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Archives for July 2012

Facebook Promoted Posts: Are They Right For You?

July 31, 2012 By Arnold Tijerina


Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm
—the formula used to determine the order content appears in a given newsfeed based on which content is deemed most relevant to that user—may make the Facebook experience more seamless for casual browsers, but it’s a challenge for businesses that harness the social media platform as part of a marketing strategy. After all, thanks to Edgerank, each post on Facebook only makes it onto the newsfeed of about 12-17% of its fans. The fans that do see it are more likely to be those that have already chosen to visit your page, or that regularly interact with your posts. Edgerank’s feedback-loop effect makes it harder than ever to reach and engage consumers that don’t self-select your business’s content.

To counter those daunting odds, Facebook recently introduced a new service allowing business pages with greater than 400 “likes” to pay a fee to promote individual posts. This new feature allows a page owner to select a single post, which could be a status update, photo, video, question, or offer, and pay a premium to increase the reach for that post beyond the circle of fans that are already engaged with your content. Not only that, but promoted posts are supposedly more likely to be seen in the newsfeeds of friends of fans, too.

Promoted posts have a one-time, pre-set budget that remains in place for the life of the post.  While setting up a promoted post, you will be asked to choose a budget from a suite of options that includes the post’s estimated reach at each payment level. The promotion can be suspended or stopped at any time regardless of whether your maximum budget has been used. Promoted posts do have some targeting capabilities, including geographical location and language, but these can only be applied to posts that are less than three days old.

Sounds Great—but Do They Work?

I set out to test the promoted posts feature on my blog’s fan page (which has 613 fans) to see how it performed versus a normal, “organic” post. I’d recently created a page on my blog that consists of a dedicated list of available educational events and conferences for automotive dealers. I shared this blog page via a status update on May 23rd, prior to the launch of Promoted Posts. The post performed as expected, reaching roughly 13% of my page’s fans with a marginal viral reach (a measure of how many impressions came from non-fans who encountered the post because a fan of the page shared or interacted with the post).

  

Keep in mind that my Facebook page isn’t particularly active, nor do I put too much effort into engaging my fans, which limits the reach of posts. I mainly use the page to post blog articles, so I don’t expect high engagement, but these statistics are in line with the average reach reported by others.

On June 2, I decided to test out the new Promoted Posts feature. Upon creating the new post, the only option presented to me was to pay $5 to reach an estimated 300 people.

The post I promoted was essentially the same as the previous one – a status update which included an external link to the same page on my blog. I did no other social media promotion at all for this post and let it run for the full three days.

Here were the results:

  

As you can see, the post exceeded the estimated paid reach (with 324 rather than 300 paid impressions), and it also reached 1200% more non-fans (13 vs. 164) via viral sharing, substantially increasing exposure to my fans’ social networks. Organic displays also increased by almost double (70 vs. 132). The promoted post didn’t increase engagement but, the post itself wasn’t really designed to encourage engagement. I also didn’t see a noticeable difference in traffic to the external page on my blog, with the average number of daily visitors to that specific page remaining roughly the same.

Two interesting side notes: First, Facebook defines paid results as “the number of people who saw your page post in an Ad or Sponsored Story.” But when signing up for the service, Facebook never mentioned that my promoted post could potentially be displayed via an Ad (on the right of the newsfeed) versus as a Sponsored Story (within the newsfeed itself). In my estimation, Ads constitute weaker exposure than Sponsored Stories, but I have to assume that at least some of the paid exposure for my promoted post came via Ads.

Second, as mentioned previously, I was initially only given the option to reach 300 people for $5. However, when I looked into promoting another post following my initial trial, I was given a second option to reach 700 people for $10, as well. This tells me that Facebook underestimated the results they could deliver.

Are Promoted Posts for You?

As in any form of advertisement, you must have clearly defined goals before spending any money. Here are some questions you should ask yourself before making a decision one way or another regarding promoted posts.

1.    How large is your page’s fan base? Keep in mind that the larger your fan base, the more potential reach each promoted post will have, which will result in a higher upfront cost.

2.    Are these actual customers, or are they a random assortment of individuals who were collected in an effort to grow the number of fans at all costs? I consider fans to be relevant if they are potential or existing customers who could realistically do business with you—whether that’s via sales, service, or parts—and whose social networks will, in all likelihood, include more relevant people. In the case of dealerships, for example, it does you no good to increase exposure to people outside your PMA, vendors, or anyone else who doesn’t have the ability to spend money with you. Note, however, that the geo-targeting option does allow you to more efficiently reach relevant fans.

3.    What is your goal for promoting a particular post? Is it to increase engagement? Increase exposure for an offer or event? Share important information with your fans? Lead people to an external website or conversion page?

In my opinion, promoting a post just for the sake of promoting it is ill-advised. If you have clear goals in mind, you should be able to accurately track whether your money was spent wisely. Did you actually increase engagement, and was that engagement by new people rather than those who already regularly engage with you? Did more people take advantage of your offer? Did you receive more traffic (via Facebook) to the external link you included in your post?

