During the 2020 pandemic businesses have been turning to Facebook Ads in droves to keep their business front and centre of their client’s minds as the economic landscape shifts. Facebook Ads are great for business because they serve to connect with your clients directly.
But what’s happening now, with this increase in Facebook Ads, is an increase in Ad accounts being shut down. So why does this happen and what can be done about it? Side note: Don’t panic, in about 70% of cases you’ll get your Ad account back.
Firstly, don’t panic, this happens more than you’d think. In this ever-increasing world of automation and algorithms often times the disabling is a result of a mistake made by Facebook, yes, they are fallible too. But why else would you get an Ad account shut? If your existing in the world of money, health and weight loss often your content may not meet the standards set by the algorithm (read possibly considered spam or scam).
Secondly it’s worth noting that during COVID-19 Ad accounts closures seem to be happening even more, why is this? Well there are a few reasons, increased Facebook traffic (geez who isn’t distracting themselves with Facebook escapism right now?) Also Facebook are having to deal with this crisis just like any other business so they are adapting themselves, as well as having to determine to terms and conditions to deal with COVID-19.
OK so to get it back:
Don’t waste your brain time trying to figure out why just click on the “Request review of this ad account” which is highlighted blue in your closure notification, complete this and don’t forget to add an explanation, we use “Another Reason.” This is because it gives you an opportunity to appeal if in more detail because this but is actually read by a real human.
On that last point here’s a tip, don’t be angry or aggressive, just imagine you’re speaking to a person face to face and if you wouldn’t say it face to face don’t write it in your appeal: You get more with sugar than you do with salt ?
Continue to appeal, don’t forget what we said earlier about Facebook having to adapt to COVID-19 too so give them the benefit of the doubt that your appeal has slipped through the cracks.
Step 3 is a little tricky:
If you have an account manager or partner manager at Facebook, reach out to them and ask for their help.
But what about if your appeal gets denied? While this is the worst outcome it does mean you will need to start a new account. But sometimes starting from scratch can be an opportunity to get back to basics. Quick tip: start a new account while your appeal is being decided because if your appeal is refused you are ready to engage your clients immediately with a new Ad campaign.
Do you have a LinkedIn profile? If you’re a business professional, chances are you’re on LinkedIn. It’s the perfect platform for meeting new business connections, link up with people in complimentary industries and share knowledge with those inside your own. And as of Oct 2018 there are almost 4.5 million active daily users on LinkedIn in Australia.
Your LinkedIn profile – First impressions count
Just like a resume or business card, your LinkedIn profile will be the first thing people see about you. Also, how well you fill out your details, as well as other factors like the number of connections, will determine how well you are found in search results on the platform.
Treat your profile like it is a part of your business. Invest time in improving it and constantly attend to it by updating your status and sharing information. More importantly make sure that your profile is a reflection of how you wish to present you and your brand.
Quick tips to improve your profile
Want to optimise your profile for success? Here are my top 10 tips:
Upload a profile picture. Make sure it’s professional and not a photo you took on your last holiday – that might work for a travel agent, but not for most industries. You’re on LinkedIn to make business connections not friends.
Write a clear description of what you do in your ‘Professional Headline’. Don’t make it too long and make sure you have important related keywords.
Make sure you include yourself in the correct industry so that people can find you.
Grab you unique URL. It gives you a shortened link to share with business contacts and it’s easy to remember.
In the ‘Summary’ section include important relevant keywords and when drafting this section, have someone read it before you upload. If you need to, employ a copywriter to do this for you.
Include relevant work experience that demonstrates your skills and talents.
Don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations and endorsements – they help you rank higher in search results!
Include all of your skills. You may want to only add a few at a time.
If you have written a published article or another publication, be sure to include this in the “Publications’ section. This will give you credibility.
Add you Twitter handle and website!
Over to you!
What other tips and tricks have you used to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile? You can also connect with me on LinkedIn here.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
We hear, especially from Solopreneurs and small businesses, time and time again “Why should my business use social media?” The answer is surprisingly simple – Because it Works.
Australians love social media, with 65% of Australians using social media and 95% of those using Facebook it is an excellent way to access your audience who spend up to 7 hours a week on social media. IN addition, many businesses right across Australia identify social media as a growing channel for their marketing.
The benefits of using social media are many and varied, it can:
Reduce your overall Marketing costs, that’s a win.
Increase traffic to your awesome website, again a win!
Increase your brand awareness, win/win.
Help you talk directly to your customers – WIN!
Help with retention long after the purchase has occurred – DOUBLE WIN!
Isn’t social media free? Yes it is, for solopreneurs and businesses, but you need to factor in things like your time when including this in your budget because social media needs to be daily monitored to ensure customers’ needs are attended to and questions answered.
When determining your social media marketing plan, first you need to identify the 3 M’s of Marketing – Message (What) Market (Who) Medium (How).
