Getting Started with Facebook Ads

Originally posted March 23, 2011

With 500,000,000 registered users, Facebook recently passed Google as the most viewed site in the US. In addition to volume, you can argue that Facebook can target ads better than any other service. Think about how much information is on your profile: age, relationship status, work history, religion, interests, and much more. All of that can be used to determine if you are the right target for an advertisement. How would someone get started use Facebook ads, and how much would it cost? I’ll answer those questions and more in today’s blog.

Getting Started

First, you must know specifically what you want to advertise and what URL you want to link to. You must also determine what the advertisement’s goals are. Do you want the user to make a purchase or simply click through to see content? Once you’ve determined that, you get 25 characters for an ad title, 135 characters for the ad body, and an image. It may seem difficult at first to write an effective ad in 135 characters, but it can be done. Facebook suggests keeping ads simple, using correct grammar, and proper language. They also suggest to use a strong call to action, encouraging words such as “buy”, “order”, “sign up”, etc. Once you know what you’re selling and what to say, the ad must be targeted to the right audience.

Targeting

Targeting users can be extremely customizable and therefore complex. It does however make it one of the more effective tools that Facebook Ads can offer.

Lets pretend we’re writing an ad  for Old Spice Body Wash as an example, and assume the intent is to have the user purchase a product after clicking on the associated link.

Related: Old Spice launched an excellent social media campaign and have an excellent presence on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Location

Since Old Spice is not a local product, you can advertise it to anyone in the United States. If location applies to your product, you can target a specific city or cities and its surrounding areas.

Demographics

Because the intent of the ad is to have a customer make a purchase, targeting only males and choosing a specific age range are beneficial. Old Spice has stated that the intent of their campaign was to increase sales with a younger demographic, and the age range has been adjusted accordingly. If the intent of the ad was to simply have a user click through and see one of the creative Old Spice videos as part of their social media strategy, gender targeting would probably not be necessary.

Likes and Interests

For this particular product, likes and interests won’t be as obvious as if you were writing an ad for say, a men’s golf club. Based on the Old Spice commercials and videos, interests could include everything from health, travel, sports, and more. Facebook will search user’s data profiles for matches and only advertise to those that have matched interests with what you’ve entered.

As you can see on the side, these constraints would reach almost 2.9 million Facebook users. You want to make sure that number isn’t too high or too low. If the number is too high, you may be wasting advertising dollars to people who won’t buy your product. If the number is too low, your constraints might be too specific and you may want to consider broadening the targeting options. If you are paying per impression (explained later), you will want an estimated reach of at least 1,000 or more users.

Advanced Demographics

Advanced demographics don’t really apply to Old Spice Body Wash, but could definitely be useful for other products. If you are advertising a textbook selling service for example, you’ll want to target “In College” or perhaps even “In High School” users. If you are advertising a dating service, you can exclude those that are “In a relationship”, “Engaged”, or “Married”. Tools like this prevent advertisers from spending money on impressions or clickthroughs that aren’t likely to lead to conversions. To explain impressions and clickthroughs, the last topic on getting your ads on Facebook is pricing.

How much does it cost?

There is no set cost for Facebook Ads. Each user can determine how much they want to spend on an campaign by changing the number in the Budget line. The minimum to spend per day is $1.00, or you can choose to set a budget for the lifetime of the campaign.

Bidding on Impressions vs Clicks

Each time your ad appears to a user, it is called an impression. If you choose this method, you will pay for one thousand impressions (CPM). If you want to pay per click (CPC), each time a user clicks on one of your ads, it counts as a click.

For CPM and CPC, you will have to determine a max bid for whichever method you choose. CPM advertising is usually more effective for brand awareness and getting people to simply see your ad. CPC advertisers will likely be offering something to be sold or registered for. Your maximum bid will be compared to the maximum bid of other advertisers with similar ads, and the winning bids will be displayed to Facebook users. As your campaign goes on, you can change the bid number if you feel that a higher or lower bid price would be more effective. Remember, you will never pay more than your maximum bid, and you could pay less. It will depend on what others are bidding for their ads.

Conclusion

Simply signing up for Facebook ads do not guarantee sales for your product. Like every marketing strategy, research, analysis, and adaption is required for success. Once you’ve made your first ads, it is important to constantly monitor the metrics such as impressions, clickthrough rate (CTR), and conversions. Set your ads to run at different times and target different audiences to see which is most effective. If Facebook’s massive traffic and targeted base are right for your product, give it a try and determine whether it can be a successful marketing strategy.

