Today there are more than a billion monthly users on Facebook and other social media channels, such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube. That’s a billion people who interact every single day and whose minds are being programmed subconsciencely with every scroll. Advertisers now consider social media a more effective medium for placing targeted ads and marketing agencies create customer messages specially for social media specifications.
You don’t have to be a business owner to take advantage of the storm surge that social media, primarily Facebook, has created. Everybody has their own unique brand and everyone (or most everyone) has something they want the world to know. If they don’t, they’ve avoided social media altogether.
How can you benefit from the surge of social media? Let’s take a hypothetical scenario and I’ll show you how you can utilize Facebook to accomplish your goals.
Scenario: Your 5th grader is selling cookies to raise money for new band instruments in his school.
Goal: To sell $1000 worth of cookies (cookies are $5 per box)
Assumptions: You have a Facebook account.
- Mom (that’s you) takes a picture of a plate of cookies (make them look yummy) held by the 5th grader and makes a post on Facebook that says “Guess who’s selling cookies? They’re only $5 a box and I’ve already bought 3 boxes! Let me know how many you want.” Tag all relatives and close friends.
- Within a few days of the first post, find a child who plays one of the band instruments in the band and have them record a 15 second video message that says “I love playing in the band and we need more instruments. Buy cookies from us so that more kids can play.” Post the video with a message “This is so adorable, help me help these kids raise this money! How many boxes do you want?” Tag everybody you know who knows the child (always pick a child who has a lot of contacts).
- After only a few days into the campaign, show a graph to your audience about how sales are going. You can easily create something in Microsoft Word or any number of tools. This is key, so if you don’t know how to do this, find someone who does. Post a message “we only need to sell 200 more boxes – let’s do it! How many can I put you down for?” Another non-tech way to do this is through a picture. Show a plate full of cookies next to a plate with a percentage of the cookies missing, which indicates how close or far you are from your goal.
- Always keep the message at the top of people’s minds. A post everyday about the importance of teaching kids how to play an instrument should be something you’re reminding your followers of. Be sure and post something serious about the effects of music on a child, or a personal testimony of how playing an instrument changed someone’s life (such as your own.)
- Children and pictures are the main influencers of decision making in Facebook. Take a picture of your child with the cookies again or a video of several children pitching the cookie sales. Always update your followers through pictures and videos. They are expecting it, especially if they bought the cookies.
- After the campaign is over, create a ‘Thank you’ post with pictures. This will make the next year’s campaign easier.
This tactic is not too different from what professional agencies do (and they charge a lot more than this free blog posting!) Social media is there, so take advantage of it and let us know how well it worked!
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