Starting in late May, Facebook rolled out a new feature called Promoted Posts. It’s a way for you to pay for an individual post to be seen in more of your fans’ news feeds, and it may be a nice little option for you to consider taking advantage of as part of your social media marketing mix.

Here’s the 411!

What is a Promoted Post, exactly?

Your Facebook posts are seen by some portion of your fans. But many people might not be frequent Facebook users, or they may have tons of friends or other brands crowding their feed. Promoted Posts are a paid way to push your posts more prominently into their feeds. It’s like putting on a giant orange wig and a pair of stilts and walking through a crowd. People are bound to notice you.

Have you noticed at the bottom of your posts that there’s a new metric there showing you how many people have seen your post? It’s the number of people you have reached and the percentage of your fans that have seen your post. This is most helpful information because it gives you direct feedback on your social media ROI. If the number of fans you have reached with your posts is 10% or below, you might want to consider doing some promoted posts to make your Facebook page more effective. Even if it’s higher than 10%, you’ll still want to consider promoted posts because they can be really helpful to you in ways we’ll mention in just a sec.

But first, let’s talk a little more about what Promoted Posts do.

Why you care about Promoted Posts

Promoted Posts are an easy and affordable ($5-$300) way to increase engagement. Think of them like paid SEO. We think they’re a great option because it can give your engagement a boost and provide a way to re-engage fans who have perhaps wandered off a bit, or who haven’t seen your posts for a while.

This is really important because clicks, comments, and shares will help you get back into more news feeds. The more people who see your posts, the more good stuff will happen.

Fun facts about Promoted Posts

• Promoted Posts are only available to brand pages with more than four hundred fans—yet another motivator to get those likes up!
• You can only run a promoted post on a new post that’s less than three days old.
• Your posts will be pushed for three days.
• Once a post is running, you can stop it if you change your mind.
• You can set and change your budget as you see fit.
• Under your posts will be a tag that lets people know it was sponsored.
• Promoted Posts are trackable: both during and after running your campaign. You can get a detailed report that shows you how much interaction your post received.

Which posts to promote

Well, this takes a little experimentation.

Typically, at least in our experience, our more directly engaging posts get the most attention and interaction from our fans as opposed to some of our more “businessy” ones. This is not to say that you’ve always got to be the life of the party, but sometimes it’s nice to put on your dancing shoes and have a little fun with your fans. It makes you approachable and human. So, promote some stuff that directly and actively engages your fans along with your industry-related stuff. It’s more likely to be shared.

Maybe throw a picture of your mascot up there or talk about something interesting that happened at the office. Did somebody send you a cake as thanks for a job well done?  Before you let your office food vultures dig in, take a picture for Facebook! The only rule you need to follow is to keep it clean, professional and grandma friendly.

If you’re planning on running a promotion, having a sale, or offering a new service, Promoted Posts are absolutely perfect. If you’re trying to do a little marketing research, you can also use Promoted Posts to get as much feedback from your fans as you can.

If you’re still stuck for ideas, you can analyze your content a bit. Look back a few months and find your most popular posts. The ones that got the most engagement will be the ones that will do the best when promoted. So, make more like that and promote them.

What about those posts that bombed?  You can still use that content, but think of ways you can rework it to give it a new life.

At the end of the day, Facebook’s Promoted Posts are another great way to help you increase your social media engagement. With a little forethought and some data gathering, you can set yourself up for success and make the most out of your investment.