If you’ve built your fan page organically via your website, in-store signage, or via inclusion in other marketing channels, I could see a promoted post helping to jumpstart your page by potentially increasing your fans via increased exposure to THEIR networks. Keep in mind that the majority of the people you will be reaching already like your page so, in my opinion, the greatest potential of Facebook Promoted Posts is in its ability to extend your exposure beyond your fans and into their social networks.

That being said, a well-thought-out promoted post with clearly defined goals has the potential to increase reach and revenues—all at a relatively low cost.

via the June 2012 edition of the 3 Birds Marketing newsletter

Filed Under: Internet, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Advertising, Automotive, business, Facebook, Marketing, page, promoted posts, Sales

Foursquare Launches Local Updates for Businesses

July 19, 2012 By Arnold Tijerina

If you haven’t heard, foursquare announced yesterday the launch of what they’re calling “Local Updates”.

What are these and how can you use them?

Essentially, Local Updates will allow businesses to push messages to consumers who have either “liked” their business or frequent it. Updates can include things like specials, pictures of a new car (or a used car you just got in stock), it can include coupons, service specials, or whatever else you’d like your customers to see.

Your customers will be able to see these updates while in the same city as you. While certainly not as geo-targeted as it could be (like in the auto mall or within 10 miles of your dealership), being in the same city is a start.

In the past, the only way (or type) of message you could put out there for consumers on foursquare were “special offers” which required a check-in. While you can still make an offer to a customer, the ability to simply provide updates to consumers is another way of engaging them and staying top of mind.

Here’s an example of what an update would look like:

With nearly 1,000,000 business pages claimed and 10,000,000 users, foursquare is simply something you cannot afford to ignore. It’s fairly low-maintenance when set up and, since its free, the benefits vastly outweigh the possibility of lost business. Engaging your customers (or potential customers) is something that’s not only necessary but integral to increasing customer loyalty and retention.

The Local Updates feature will be rolled out to businesses that have claimed their page this week sometime so stay tuned.

Here is a brief video intro created by foursquare:

 

Filed Under: Internet, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Automotive, based, car dealer, Dealership, foursquare, geo-targeting, local updates, location, Marketing, push, Social Media, specials

Road Trip Recap – Day 1 and 2

July 10, 2012 By Arnold Tijerina

Well, here I sit at 4:30am Central time. Since it’s dark outside and I’m drinking hotel bathroom coffee, (yuck) I thought I’d write an update on my trip to North Carolina so far.

First, and very important, I did have concerns about my new Chrysler 200’s ability to tow the 4×8 U-Haul trailer across the country. Now that I’ve driven roughly 1100 miles with it, I must say that I’m quite impressed. It’s pulling that fully loaded trailer with ease. The ride is very smooth and comfortable and the engine has plenty of power for those hills. The iPod connection and satellite radio have certainly come in handy as well. Jamming out to Air Supply and the Bee Gees has certainly enhanced the experience and entertained me (just kidding.. well, at least about the Air Supply and Bee Gees part.. it was actually MC Hammer and Paula Abdul).

Day 1 was one of our shorter days. Started in Moreno Valley, CA and the goal was to reach Flagstaff, AZ. There was no need for directions since it’s only one freeway all the way from CA to NC. The drive was monotonous but relatively short compared to the days to follow. Started at about 9am and arrived in Flagstaff at about 5pm. Along the way, the heat steadily rose until it was 115 degrees outside. I ended up actually experiencing this when I had to stop in Needles, CA for a fill up. If you are ever traveling that way, do NOT stop in Needles. I felt like I was being robbed with gas prices almost $5/gallon. Even in CA, gas has been steadily dropping to under the $4 range. Anyways, que sera sera. As we passed the exit to the Grand Canyon, there was an incredible urge to visit but having been there before, I knew that the little bit of time that could’ve been spent there just isn’t enough to truly appreciate it.

Watching and interacting with the people who have been following #atrt on Twitter was fun and entertaining. Day 1 was on Sunday so there wasn’t a whole bunch of interaction. It was still fun and was a nice way to journal my experience and keep my wife in the loop. It was also the first time I’ve truly tested out FaceTime. Since I won’t be seeing my family for quite some time, I’m encouraged to know that I can still see and interact with them visually. It will probably lessen the home-sickness I’m sure I’ll experience.

Day 2 started as a beautiful day in Flagstaff. There was about 600 miles to drive yesterday – the goal being to arrive in Amarillo, TX at a decent hour. Of course, there were two time changes in store so, while the actual driving time ended up being about 9 hours, Amarillo didn’t appear until roughly 8:30pm Central time. The scenery along the way was awesome, especially some of the vistas in New Mexico. An interesting sight was a car pulled over on the side of the road with two police cars in New Mexico. The car literally had the hood, trunk and every door wide open as well as the entire back seat on the shoulder of the road and the cops were systematically dumping every item in the car on the roadside shoulder… emptying the suitcases piece by piece. I dont know what that person did but that would’ve truly sucked.

