Facebook reports that it has 757 million visitors a day, and this number has increased by 22% from December 2012 to December 2013. Businesses of all sizes are aware that they need to build a presence in this virtual social space; however, they are often not clear on how to go about doing this. This article focuses on a real scenario, where a savvy Facebook user decided to promote a post, and then watched the Facebook reach on it increase by a remarkable 57,000%.

Facebook Promoted Posts

Facebook sponsored posts are exactly what they sound like they are – they are regular posts with the exception that Facebook is paid a reasonable sum to place the promoted posts on the News Feeds where they are likely to receive the most exposure. Users can target specific goals with a promoted post, such as luring clicks to a website, inducing browsers to take a specific action on a website, signing up for a newsletter or even building a larger audience by increasing the number of likes received.

When a Facebook Promoted Post Increases Your Post Reach by 57,517%

Optimism dictates that when a marketer decides to pay to have Facebook marketing manage the distribution of a particular post, it should display more prominently than when the identical post is placed in a News Feed without the aforementioned sponsorship. As seasoned marketers know, introducing an idea, project, product or service to new people is a crucial aspect of building an audience that will be receptive to a particular message. Knowing that promoting a particular post was able to increase its post reach by 57,517% was an astonishing feat.

When a Facebook Promoted Post Increases Your Engagement Rate by 2,500%  

When a Facebook user creates a post, the hope is that those who read it will engage with it by liking it, clicking on it, sharing it or commenting on it. The term “engagement rate” refers to the percentage of people who performed at least one of these actions on a particular post. Engaging people who read a post means that it has connecting with them and that they have responded positively to it. Part of disseminating a marketing message is to place it in the proper spaces, squarely in front of a target audience. Facebook marketing can undoubtedly get a sponsored post noticed, as our real-life example of a week over week increase of 2,500% has clearly demonstrated.

When a Facebook Promoted Post Increases Your Number of Likes by 100% 

Facebook likes are important for several reasons. Their very presence shows that a brand or company has an engaged audience that they regularly interact with. A Facebook page with few likes leaves a potentially negative impression on visitors because it sits unnoticed in an ironically visible way. A Facebook page that has a relatively high number of likes is more likely to attract additional likes and interaction, just as a crowded restaurant draws more new customers than an empty one. Our real-life marketer saw the Facebook likes on the promoted post increase by 100%, week over week.

Are Facebook Sponsored Posts Costly?

Taking the real-life example that this article examines as a case in point, a total of $30.98 was spent on a Pay Per Click or PPC promotion scheme. For those unfamiliar with such payment structures, the Facebook user pays Facebook an agreed amount for each click that the sponsored post receives, with the obvious allure being that if a sponsored post receives no attention, its poster does not pay for the advertising. The poster can set a daily limit as well, so that financial ruin does not descend should a post goes viral.

Why an Authentic Example From the Real World is Meaningful

Small business owners, ambitious bloggers, would-be chefs with catering services and dog-walkers have something in common – they need to let the world or at least the people in their neighborhood know what they do. Facebook, with its stunning number of active members, is a natural social media space to choose to release a message to a target audience. When a marketer reports on a particular success, as we have seen in the above mentioned example, laypeople can learn from a simple and concrete example just how effective a Facebook marketing tactic such as that of sponsored posts can be.

Keen Facebookers who have a message that they would like to share with the world need only go to www.facebook.com/advertising to read about the available Facebook marketing options and learn how to sponsor or boost a post which is important to them.