Facebook Boost Worth it?

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   hard sunposted 5 years ago

   My FB page dedicated to my writing and other writing related things doesn't have too many followers. I asked FB friends to join some time ago, but I mainly use FB for only close friends and family, so not too many on my personal page.
   
   So, I worked up a "Boost" for one of my pieces. I found that for $5.00 I can reach a few thousand or so targeted people. For me, it's more about gaining a general following as opposed to the return on investment for this one particular article. Although getting that $5 back would be nice also.
   
   Is it a good idea? Anyone else boost posts on FB?
   
   Thanks!

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      robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Not much luck on fb for me. I'm simply not connected to as many people on fb as a lot of others are. For someone else, could be a gold mine. In just under a year I've noticed an explosive surge with facebook, meaning EVERYBODY is using fb as an advertising platform. This includes news/media and everything else. I would say (and I've started this as well), start thinking about a FB "brand". I'm almost ready to publish my FB page "Swim Now" that's where many of my links will go.

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      promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I have run quite a few Facebook ad campaigns for clients. I don't think you will find it's worthwhile because the boost is likely to be temporary at best.
      
      FB advertising works best for generating high-paying business leads rather than site ad revenue.
      
      You also would have to earn enough money from the HP advertising revenue to pay for the FB campaign. FB is usually too expensive to produce that kind of revenue.
      
      That said, I'm a big believer in learning how to market online even if it means spending $5 to gain some insights.

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         hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Cool. I'm going to do it, but think I'll link some more of my work to the FB page first. Mark may have a point about not being a body of work directly on the FB page.
         
         My main issue is that most of my copywriting/advocacy work is ghostwritten so I can't claim authorship. I'm writing for Blogmutt and blogging on my own now, and I have over two years of political advocacy work --writing and editing--that's tricky to use in a portfolio.
         
         The idea is for the experience--learning how to market, and drawing attention in general. Garnering Hubpage views may be a good byproduct though.
         
         I like copywriting, and get good responses from businesses when writing for sites like Blogmutt. This gives me the confidence that I should step out and get my own clients.

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   speakloveposted 5 years ago

   I have paid for FB ads for my photography page and it did help boost awareness of my page, I also gained followers. It’s been awhile, but if I remember correctly, it told me statistics about the majority of my followers or viewers, such as where they live, or personal interests, which helped me to target the viewers who might be more inclined to follow me.

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      robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Follow this logic.. Here's what I am doing. Finish my FB "Swim Now" page. Post a few links to my best articles (just a few, otherwise would look idiotic if I posted all of them). Then invite anyone, individual, group, business, etc.. that's involved in the pool industry to like/join my FB page... Done! I should (hopefully) see some really  good exposure and a decent traffic increase after awhile.

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         hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Hmmm...I've done similar activities but haven't broken up pages into more specific topics that a write about. That didn't even occur to me. Thanks!!

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         hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I got a couple new page likes today sharing in one group. Gotta get the entrepreneurial flow happening and a little nudge never hurts.

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            GwennyOhposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            If you do decide to go with FB ads, be sure to pay close attention to your results. In my niche, I invested a fair bit of money before I noticed that FB were paying fake accounts to like my ads, and I was paying for that! Furthermore, that's most of what I'd paid for in the end. FB advertising is not like it used to be, and a lot  of friends I spoke to experienced this same phenomenon. Me, I'd never spend another red cent on FB ads.
            
            By the way, pay attention to who is liking your page, even when you aren't paying for the likes. You will soon find out that most are fake accounts, looking to boost their credibility. They assume that if they like your page, that you will click like on something on their fake profile.

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               hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for the advice. I haven't followed through with it yet, but still pan to, mainly just to see how it works out. This will give me something else to look out for. I seem to be having better luck gathering followers on Twitter a this point. Also, I haven't determined which article to promote. I have work on other sites as well.

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      hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks speaklove, that may push me over the edge to spend the $5. I think it did say I'd get such stats. Some people say I'm tight with cash, lol.

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   DrMark1961posted 5 years ago

   You do not have a body of articles or anything else that a potential buyer could check out. I do not see how you are going to get back the 5 dollars.
   If it is really only 5 dollars though....
   Just dont expect anything to happen for that amount of money.

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      hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I do have a huge body of articles, just not directly on the FB page. The idea is to get potential buyers to my portfolio or just to show a potential employer that I can drum up traffic.

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   I have run a couple of promotions to my Facebook page with little success. Unless you spend lots of money so ads are displayed tens or hundreds of thousands of times, I don't think it's worth it. I write "How To" guides and tutorials, so I reckon it's a searchers market and people look for information on demand by googling, rather than clicking on ads and thinking "That's interesting!, I must bookmark that for future reference". The same probably applies to other topics.

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      hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      This makes complete sense if the sole purpose is to garner page views. Which would seem to be the main purpose of any FB campaign. But, what about general brand building? Is showing you have more FB followers on a business page good for a copywriting brand? It seems it would show potential clients that you can build followings and just increase respectability.

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         GwennyOhposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         A fake following does not build credibility. There was no growth through using it. I had a fairly large following before using it--money gets wasted on curiosity clicks from existing customers, the rest is primarily fake accounts nowadays.However, FB may resort to implementing said false accounts to promote small niches. Bottom line--it is dishonest, and doesn't work.

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            hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah. I'm sure there's gaming in the system from fake accounts.  The intention certainly wouldn't be a "fake following." Curiosity seekers could turn into real readers/clients if they like what they read though. It would seem so anyway. But I still haven't tried it. So, I'm definitely considering what you're saying.

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   I don't know. I boosted my page on Facebook rather than specific articles with the intention of building a brand. Unfortunately it hasn't taken off to the same extent that Twitter did for me.

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      hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks. I'm thinking Twitter may just be better for writer branding, although I'm sure some have made it work. I worked for a cite that made a good deal of cash from FB directed traffic, though it had like a million followers or something. I'm not sure how that came to be.
      
      I like to connect with writers of different career levels, and genres and Twitter is good for that. I only recently started putting much into Twitter also.

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         GwennyOhposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         To get a million followers, I don't know if it is possible yet today, but a few years back one could go to Fiverr.com and buy 50,000 followers or more at a time. They are all fake, but it does generate interest.

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            hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            It looks like right now the site has 796,000 followers. I know the person that runs it makes good money and there is a lot of discussion on the FB page. So, definitely not all followers are "fake." I don't know how they gained the followers though.

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               GwennyOhposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, it takes experience to know how to master social media. For example, you hear many say that they developed their huge following on Patreon, and others say it did nothing for them. Bottom line is about finding out what people are looking for on any given media, and providing it--and consistently so.

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                  hard sunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm sure you're right on the bottom line. Hard work and a little know how seem to be about the only combination to get something from nothing.

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