Have you used Facebook ads before? Perhaps you’ve used a different service like Google’s AdWords? Let us know what worked for you and what tips you have for others starting out with online advertisements.

Helpful Links:

Facebook Ads > Ads: Campaign Cost and Budgeting

10 Facebook Advertising Tips for Brilliant Marketers – Nick O’Neill

How Bidding CPM In Facebook Could Save You Thousands – Justin Dupre

Video: How Facebook Ads Target Users – Clara Shih

Is Hashable the End of Business Cards as We Know It?

Originally Posted March 17, 2011

Hashable says: “Business cards suck. Hashable is awesome.”

Company Overview

Have you ever exchanged business cards with someone only to forget about the card and never have any further interaction with them? Hashable is a company looking to change the act of meeting people and the exchange contact information. One goal of theirs is to make the exchange of business cards obsolete. Instead of exchanging physical cards, Hashable users will exchange information by establishing an online relationship with that new contact and publicly announcing the connection through social networking outlets like Twitter. By making your social interactions public, Hashable changes the nature of introductions, meeting new people, and keeping in touch with business and social connections.

How does it work?

Let’s assume that you and I don’t know each other, but we just met in person through some mutual business associates. Instead of the traditional exchange of business cards, we can use Hashable (available on iPhone, Android, or web) to post our connection. Since we just met, the traditional post would be “#justmet @JonRasty” if you have a twitter account, or “#justmet jon@email.com” if you are using email. You have the option to add a personalized message and can toggle whether you want the connection to be public or private. Your contact information will be sent to me, and my contact information will be sent to you, all electronically. After this, your “Inner Circle” will be notified of your new connection.

Your Inner Circle is the group of people who you are closer to and want to share all your connections with. If someone in your inner circle wants to meet someone you are connected to, they can request that you make an intro through Hashable. Photos and bios are inserted with every intro, making the event seamless, easy, and paperless. You can also track your relationship strength with each of your contacts. Hashable monitors how often you interact with them and organizes your contacts based on relationship strength.

What keeps users coming back?

Like other social media services such as Foursquare and GetGlue, Hashable has a competitive aspect to it. With each connection and meeting reported through Hashable, users will receive “Hashcred” which essentially shows how well you are growing your contacts and the community for your friends. Point leaders are displayed on a leader board identifying the site’s most active users. Recently, at South By Southwest (SXSW), Hashable sent their top 20 users to attend the conference and raise awareness of the Hashable service. With so many business cards exchanging at this social media savvy event, SXSW seems to be a great opportunity to gain some traction.

Will the service take off?

In my opinion, Hashable will take some getting used to. Asking for and offering business cards are such common practice today, it may take some time before this idea really takes off. While the service is available to everyone with an email account, it is most effective when both parties are active and public on Twitter. The connection will update your twitter timeline with what you are doing, who you met, and further establishes an electronic relationship with that person. Unfortunately for Hashable, Twitter is still unfamiliar to many people, making Hashable’s target market the early adopters and social media savvy. Some people may find the idea of sharing who you meet a little too intrusive and may dislike the idea of constantly notifying people of whom you’ve meet with.

Summary

The company has a great idea, great attitude, and what seems to be a strong group of core users that want to evangelize their service. As our society becomes more comfortable with social media services, will business professionals find it necessary to take advantage of a service like Hashable? With LinkedIn for example, it seems that a business professional without it might be out of the loop if they are not participating in the service. Only time will tell ifHashable can end the exchange of physical business cards and change the nature of exchanging contact information.

What do you think? Is Hashable a service that you would consider using? Is this the end of business cards as we know it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Hashable Contact & Social Media

support@hashable.com

Hashable.com

Hashable on Facebook

Hashable on Twitter

Sources

Hashable FAQ

Video: How to Use Hashable With Friends

Video: What Is Hashable?

Video: Business Card Free SXSW with Hashable

Why A Giants Fan Will Be Applauding A Dodger

Originally posted November 30, 2010

As most San Francisco Giants fans have heard, former fan favorite Juan Uribe has signed a 3-year, $21,000,000 deal with arch-rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Uribe was a critical piece to the Giants 2010 World Series Championship run, belting one of the most significant home runs in franchise history (but more on that later).

How could such a beloved Giant so quickly turn to Dodger blue?! How could he turn away from the hundreds of thousands that chanted “UUUU-Ribe!” when he and his teammates were paraded through the streets of San Francisco? Word spread quickly on Twitter and fans expressed (and are still expressing) their outrage, calling Uribe a “traitor”. The phrase “BOOribe” was trending in San Francisco throughout the day as hundreds of fans felt betrayed and confused. 

