Put Your Best Foot, er, Face Forward on Facebook

If I was speaking to you via video, I might be advised to have text at the bottom of the screen with a disclaimer saying, “Results not typical,” or words to that affect.

Nonetheless, in my quest to always be of service to my blog readers (just like the listeners to our weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast), the aim today is to educate you that investing some money on Facebook can reap benefits.

With this being an election year there will be enforcement of the equal time concept, and similarly there can certainly be a blog to counter what I’m writing about this week.  So remember that blogs are many times simply someone’s opinion and that today I am reporting actual facts, true numbers, in the hope that this helps you make an informed opinion.

Too many up-and-comers, in my opinion (see? there’s that word) just want to earn money, they don’t want to spend money to make money.  Mind you, I understand that buying equipment is spending money, but that’s not the type of investment I’m referring to.  Ego gets in the way and performers think, “I shouldn’t have to spend money to advertise or promote myself and my music, people should find me.”

It would certainly be easy if that’s how it worked 100 percent of the time, but since it doesn’t, you do need to consider where you can effectively promote.

I’m here to say that paying to boost a post on Facebook can bring notable returns on your investment.

Twelve days ago Episode 100 of our podcast was released.  In posting about such on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, we certainly wanted to let everyone know of this milestone.  So, a small investment ($45.00) was paid to boost the post on Facebook.  That was a Wednesday and the ‘campaign’ was set up to run through Sunday (as in, four days later).  Parameters, of course, were put in to target who specifically this type of post (and its content) might be of interest to.

How did we do?  The post itself got approximately 14,250 Likes and the Now Hear This Facebook page jumped from approximately 730 Likes on it to more than 1,500, meaning that it more than doubled.  But was this just a one-time “fluke?”  Not when you look at what happened one week later.

Last Wednesday (January 13th) we put up a social media post about Episode 101 of the podcast being released because it was a “Best Of” episode (highlights from some of the first 100 episodes), since it was an extension of the previous week’s milestone celebration and because we felt it would actually be a good introduction to people who were just hearing the show for the first time.  On Facebook the ‘Boost Post’ results were again incredible.

Using the exact same parameters from the week before (including a budget of just 45 bucks), the post got approximately 12,600 Likes and again the Now Hear This Facebook page saw a big increase in the number of Likes (went from 1,542 to 2,241).

Still need further proof?  Listen to Episode 77 of our podcast where singer/songwriter Chuck Murphy talked about paying to boost a post on Facebook of songs that he posted on SoundCloud and getting tremendous feedback that changed what he had planned as the song that would be released as a single.

Now look at your own career, your own profile, your own music, and decide, what’s most important that you want to push.  And consider investing in it via Facebook.  Remember, it’s an investment in your career.