Targeting: The Secret to Successful Social Media Marketing
JSB Talks Digital Podcast #62
JSB Talks Digital is a weekly digital marketing and social media podcast hosted by author, strategist, consultant, speaker and trainer Joanne Sweeney-Burke. Each Friday Joanne shares her digital marketing and social media insights from her work as CEO of Digital Training Institute.
In this episode, I’m talking about targeting and the role it plays in social media marketing.
Coming up in the podcast:
- In social media news:
- 40% of the world’s population is now using social media
- Facebook is testing a way to target customers who’ve visited your store
- Facebook attempts to curb cloaking
- I interview Facebook Ads and targeting expert Antonio Calero from AdEspresso
- In shout-outs: Three brilliant targeting case studies
- Ask JSB
- In JSB’s column – Inbound Marketing and Geo-Targeting
- Find out what social media advertising tool saved my working week
Listen to this week’s podcast:
PODCAST: Targeting - The Secret to Successful Social Media Marketing Click To Tweet
Social Media News
40% of the world’s population is now using social media
The latest social web stats are out! 1 million people are joining a social network every day!
Right now, 40% of the world’s population are active on social media. That’s a whopping 3.028 billion people.
The report was compiled by Hootsuite and We Are Social and published by The Next Web
Mobile users make up a large chunk of the base, with 2.780 billion active users.
For marketers, this means that we must be super tuned into social media on mobile and understand how users behave on this device.
In terms of the social media leaderboard, it’s no surprise that Facebook remains dominant with an estimated 2.047 billion monthly active users.
YouTube ranks second with 1.5 billion users.
WhatsApp and Messenger, owned by Facebook, were over the billion MAU mark as well in the third and fourth position, respectively.
Instagram follows closely behind with roughly 700 million MAU.
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Facebook is testing a way to target customers who have visited your shop
Did you know Facebook uses 98 personal data points to target ads to you?
Now the social media giant is testing a new Custom Audiences option which would enable businesses to target ads at people who’ve visited their business premises, with a new ‘Store Visits’ option appearing for some advertisers.
This really bridges the gap between offline and online and is especially true of the mobile customer journey.
Advertisers will have the potential to target their ads to groups of users who’ve displayed a clear interest in their products – by visiting their business. It could also be used to find users with similar characteristics to expand reach.
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Facebook attempts to curb cloaking
Facebook’s continuing to stamp out spam and fake news with yet another News Feed algorithm change.
I’d actually never heard of a practice called ‘cloaking’ until now.
Cloaking is an advanced spammer tactic – the process uses re-directs, based on the viewers’ IP or other identifiers, in order to avoid detection.
According to Facebook spammers will:
“Set up web pages so that when a Facebook reviewer clicks a link to check whether it’s consistent with our policies, they’re taken to a different web page than when someone using the Facebook app clicks that same link.”
Interview | Antonio Calero
In this week’s show I’m delighted to be joined from Spain by my good social media friend and targeting expert, Antonio Calero, who works at AdEspresso by Hootsuite.
Antonio Calero is a Social Media author, speaker, and the Head of Marketplace Services for AdEspresso – a software as a service (SaaS) that simplifies optimization and reporting of Facebook and Instagram Ads.
With a strong background in behavioural marketing and online advertising, Antonio is a regular contributor to industry leading websites like Social Media Examiner, Razor Social and Jon Loomer Digital; and has been invited at present at multiple international events.
Antonio has been helping businesses achieve their online goals for over 10 years!
Tune in now to hear my interview with Antonio.
Below is my favourite quote from our interview.
Shout-Outs: Three brilliant targeting case studies
In this part of the show I give shout-outs to brands, organisations or individuals whose work online is remarkable and worth talking about.
In this weeks’ show I’m sharing three Instagram success stories from some of the top brands using the social network.
I’d recommend you study their accounts to see how they engage with their target audiences.
1) National Geographic
National Geographic has over 80 million followers on Instagram. Their colourful, breath-taking and insightful photos have the wow factor which are complemented by their magical videos.
National Geographic gives us behind the scenes, up close and personal views of the world’s people, environment and habitat.
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2) Nike
Sports brands dominate the tops spots on Instagram but Nike uses its brand ambassadors regularly who are famous sports people.
With over 73 million followers, Nike just keeps bringing us back to their ‘never gets old’ tagline – just do it!
Even their product posts don’t feel ‘salesy’.
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3) Victoria’s Secrets
Boasting almost 57 million followers on Instagram it’s not much of a secret why Victoria’s Secret is in the top 10 brands on the social network. Some might feel that reviewing the VS Instagram is like the Father Ted episode where he gets ‘lost’ in the lingerie section of a Department Store.
However, Victoria’s Secret’s has managed to help us get over the taboo of looking at sexy lingerie making it accessible.
This is according to Media Psychologist Dr. Pamela B. Rutledge who says they’ve managed to make lingerie something you could put in a shopping mall or on Instagram.
Ask JSB
Ask JSB brings the voices of my listeners onto the show. So, you now have an opportunity to ask me a question, have it aired on the podcast and I will respond.
If you want to hear your voice on JSB Talks Digital simply log on to www.digitaltraining.ie/askjsb and leave me your voicemail.
This week’s question is from Marie Clare at Now Media. Tune in to listen to my answer.
What is a Custom Audience on Facebook?
JSB’s Column | Inbound Marketing and Geo-Targeting
In today’s column, I’m looking a bit deeper into geo-targeting.