Every fan will feel differently about this, but I for one will be cheering for Juan Uribe when he is introduced at AT&T Park next season. I expect there to be a strange mix of cheering, booing, and UUU-ing, and I expect it to be flat out weird seeing him in Dodger blue. I strongly feel that all 43,000 Giants fans that will sell out AT&T Park for that first Dodgers game should join me in giving Uribe a proper welcome back to AT&T Park and let him understand that regardless of the uniform he is wearing, that his effort during the 2010 season was appreciated. It’s simply the right thing to do.

Lets look back at that 2010 season - Game 6 of the NLCS - when the Giants won the pennant for the first time since 2002. Remember that for the first time as the San Francisco Giants, this team won a World Series. Remember the torture of the regular season, and remember the torture of not being in the playoffs since 2003. Remember losing in the NLDS in ‘03. Remember losing the World Series in ‘02. And ‘89. And ‘62. And remember that Juan Uribe was a major factor in wiping away those heartbreaking seasons. Remember in Game 4 of the NLCS when he hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th inning to win the game. One more time, remember Juan Uribe’s tie-breaking home run in the top of the 8th inning in game 6 of the NLCS, the game when the Giants won the 2010 NL Pennant. Now think about how that player should be received when he makes his first visit to AT&T Park as a visiting player. 

No change in uniform will ever change the impact that Juan Uribe had on the 2010 season, the Giants franchise, and the city of San Francisco. And when he’s back playing against his old team in front of his old fans, do you want to applaud him for the things that he’s done as a Giant, or boo him for the things he’s yet to do against them?

Monday April 11, 2011 is the first day that Uribe and the Dodgers will visit San Francisco and play the Giants. How do you think the fans will react?

Jon Rastrullo

(Source: fanvibe.posterous.com)

Is Your Brand Effectively Using Twitter?

Originally posted March 7, 2011

There are a number of brands that have effective social media strategies. Some create viral videos like Volkswagen’s Darth Vader commercial. Others have creative giveaways for liking their brand on facebook like American Airlines’ “Mystery Miles” promotion. Twitter seems to be a whole different beast. It’s completely public and can be challenging to use at first. The truth is, Twitter is a perfect way to establish what your brand is about, connect with customers, advertise your product, and more.

As you might expect, there is strategy involved in how a brand should be maintained. This post will highlight two brands, the San Francisco Giants and Southwest Airlines, who utilize Twitter to create an effective online representation of their brand. There are three common threads between these two despite the fact that they are very different:

Update: Tweet and retweet unique, interesting content
Engage: Engage often with followers
Profile: Create an informative profile

@SFGiants
Number of Tweets 7,000+
Number of Followers 85,000+
Tweeting Since May 2009

The San Francisco Giants are considered a niche brand since they are geographically based and limited to those interested in baseball. Less than a year ago, they started a campaign to help them reach 10,000 followers. Their following has grown eight times in size since then, and it wasn’t just because the team won the World Series.

The account manager is constantly interacting with fans and is updating their feed with quality news, pictures, and event information. Here’s a great video from Twitter about @SFGiants and how they use twitter to connect with fans.

I make a brief appearance in the video at 1:53 after replying to one of their tweets during a game. They have also organized “tweet-up” events where twitter users can meet in person and attend a game together. The Giants have a basic, yet informative background and profile that helps further establish their brand image.

@SouthwestAir
Number of Tweets 6,000+
Number of Followers 1,000,000+
Tweeting Since July 2007

With a massive audience, Southwest is on top of the social media game. Tweeting since 2007 is impressive and is one of the reasons they have such a dedicated following. Notice the significant engagement with other users on their timeline; they consistently respond to customer questions, positive comments, and negative comments.

It’s important to address the negative comments and change your brand image with that customer from a negative one to a positive one. Notice that their posts simply aren’t plugging the brand or that certain flights that need to be sold. Southwest has created a friendly, informative space online for them to interact with past, present, and future customers. Finally notice their extremely informative background. It has facts about the company, lists its official websites, social media links, and awards all in a nice tidy space that would otherwise be empty.

While the San Francisco Giants and Southwest Airlines are two very different brands, they both have a solid grasp on how to manage their brand image on Twitter. By sending out useful information, engaging with customers, and having informative profiles, these brands have created a space to grow their online reputation and strengthen relationships with current and potential customers. What other brands do you know that manage themselves effectively on Twitter? Post their handle in the comments section and what you think they do to manage their Twitter presence effectively.