I can attest that the Escort 9500ix radar detector I bought for the trip has certainly come in quite handy. It has easily and consistently been ID’ing police miles before I spot them. It’s been very consistent with not a lot of false alarms. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who may like to drive a little faster than they should be.. even those who happen to be pulling a U-Haul trailer (not that I know anyone who would do that).

Near the end of the trip, I was getting pretty cranky but once I arrived at the hotel that went away. My legs have been killing me the whole trip. It absolutely didn’t have anything to do with my attempt to show-off in front of my friends Saturday by doing a squat with my 260-lb friend on my back. Nothing whatsoever.

The videos and pictures I’ve been making and posting on various social networks has been a lot of fun. Engagement picked up on Day 2 since it was a work day (not that anyone uses Twitter or Facebook during work hours). I found several interesting places to take pictures with my 3 birds hitchhikers, including pulling over on the shoulder in front of the “Welcome to Texas” sign where they got to perch on the cowboy hat I seldom got a chance to wear in California. Other than that, there wasn’t a plethora of fun places to take pictures along the way (unless you consider cactus “fun”).

I got to give away a highly-coveted special edition “Viva Los 3 Birds” t-shirt to the person who tweeted the origin of “3 Birds” in the 3 Birds Marketing name. (In case you didn’t know what it is, it plays off the phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. The philosophy at 3 Birds is that, while a bird in the hand may be valuable, why not have all 3 birds instead of only one. The most common misconception about the name is that the 3 Birds represents the 3 founders – Layton and Kristen Judd and Len Wohadlo.)

There’s another 600 miles in store for the drive today with the goal being to reach Little Rock, AR at a decent hour (and safely). I hope you have been following along, have enjoyed the pictures and videos and will continue to participate on Twitter following and tweeting to hashtag #atrt I have more shirts ad prizes to give away today so pay attention and participate.

Thanks for the read! I’m excited about reaching my new home in North Carolina and beginning my new position as Social Media Strategist & Policy Manager with the awesome staff at the 3 Birds corporate office. As they say, its the people that make the company.

Filed Under: personal experience, Social Media Tagged With: #atrt, 3 Birds Marketing, Automotive, road trip, Social Media, Twitter

Why You Shouldn’t Brag About That Pounder

July 4, 2012 By Arnold Tijerina

As an avid social media user and an automotive industry professional, there is something that’s been bugging me.

I see people on social media bragging about that “12-pounder” they just closed (for those not in the industry, a ‘”pound” is equal to $1,000). To me, this really screams “unprofessional” and I also see it as detrimental to the reputation of the person posting it, the dealership represented by that person as well as further contributing to the stereotype car dealers have been struggling to change.

Look, as a salesperson, commissions are how your living is made, I get that. As a dealership, profit is how you pay your non-commissioned employees and overhead, I get that as well. It’s always nice to make money. I also believe that a salesperson and a dealership SHOULD make money. The salesperson is not there to work for free and all dealerships need to make money to keep the doors open. I also believe that most customers understand that a dealership needs to make money to stay open and don’t have a problem allowing the dealership to make some.

What I have an issue with is people who brag about the insane and, some would say, inappropriate amount of profit they managed to negotiate out of a customer. You made a big sale, good for you. Don’t go and brag about it on Facebook. Don’t tweet about it.

Social networks are designed to interact with people. You never know who is listening. Do you really believe that the person in your social network that sees you bragging about these huge deals wants to buy a car from you?

I’m not talking about some high-priced or hard-to-get car. I’m talking about the Honda salesperson (as an example) who is bragging about making $12,000 profit from a single sale. Really? Great, you made money but to many consumers (including your friends and family) what you did was reinforce for them that they shouldn’t buy a car from you or your dealership.

I know many dealerships who have internal policies on how much profit a finance department is allowed to make by limiting rate markup and pricing on back-end products and I believe that is a wise (and honorable) practice. Front-end profit is restricted, for the most part, by the banks. In most cases, they’re not going to let the customer finance $20,000 over sticker regardless of whether they agree to or not.

I personally think that, while the “big fish” you catch may offer immediate gratification, they will hurt you in the long run. Do you really believe that the customer you just buried isn’t going to figure that out eventually? Do you think that person is going to tell their friends and family that they should buy a car from you?

Then to actually go on social networks and brag about it? That’s just insane. You might as well brag about how much money you scored when you mugged the old people in the alley because, excluding other like-minded auto people, that’s what you just did.

How would you feel if you signed a contract with a vendor for services and discovered a month or two later that you were paying three times the rate that other people were? What if that vendor then went on Facebook and bragged about it? My guess is that you wouldn’t be happy with them or their company.

Look, this is only my personal opinion. You don’t have to agree with me and you’re entitled to sell your vehicles for as much (or as little) as you choose to. That being said, I do think that it is important to give ALL your customers a fair deal and, should you choose to make a huge profit from a single customer, you shouldn’t brag about it on social networks.

If you feel different, please comment and let me know why.

Filed Under: Automotive, Editorial, Sales Tagged With: Automotive, editorial, fair, Profit, reputation management, Social Media

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