What You Should Know About Facebook Advertising

It was around 3-4 years ago when I saw my older sister playing games on Facebook. I was still using Friendster back in the day and I was skeptical about this new social media site that everybody is raging about. Fast forward to the present, all of my friends have Facebook. Almost all of my family members have social media accounts, the creator of Facebook is now filthy rich, and there was a movie about it that was released in 2010. Point is, this social media network has exploded. According to Wikipedia, it is the most popular website in the whole world today.

Due to its status as the king of websites, Facebook is now cashing in on its popularity through advertising. But before you start calling their offices, let me just share with you what you should know about Facebook advertising. First of all…

..Create an Account for Yourself

If you don’t have an account yet, sign up. It’s highly recommended. You see, Facebook is a great way to catch up with old friends, share the things that you love, and even meet new people. Aside from these, you need to know how this social media site operates. In a nutshell, it’s really a network which is comprised of people that you know. They can be your friends, family, acquaintances, neighbors, students, etc. Now this network can talk about anything under the sun, let’s call it a topic. This topic can be shared, mentioned, talked about, posted, and broadcasted through other people’s networks. Imagine if that topic is your martial arts school, that’s free marketing and advertising right there!

Natural VS Unnatural Advertising

People log on to Facebook to socialize, not to see commercials and ads. What you need to realize is that people don’t put too much energy in looking at ads that are posted as banners or on the side of your news feed. They’ll glimpse at it for a few milliseconds and their attention will be diverted on other things. This kind of advertising is what’s referred to as unnatural.

An example of a natural ad is when your friends are talking about a video about a restaurant. They’re saying good things like “their food is delicious” and “they have excellent service.” Because they’re your friends, you want in on the topic so you start asking “where is the restaurant located?” or “how much does the food cost?” Without knowing it, you became interested in that restaurant because your friends are talking about it. This is unforced, and very organic. If you’re planning to market on Facebook then aim for this kind of advertising.

Fan Page First Before Ads

Create a fan page of your school first before you start sharing and paying for Facebook Sponsored Stories paid advertisements. (Just to be clear, creating a fan page is free and so is sharing.) Before you start asking people to like your page, make it visually appealing and add some useful content like demo videos, articles, sound bites, and pictures. A really good idea is to post some videos of you teaching a few martial art moves. When potential customers see and like this, there’s high possibility that they’ll share it to their friends. Post more interesting things and a lot people will like it and share it.

And by the way, please don’t forget to like us on Facebook. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Martial-Arts-Business-Magazine/478566888881399