My thoughts about advertising on social media
Hi Folks,
Here are my thoughts about advertising on social media, specifically Facebook (FB).
I thought it might be helpful for those also advertising online to see my thinking on this subject, which is based on trial and error over many years. I would be interested in hearing how my experience compares to other martial art instructors who advertise on social media and even more interested in hearing the advice of administrators of the FB groups I advertise on.
The first place I post is on my own timeline to check how the advert will look on FB.
There is often a difference in how something looks on my desktop's word processing program and how it looks on FB. If I have trouble with formatting issues, I will often make the corrections in my timeline and then, once that looks good, copy and paste the corrected version back into my WP program to use as a master.
I try to keep my posts to no more than 10 at a time and spread my posts throughout the hours of that day. This makes it more likely that it will be seen by people who are on FB at different parts of the day. It also makes it less likely that a group's admin will delete it or a company's A.I. will falsely mark a legitimate post as spam. I also leave a gap of at least one hour between my post and the last one on a group (and often more, if it is an admin posting). A little courtesy goes a long way for general good will and to help keep you out of FB jail.
It is also wise to know the rules of the groups you are posting too. Some want advertising only on certain days and some will even limit specific types of advertising to different days (for example, one group I know wants equipment vendors to advertise only on Fridays, while Saturdays are for events and Sundays for advertising your school).
My first post of an advertising campaign is usually a flyer announcing the event with a link to the registration page. This is to get the date on people’s calendar and the target audience are those already likely to attend an event with the instructors shown. I try to post this flyer only two times, at the beginning of the campaign and just before the event as a reminder of the date.
The main advertising for my events takes the form of “infomercials,” where I post a video of something I will be teaching at the event and give a description of the technique shown. I try to make the video and text about it informative, so I am not wasting the viewers time. If the viewers enjoy what they watch, they are more likely to click the link to learn more about your event. I also try to cycle through several different videos for each event over the weeks preceding the event. If you post anything too much, whether the same flyer or the same video, it will begin to "disappear" in the viewers mind. It may also, annoy the group admins and turn them off to allowing you to post on their page.
I will end my infomercial with a link, either to a playlist on my YouTube channel or a link to the seminars list page on my website, such as:
For info on this year’s PTI camps, seminars, local and on-line classes, visit the PTI seminars page: https://pekiti.com/pages/upcoming-seminars
Here is how I try to schedule posts for different times of the day, based on my home time in New York (A.K.A. Eastern Standard Time, or EST for short).
MORNING: 8 am to 12 pm EST. I post to groups based in Europe and any groups which requires an admin’s approval, or are so busy that my post may get lost in the flood of other posts during their prime hours. If you do not have as much free time as a retired guy like me, then your lunch break may also work, if you are posting to groups in Europe or Africa from the Americas.
AFTERNOON: 12 pm to 6 pm. I post to Pekiti-Tirsia groups based in the US in this period. I pick this time mainly so I don’t compete with the advertising and on-line classes of other PTI instructors; but since I also do direct advertising via FB messenger and email, (which can be done at prime evening hours) posting at these times also helps to keep my advertising spread out.
EVENING: 6pm to 10 pm. I post to Non-Pekiti US based groups during this period. Since I belong to so many groups (over 100 for my many interests), I try and spread these posts out over these four hours to get better distribution.
NIGHT: 10 pm to Midnight. I post to groups based in Asia and Australia during this time. Since this is such a large geographic area, with several time zones, I only cover part of the afternoon hours of these countries with this 2 hour period.
These days it's usually difficult for me to stay up that late, so I end my advertising at Midnight. If you know how to schedule a post to groups in Asia and Australia so it will show up during their prime viewing times of the evening, please let me know.
Please give me your thoughts on advertising on social media and what types of advertising work best for you. Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Tuhon Bill McGrath
PS. You can help the groups you advertise with by reporting scam posts you find on their group pages. The admins for these groups are often just volunteers and don't have the time to police their group pages every day. While minor spam posts can be annoying, there is a rise in criminal scam posts on social media these days. How to tell if a post is a scam? If you see a post from a well known brand advertising a price that's far too good to be true, or the death of a famous person that you know is not dead, or a screenshot of a sexual nature on a group that has nothing to do with these subjects, then it probably is a scam and likely a criminal one from someone trying to take your money or your personal data. You will usually find a 3 dot link on the right side of the post where FB gives you the option to report the post to FB, as well as the group admins. It usually takes just a few seconds to report a scam post and will help the admins keep the group members safe when visiting that group.