Key questions to think about when determining your 3M’s are:
Why are you different? What problem do you fix? Why are you different? What’s in it for them? What message resonates? How many updates per week? What other tactics will you use? How will you measure success?
Once you have determined the 3M’s you can execute your plan in only 15 minutes per week, you need to put time aside to:
Post content
Engage with your community
Follow Influencers
Nurture your own community
Measure your activity
Here’s a quick reference for your daily and weekly social media needs:
Sunday night
Write and schedule your updates for the week (minimum 2), find 3 – 5 people/organisations to follow and look at your metrics for the previous week and adjust your plans where needed.
Each morning
Quickly scan for any breaking news that is relevant (post it if there is), comment on a couple of posts from connections made, follow accounts of new clients and new networking connections and send personal messages to a few connections.
Other key questions to consider when setting up: How will you promote your social media? Are there any risks to consider? Who are your likely customers? Who your customers’ friends? And if you are one of the many solopreneurs out there, how will you manage your time and resources?
One last thing, stay relevant with your content, think to yourself “Is this important and necessary for the customer to hear” each time you post.
If there is one theme from businesses I hear time and time again when it comes to social media is “Yes I do know I need to use it but I don’t know what to say”. They have a Facebook page, and maybe a Twitter account, and happily follow others. But when it comes to posting their own content, there’s a huge blank.
Is this you? Have you set up a Facebook page or Twitter account, updated it every day (and sometimes more than once!) then after a month or so you couldn’t think of what else to put up on your page? Perhaps you set up a LinkedIn profile, added everyone you know, posted some really interesting content, then lost motivation?
I can assure you – you’re not alone.
The 80 / 20 rule
If there is one thing you take away from this article, is that you do not need to write every piece of content from scratch. In fact, it’s better if you don’t; that way if you are curating interesting content that your audience engages with, then you’ll be seen as a trusted source.
Ideally, your content should consist of 80 per cent ‘value’ based or educational content. This can be either curated (ie, sourced elsewhere with appropriate attribution) or created yourself. The remainder 20 per cent can be slightly more ‘salesy’ but still be respectful of your audience.
Think curation and creation!
So how do you consistently come up with interesting and engaging content without spending hours trawling through the internet and coming up with nothing? Here are my top 5 tips:
Identify leaders in your industry and share what they say. Sign up for their email newsletters and when a great article arrives in you inbox, share it with your fans!
When reading online newspapers and other news sites, if you come across an article you think might interest you followers, save it in a word document so you can use it later
Look at what you are doing in your work place right now. Is there an interesting project you are working on? A client who you could profile?
Have you made a mistake and learned a lesson in your workplace that you think your fans could benefit from? Hindsight is a wonderful thing (especially in business) and another business could learn from you.
Ask you fans, followers & clients what they would like to hear. Your fans are a rich source of information, so ask them lots of questions!
Over to you!
Are there other places you find inspiration?
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Many businesses with a Facebook page manage it internally – and plenty of them are not doing it effectively, perhaps only posting one or twice a week or month. I’ve seen one page that only gets updated once every three months or so!
Why schedule posts ahead of time?
To be successful and be seen by your followers on Facebook you have to put in the effort. This means updating your page every single day. No excuses. Have a look at the best performing pages and notice how often they are updated; sometime up to 5 times a day. Also have a look at the times. These are optimised so that they are in the most newsfeeds at any given point during the day.
A barrier to updating regularly is not being able to log onto Facebook at the time they want to update. What is not necessarily known is that there are tools that can help you.
Many social media managers use third party applications such as Hootsuite to schedule updates in advance. That way when you have decided on your updates for the week, you can set it up so that they ‘roll out’ automatically and all you have to do is periodically check on them for likes and comments.
Though it’s important to say that automating updates should be a last resort! When you can, post directly onto your Facebook page when you want to post an update and use these tools for when you are going to be away from your computer.
How to schedule on Facebook
Facebook now allows you to schedule status updates in advance so that you don’t have to use a third party tool. Here’s how you do it:
Make sure you are using Facebook as your business page
Create your status update as you normally would but DON’T press ‘Post’
Instead, immediately to the right of the ‘Publish’ button, there is an arrow. Click on this arrow.
Select ‘Schedule’, then you will be asked to select the date and time for your post.
Once you’ve selected these options, click ‘Schedule’
You can view any scheduled posts in your Activity Log. This function can also be used to ‘back date’ status updates.
It’s really that simple! So there is now no excuse to forget to update your Facebook page because you can do it in advance.
Over to you
Now that you know how to schedule Facebook posts, how will you increase the amount of content you publish on your page? Don’t forget, you can find Possum Digital on Facebook!
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
When determining your social media marketing plan, first you need to identify the 3 M’s of Marketing – Message (What) Market (Who) Medium (How).
