Marketing In The Now
Social media guru, Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee), often talks about “marketing in the now”. The simplified meaning….if any platform offers an audience for our products and services, let’s take advantage. Waiting to see if the latest social media media tool or platform could be a passing fad may mean missing business. We’ve adopted Gary Vee’s philosophy, and regularly repeat it to our clients. But, we always give you credit, Gary!
Social Video
Social video is probably the most effective recently discovered tool existing today. Saying the words “recently discovered” doesn’t exactly fit here, since we’ve known of the power of video for years. The recent developments that have made video marketing so effective relate to using social media for distribution. Yes, that’s why we call it “social video” marketing.
Facebook Marketing
I (personally) was slow to take advantage of Facebook marketing. I’m not sure if the tools have become that much more effective, or if I’ve just become a better student….probably some of both. Using the power of Facbook’s ad-based marketing along with the right video can be an incredibly effective method for both branding and driving website traffic. Yes…you can call me old fashioned, but I still believe we should consider our website the core of our digital strategy. Nothing has occurred (yet) to change my opinion there, and I AM keeping an open mind. The effectiveness of geographically and demographically targeting an audience on the platform with (arguably) the largest real “reach” on the planet right now should not be overlooked.
Reach
Let’s talk about reach. Anyone who has ever purchased advertising on radio and TV has seen the “reach” factor used (and misused) to determine the value of said advertising. When a cable TV station states they can put your ad in 2 million, or 10 million homes, it sounds great. When radio stations say they have a “reach” of 1 million listeners, it’s sounds impressive. But, in both these cases those numbers have little to do with the actual number of folks who will see or hear your ad. The DVR made the cable channel’s job even tougher. If we were to compare “reach” on Facebook using the same methods, the number would be (today) 1.6 billion. And, invariably, someone would say “Yea but, 1.6 billion people will not see my ad. That’s not realistic”. Don’t you just hate the Yeabuts? But, this is correct, reach does not reflect actual audience. It better reflects potential audience. I would venture to say it would be impossible to “reach” all of Facebook’s audience with any amount of money, but that’s not the point, and I’m not interested in trying. It is just as impossible to reach all of the cable and radio audiences within their stated reach. Wouldn’t you rather spend your ad dollars on the platform with the most reach anyway?
Accurately Factoring Cost
Comparatively speaking, social video marketing on Facebook is much cheaper that traditional advertising. Here’s why:
- We can precisely target an audience with interests relative to our ad
- We can precisely target an audience geographically
- We can precisely target an audience demographically
So, when factoring ad costs, waste much be considered. There’s massive waste in traditional advertising (TV & Radio) and little or no waste in social media marketing when proper tools and guidelines are utilized. Please, allow me to emphasize the “proper” use of guidelines and tools. To recklessly create an and and not effectively take full advantage of Facebook’s ad-targeting tools would be wasteful as well. Please don’t spend your ad dollars carelessly on any platform.
It may seem like I’m knocking our friends in the radio and TV biz…not so. Just pointing out the facts. In some of my other business endeavors, I occasionally use traditional advertising, but, rarely use TV. I firmly believe (dollar for dollar) I can find more “interested” eyes using social video marketing than on TV….at least that’s the case now, and I AM (again) keeping an open mind.
What About The Video?
Video content, the organization of content, and the length of a video are crucial. The content has to be relative. The video has to grab attention immediately, and has to be as short as humanly possible and still deliver the message. If you can do it in 15 seconds, do it. 30 seconds is still OK. In some cases 60 second videos work, and in really rare cases longer videos can work. Entertainment value is just as important as any other factor. Very few people will watch a boring video of any length. No one will watch it twice. Facebook’s tools will show you exactly how many people you reached, how many engaged your video, and for how long. It may hurt your feelings to know the truth, but there’s no advantage to ignoring the data. Use it to become better at the task. One factor that I (personally) pay attention to, is the reach versus views number. If you’re engaging less than 50% of your reach, something is probably wrong in the ad-targeting make up or in your page description or category. If your engaging 75% of your reach, you’re on the right track.
The video below has some great information about this subject. And, yes I do know that it is too long. I promise to work on that. If you would like to reach more customers using Social Video Marketing, contact us HERE.