Don’t "Boost" Facebook Posts or "Promote" Instagram Posts

If your jewelry brand currently has a social media marketing strategy that involves Facebook and/or Instagram, you’ve probably seen notifications like:

“People are boosting posts like…to reach more people. Try boosting this post.”
“This post is performing better than 90% of other posts…”

Have you tried boosting a post to see if it would reach more followers? I don’t blame you. Boosting isn’t the worst idea, given that organic reach has declined in the past few years, and advertisers now get top priority in users’ feeds.

If you feel frustrated with your lack of engagement or followers on Instagram or Facebook, you probably feel desperate sometimes. You may be thinking, “If $5 will help my efforts, why not?”

I’m here to let you know that you’re wasting your money. Five dollars may not seem like a lot to waste, but consider this: you could be putting that money toward a more strategic Facebook/Instagram advertising campaign that will yield results.

Let me put it this way: if you had the choice between your favorite, tried-and-true stylist for your next haircut or – for about the same amount of money – a stylist selected by a complete stranger who’s never even seen a photo of you, which would you pick?

Boosting your posts is like trusting your haircut to a complete stranger. Let me save you from walking out of the salon with a mohawk you definitely did not want.

Instead of boosting that post, consider investing in a strategic Facebook advertising campaign, which doesn’t have to cost you more than $5 or even $10 per day. Not only will it be more effective, but it will also force you to sit down and think about your target audience, your brand, the way you’re communicating your brand to your target audience, and your goals.

When you create a Facebook advertising campaign from scratch, you have full control over the demographic that you’re targeting, which is better than blindly trusting Facebook to know who to target.

In addition, you can write interesting ad copy with a clear call-to-action, rather than simply boosting whatever you wrote on your post and hoping it resonates with your audience enough to inspire them to “Buy” or “Learn More”.

Finally, you can choose images that seem popular and then test them. For example you can try one image with two different headlines to see which one resonates best with your target audience. You may even find that your 21-30 female demographic actually isn’t responding well to an image you thought they would like – and that the image is better suited for an older demographic. Advertising the right way can provide you with valuable insights about your brand.

If you’d like to learn more about how to do Facebook advertising the right way, contact me for a free consultation.