Author: Jon Rastrullo

(Source: socialsearchmobile.org)

The Torture is Finally Over

Originally posted November 2, 2010

(Photo courtesy of  KVAL.com - AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

 
I was born and raised as a Giants fan. I was taken to my first game at Candlestick when I was just a baby. My father was a Giants fan, and his father was a Giants fan. In their 30+ years of watching this baseball team, they had never witnessed a World Series victory, until tonight. My grandfather who is 83 years old had seriously questioned whether he would ever see the Giants win a championship in his lifetime. After tonight, there were no more questions, the 2010 San Francisco Giants had finally won the World Series. I called my grandfather after the game and he yelled to me,”The torture is finally over!”

If you had followed the team with any regularity, you know that “torture” was the word that broadcaster Duane Kuiper coined to describe this team’s antics throughout the season. Tonight, the torture ended, but it wasn’t just this season. The San Francisco Giants and their fans have seen some of the most difficult and devastating World Series losses of any Major League franchise, and thinking back to them, it makes tonight’s victory that much sweeter. 1962 - Game 7 of the World Series where Willie McCovey hit a line drive that was inches away from being a World Series winning hit but was caught for the final out of the game. There was 1989 when the city of San Francisco was rocked by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in the middle of a World Series (and the Giants would eventually be swept). There was 2002 when the Giants were just 8 outs away from World Series victory before blowing a 5-0 lead and eventually losing in 7 games.

Tonight erased those painful memories and made suffering through all those difficult years even more meaningful. These are not the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Lakers winning yet another championship. For the first time in San Francisco Giants history, the team will fly home and bring back the coveted World Series trophy with them. The city of San Francisco will have it’s first baseball parade since 1958 when the franchise moved from New York, and it will be one to remember.

I’m not quite sure how to feel right now, and from talking to other Giants fans, they feel the same way. We have never witnessed this team win it all before. For the past 53 years, the season has ended with heartbreak and looking forward to the next year that just might be “the year”. This feeling is what being a sports fan is all about. It’s about following a team for an entire season and seeing them win it all. It’s about sweeping up a city into an orange and black fever where “Lets Go Giants” chants ring out in the streets after every win. It’s about the heartbreak of losing, but knowing that there’s always next year. But for this team, this year, there is no heartbreak. This Giants team won it all, and the players on this roster will be immortalized in the city of San Francisco for what they have achieved.

Thank you, 2010 San Francisco Giants for providing me with one of the most unique and memorable sporting experiences of my life. Thank you to my Dad for raising me to be a Giants fan. Thank you to the Giants fans on Fanvibe that checked-in and talked about every game, who I shared wins, losses, torture, and ultimately a championship with. The 2010 season has been one hell of a ride and it’s been great to share it with so many great Giants fans. If you have the opportunity to make it out to the championship parade, I highly suggest it…you just never know when the next championship will be.

Jon Rastrullo

(Source: fanvibe.posterous.com)

GroupMe Offers Free Group Communications to Anyone with a Cell Phone

Originally posted March 15, 2011

Company Overview

GroupMe wants to simplify the way you to connect with the important in your life. When we use our phones, we text, call, and share photos with our friends through SMS and phone calls, but GroupMe makes connecting with groups of people simple and easy.

 Features

Group Messaging and Photo/Location Sharing

Often times you will want to send a SMS out to multiple people. The problem is that when one person replies, only you get it, and everyone else is out of the loop. Then you have to resend new information to everyone again, and it wastes time and clutters your inbox. GroupMe’s group messaging feature creates a group phone number that acts as a private chat room for you and you friends where all members in the group will receive all messages. It’s great for event planning, event attending, or just relaying news to one another.

In addition to simple text messages, you can share photos and locations with your groups. I can’t count the number of times when one person takes a picture with their camera phone, and everyone wants to get their own picture with their own phone. With GroupMe you can have one picture taken and have that person send it out to the group. Now everyone’s got the same great picture and you got it done in one take, saving a lot of time!

Conference Calls

If you call the number that your group is assigned, you create an instant conference call with all of the group members. It’s great for conversations too long for text, for those who don’t like texting, and it definitely has potential for business professionals. This feature allows the user to relay information over the phone to your entire team without the complications of setting up a conference call.

Competition

GroupMe is definitely facing some competition in this space. Beluga offers a similar service as a stand alone app for smart phones, and they were recently acquired by Facebook. Like GroupMe, Baluga helps groups of friends stay in touch when they’re on the go. Unlike GroupMe, Baluga does not have SMS or phone calling integration since it is a stand alone app.

Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry Messenger (BBM) Groups also provide a similar service for Blackberry owners. Groups of friends with BBM can communicate, share photos, lists, and calendars, all integrated with their Blackberry. As a Blackberry owner and BBM user, I find myself using the Groups feature every day to stay in touch with my closest friends. The obvious major limitation of this is that not everyone has a Blackberry, while almost everyone has SMS. GroupMe’s ability to work with any phone, smartphone or not, increases their potential market far beyond their smartphone exclusive competitors.

South By Southwest (SXSW)

Like Hashable, GroupMe wanted to make it’s presence felt at SXSW. Offering free grilled cheese and beer to any GroupMe users, I’d bet GroupMe got plenty of attention. GroupMe even has a specific SXSW landing page for users to create SXSW groups making it a perfect app for keeping in touch with your friends at the event, and letting them what you’re up to.

Summary

Major events like SXSW will be critical for services like GroupMe to capitalize on. It is the perfect event for groups of friends to test it out and see if it is useful to them. At this event, many data hogging smart phones descended into the Austin area, which could cause a scarcity in 3G data availability, and highlight GroupMe’s SMS feature. However, GroupMe is facing major competition for this service. Facebook’s name alone strikes fear in the competition with their massive size and disposable income. Cell phone manufacturers like RIM have already built group features into their phone’s operating system, and there are reports that BBM will launch on Android and iOS. At the end of the day however, GroupMe’s free SMS and Conference conference call features set it apart from the competition and make it a major player in the group messaging space.

Contact/Social Media

support@groupme.com

GroupMe.com

GroupMe on Twitter

Scalping Scams

Originally posted October 26, 2010

This topic came to me as a result of the World Series being held in San Francisco, but can definitely apply to concert tickets, live shows, or any other event you have considered purchasing tickets for. Scalping will usually occur for events that are sold out. If the event isn’t sold out, obviously the best way to go is through the original ticket provider. It is incredibly easy for someone on the street or on Craigslist to scam you with fake event tickets. Both “e-ticket” printouts and “hard tickets” directly from the ticket distributor can be bought, sold, copied, and then sold to you, so be careful.

Tip #1: Don’t EVER buy tickets from a street scalper
If you walk near a venue and hear “TICKETS? ANYONE NEED TICKETS? BUYING OR SELLING?” Avoid this guy. Ticket scalpers outside the stadium will try and hustle you in many ways. Don’t even acknowledge that they are there, because if you seem interested, they will follow you wherever you go and try and convince you to buy something. First off, there is a good chance that the tickets are fake. They may look legit, but it’s impossible to know. Even the seller might not know if the tickets are legitimate or not, meaning it’s a complete crap shoot as to whether you’ll even get in the stadium. Secondly, their ticket prices will be unreasonable.  For a high demand event, expect to pay several times face value. Third, scalping may be illegal in your state. 

Tip #2: Don’t ever buy e-tickets on the street (or Craigslist)
E-tickets can be taken to a copy machine, have dozens of copies made, and all sold to various unassuming buyers who have no idea that other people out there are walking around with the exact same tickets. Once the ticket has been scanned at the front door, all other copies will be invalid, and if you have a copy, you are going to be left out in the cold.

Tip #3: Don’t ever buy hard tickets on the street or craigslist without extreme skepticism
Hard tickets each have barcodes and a unique alphanumeric code on them. Those codes can be uploaded to stubhub.com and sold. If that is done, the hard tickets immediately become invalid, but the seller will still have possession of the hard tickets. There is no way to determine whether hard tickets you have purchased have already been sold on Stubhub or another reseller outlet, so use extreme skepticism when buying such tickets. If buying on Craigslist, make sure you have the seller’s email, phone number, and be sure to talk to them and use your judgement if they seem legitimate and genuine.

Tip #4: Buy from a legitimate reseller (Stubhub, Ticketnetwork, etc.)
It sucks, there are usually a lot of extra fees involved with this, not to mention that the price for high demand games will be unreasonable. But this is the only way to buy with confidence and know that your tickets will actually get you into the event.

Golden Rule: You must trust your buyer
Buying tickets from a reseller is all about trust. How much do you trust the person that you are buying from? How well do you know them? Do they seem reputable, or do they seem like a shady character? Do you have their contact information in case something goes wrong? And if something does go wrong…do you think they would actually help you out? Be careful, be skeptical, and don’t get scammed!

Jon Rastrullo

(Source: fanvibe.posterous.com)