Facebook advertising can be a great way to reach your target marketing, this only really works for business to consumer companies where they are looking to sell to the end user.  Some of the things you need to consider before deciding whether this is a valuable way for you to advertise are:

• Who are my target audience
• Is there a specific geographical location
• What age group am I targeting
• Any specific marital status
• Likes and interests of my target market

If you cannot narrow it down then Facebook advertising is unlikely to work for you.  If you can be very specific about who you are trying to reach then advertising in this way can be incredibly cost effective, but again you need to consider your ultimate aim of the campaign.  Are you looking to:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your website
• Create leads
• Create online sales

If you are looking to focus on brand awareness then you may not need to be as specific, but if you are looking to generate actual sales then the more detailed you can be when setting up the campaign then the better your chances of success.  A couple of examples for you, one of the businesses where this can work incredibly well is a Driving School, you can target all 16 and 17 year olds in a certain geographical area. Where this doesn’t work so well is if you are looking to generate sales of cosmetics and your target market is all females between the ages of 16 and 60.  Your likelihood of making sales is much smaller than with the Driving School Example.

If you are unsure, then please seek advice first before you spend any money on something.

Your offline marketing efforts can be given a real boost by integrating it with your social media marketing. We tend to use offline marketing to create brand awareness, advertise to a specific demographic and deliver targeted messages with visual content. Online marketing, however, is all about interacting with consumers, by building relationships and having conversations with them. By combining your online and offline marketing efforts you get the best of both worlds.

Here are some ways to add social media to your offline marketing:

The BBC recently wrote an article outlining how social media and TV has become a part of everyday life. What this basically means is that whilst watching TV many people will also be partaking in social networking at the same time. The BBC states that “A recent study from marketing agency Digital Clarity found that 80% of under-25s used a second screen to communicate with friends while watching TV and 72% used Twitter, Facebook or a mobile app to comment on shows.”