manage and Measure Your Page
Instagram to boost sales
Instagram nowadays is a thriving community that inspires people to take action. 75% of the Instagram users are not only scrolling down their timeline, but they also search, share and shop.
1. Create more
The feed posts are the first impression you offer to potential customers / clients for your own business. We can say that feed posts are a glimpse into your business.
Stories are a casual way to share. With the Instagram Stories you are given the opportunity to showcase your strengths of your products/ services, you can even reveal new products for followers building up some sort of excitement among them, or real time feedback using polling stickers. In any case you should aim to create a shareable experience.
Want more feedback? Try Instagram Live, and be part of the next generation of video. With IG Live you can have real-time the feedback coming from your followers, your fans, your community. As far as IG TV is concerned, you will find it the ideal means for uploading longer form content like for example tutorials. While creating the content don’t forget that the ultimate goal is to create
highly engaging content. You can get the ball rolling by commenting, starting conversations with your followers and potential customers, using relevant hashtags in order to be discovered and finally by messaging.
2. Set up your mobile shop window
It is an undeniable fact that today more and more people shop on mobile. Smartphones overtake shopping centres as a popular way to shop. Nearly 200 million of consumers shopped on mobile devices in 2017 and more than 30 million Brits (58%) will use smart devices to shop this year. This number is expected to increase three times by 2023. Shopping on Instagram gives your business an immersive storefront for potential customers to explore your best products. To use shopping feature on Instagram, you will first need to upload your products in a catalog and connect it to your Instagram account. After you’ve been approved and competed set-up in Shopping in Settings, you can start tagging products in your posts and stories.
3. Drive actions
Advertisers are seeing more consumer interaction with their ads on Instagram than ever before. Businesses are running multiple campaigns with a variety of goals. Some of them can be reached more effectively with call-to-action buttons. You can add the following call-to-action buttons to your business account on Instagram: start order (order food for example), book (an appointment for example) and reserve (make reservations at a restaurant).
4. Advertise with Instagram
For the time being, there are five different ways to advertise with Instagram. With Stories Ads you can connect with over 500 million
accounts using stories daily. Photo ads either in square or landscape format can curate your story through a clean, simple and beautiful way. Video ads – up to 60 seconds long – which can deliver a visually unparalleled immersive experience. Carousel ads where people can swipe to view additional photos or videos in a single ad. Collection ads which promote your campaign through video, images or both.
To learn about how to grow your small business with social media call us 0203 514 1810