Around the world, there are billions of people on the internet, all searching for information. Regardless, if you are like most businesses, you rely heavily on local customers. Attracting visitors from around the globe, to your business website, has really little or no value. What drives your business is your local or regional community. So, the real trick to inbound marketing is placing your company front and foremost in the minds of those consumers most likely to buy from you. Don’t you agree?
There are many online articles describing the basics of how to improve your local ranking on Google. However, these articles often describe how to be one of the few business listings at the top of local search results pages. You are likely familiar with these results.
Use your business website as the centerpiece of your inbound marketing strategy Click To TweetAs an example, when a user searches for “a bankruptcy attorney near me,” Google will list a few local bankruptcy attorneys based on their relevance, proximity to the user, and their prominence. Google makes use of both online and offline signals to determine the rank these local results. So, there are going to be times when you are not the closest or most prominent business, no matter what you do, and there is little you can do to improved these mapped results.
Inbound Marketing and Geo-Targeting
Today’s article is not so much about improving Local SEO. It is more focused on an inbound marketing strategy which employs geo-targeting, the practice of customizing marketing and advertising to a specific geographic location. This can be any specific local area including a neighborhood, town, metro area, state, or even region.
Using your business website as the centerpiece of this inbound marketing strategy, you can improve your brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, educate potential shoppers, improve relationships with consumers, and even attract more qualified employees. Is that something you could use in your situation?
Now, there is one thing you may have noticed missing from the list of potential benefits: increased web traffic. It is great when your inbound marketing results in more click-throughs from search results. However, an inbound marketing strategy which employs geo-targeting is about attracting only the most qualified potential customers and those most likely to buy your products or services.
Inbound marketing for local search targets those individuals which most resemble your ideal customer, which means people living in your local community. When you align your inbound marketing to the right goals, you increase your lead generation by making connections with the right consumers.
Align your inbound marketing to the right goals to increase your lead generation Click To TweetHow to Optimize Your Website for Local Customers
Optimizing your business website to attract local users is all about crafting the right content for your target. Every new content page and blog entry is a new web page for search engines to index and an opportunity to focus on a new local keyword or phrase. Regardless, you want to avoid the temptation of simply adding local keywords to a generic topic.
The success of inbound marketing relies on content that has value to your target audience at every stage of the consumer life-cycle: target, prospect, lead, active customer, super-fan, and past clients. Therefore, your content must have local relevance, authority, and perspective. Does that make sense to you?
- Customer Success Stories – Highlight the stories about your happy customers. These articles are not only an opportunity for locally relevant content, but they also show off your products and services. Additionally, there is an element of social proof, the psychological phenomenon where people make assumptions based on the beliefs and actions of others.
- Complimentary Local Companies – Provide positive reviews of non-competing businesses. For example, if you are a roofing company, review other local home improvement and repair companies. It provides valuable information for your target audience and creates goodwill with other local businesses.
- Highjack Local News Stories – In a practice called news-jacking, you can capitalize on trending local news stories to amplify your marketing. Moreover, as a local business owner, community members are eager to read your insights and perspectives on important issues facing the area. These blog entries are extremely simple and extremely powerful.
- Local Events and Guides – Not only does every community have local events and attractions, they likely have events and attractions of interest to the specific groups and demographics that you are targeting. Local holiday parades, concerts in the park, car shows, and more will provide an endless supply of locally relevant content.
- Local Charities and Sponsorships – People love to support businesses that give back to the local community. Share information about the local charities or causes that you support. For example, if you sponsor a local little league team, write articles about their games. If you support a local food cupboard, use your blog to promote their food drive.
- Storytelling – Every business owner has stories and antidotes that are informative, useful, or entertaining. Regardless, the power of storytelling is that it can humanize your company, improving your connection with your customers. Plus, it allows you to easily add locally relevant keywords and information into your content.
Piggybacking off these suggestions, you can easily come up with content ideas that will work for your target. The key is knowing your ideal customer and what will bring value to them. As you build your website’s local relevance, you will also improve brand awareness, loyalty, and customer relationships. Ultimately, your company will become the first choice of local consumers when they are ready to buy.
If you would like to talk about inbound marketing tricks to dominate local search, or a related topic, please drop me an email to [email protected].
Social Media Tool of the Week: Facebook Business Manager
The social media tool that saved my working week this week is Facebook Business Manager. And I’m not alone! 96% of social media marketers consider Facebook the most effective social media advertising platform.
If you haven’t set up your Facebook Business Manager account yet for your Page, then get it done within the next 24 hours.
96% of social media marketers consider Facebook the most effective social media ads platform Click To TweetWhy not use Facebook Ads when?
- Facebook has the largest audience.
- Facebook Ads are prominent enough for a lot of people to click.
- It has the lowest cost per click over other social advertising platforms.
- Facebook Ads reward you for testing more ads and targets. You can lower the cost by 50% or more with testing.
Business Manager allows you to manage your Facebook Pages and ad accounts.
Within Business Manager you have Facebook Ads Manager where you access all of the marketing tools you need to create targeted ads to reach your various audiences.
If you are using Facebook as your core marketing channel, this is the one advertising tool that you need to fully understand, if you plan on reaching your goals.
AdEspresso have a great Beginners Guide to Facebook Ad Manager which you can download here.
I love feedback
I’d love to know what you think about this episode. So please get in touch by commenting below or tweet me @tweetsbyJSB or send me a snap to @jsbsnaps.
Listen: JSB Talks Digital | Episode #62
I would like to thank Eoghan Murphy aka The Galway Gamer for producing my podcast series and to Flirt FM on the campus of NUI, Galway where I am based for the use of their studio.
