Facebook’s Enhanced Targeting: A Boon For Social Media Marketing

Do you ever wonder if the content you’re sharing over Facebook and other social media channels is actually reaching the target audience you had in mind? Well luckily for you, just last week Facebook revealed a powerful new social media marketing tool called “Page Post Targeting Enhanced.”

Although not a ton of information has been released about the new post targeting tool, it does appear to be highly beneficial to marketers. Until last week, Facebook posts could only target a specific audience based on two metrics: location and language.  However, according to TechCrunch, the new Page Post Targeting tool allows you to zero in on a variety of different demographics including:

Age

Interest In

Relationship Status

Gender

Education

College Grad

In College

In High School

Workplace

This is huge news for marketers and advertisers trying to target a specific audience when creating posts.  For marketers to run a successful Facebook campaign that produces results, it is imperative that they follow a simple formula for marketing success. When crafting a Facebook campaign, the first objective marketers should focus on is fan reach, i.e. greater exposure in fans’ news feeds. This is where the new Page Post Targeting “Enhanced” functionality comes into play.

With the new tool, Facebook page admins can publish various types of content to specific, highly-defined market segments. For example, if Gap is trying to promote a new fall back-to-school clothing line for high school students, the clothier will not only be able to focus on specific geo-locations, but also target directly to high school students based on age, school, and possibly gender, depending on the direction of Gap’s campaign.

This means that college students and other unlikely consumers will not see irrelevant advertising for products they are unlikely to purchase. Instead, a company’s “enhanced posts” will only appear in the news feeds of their intended target audience (in addition to the company’s Facebook Timline).

Marketing Takeaway

For marketers who understand the importance of content marketing, and more specifically, the power of social media promotion, Facebook’s new Page Post Targeting Enhanced tool will allow segmentation and targeting like never before. If used properly, the new tool will likely drive more relevant traffic to your 

Facebook page, increasing engagement with the fans that matter most.

However, it will be up to the individual marketer to determine the appropriate targeting levels for Enhanced Posts. With too much targeting, you might be limiting the reach and effectiveness of your post; whereas with too little targeting, you will likely reach out too many people who may not care.

As marketers begin to draw the fine line between what is too much and too little enhanced posting, remember that as long as you’re providing fresh and valuable information, Facebook’s new tool should be an extremely useful for your social media marketing efforts.

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