5 Things I Learned at the Facebook Community Boost Conference
5 Things I Learned at the Facebook Community Boost Conference
This past week SPB Productions was at the Facebook Community Boost conference in Atlanta, GA and it was an amazing experience. The Facebook Community Boost conference is a three day event held in almost every major city in the United States. The goal is to help entrepreneurs and corporations with their Facebook and Instagram pages. The event offered free - in person training from real Facebook experts and they also had booths where business owners can learn a lot of cool stuff that can really help their brand on Facebook and Instagram! I took down a lot of notes and I even got to speak to an expert about some of the pages I handle! Here's what I learned:
1. It's all about video.
I've spoken about the importance of being on video in the past, not just video but mobile video. I went to a class called Getting Creative with Mobile and from there I've learned so much stuff that many businesses could really benefit from. There are a couple of apps out there that can really boost your brand in the video space. One of them is called Legend, it's an app where you can make quick and easy gifs and five second videos on the fly. Perfect for anyone that's too busy to make long videos and really wants to engage with their audience! Another great app is called Ripl and it's awesome especially for those in the real estate market.
2. You Don't Need a Big Budget for Big Engagement
One of the speakers at the one of the classes I was in showed a video from a company called Inspiralized, (you can check out their YouTube channel here), what they did to get incredible engagement with the videos she created, was quite ingenious. A foam board, a marble designed paper and some good lighting is it took to create this gif, straight from boomerang.
3. Ads aren't as Complicated as We Think
For years, a lot of us (myself included) that Facebook ads were a giant beast that can't be handled. That might have been true years ago, but these days, it's a beast that can be tamed. If you haven't noticed already, Facebook re-did their entire ads manager system (along with everything else) and made creating an engagement ad (similar to a Facebook boost) a lot simpler. Creating and setting an ads budget is now simple as well as choosing your target market. Figuring out your target market is the hard part of any Facebook ad, but if you are someone that likes to hold conferences, events, seminars, webinars, there's an audience right there. It'll be easy for people to find your ad once you hit the right market. I will be doing another (and longer) blog post about this subject soon. You can now find your audience you want to create an ad around: core, custom or lookalike. Custom is what I like to use for most ads, but lookalikes are the most bang for your buck as far as getting new customers. You can learn more about ads on with Facebook's free Blueprint courses.
4. Being Relevant
A business without a plan is no business at all, right? In order to stay on top of everyone's pages, you need to start thinking of not about what you like to post, but about the value you add to your industry. It's not about what makes you stand out, or unique, it's what you bring to the table that makes you relevant. Being niche is important, but what about that niche makes you important in the industry? This is the main point the experts drive home to everyone in the audience. When you can answer that question, you can start to build your strategy around it.
5. Having Fun
Social media marketing is not just about coming up with a plan, and being creative. It's all about making everything look easy to do and having fun while doing it. I saw so many people at the conference going live and creating cool pieces of content while still having the time of their life while doing it. Facebook didn't start out as a business site, neither did Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest. It started out as a way to share photos and status updates with friends. Bringing it back home to that concept is important for many business owners to learn and grow from. It's also something I like to say to all my prospects and clients: it's not about selling your service/product, it's about getting people to care.
Lost? SPB Productions Can Help You Find Your Brand Voice!
You can learn so much about a brand by going to one of these conferences (which are totally free by the way), but if you need more detail and more in depth brand marketing, we can help! SPB Productions is always learning and always growing, and we can help you can your brand to the next level with social media marketing. To find out more, you can schedule your FREE discovery call today, which includes a in call audit of all of your social media pages.