Facebook Boost allows businesses to leverage existing social content and maximize social media ROI. Facebook has reduced organic reach for business pages, but boosted posts give businesses the ability to pay to show a post to a wider audience and combat that decline in impressions and engagement. 

Marketers still have questions about this tactic. What is Facebook Boosting? Are there best practices for boosting? How have other marketers seen success with this tactic? The answers, below.

What Is Facebook Boosting?

For those social marketers who need more reach or engagement from their social content — meet social boosting. According to Facebook, Boosted posts are ads you create from posts on your Facebook Page. Boosting a post gives it a chance to earn more reactions, shares, and comments.

Social media marketers often debate the value of social boosting over social advertising, but they are distinctly different marketing tactics. Facebook Boost is used by social media marketers looking to increase the reach and/or engagement of their existing social content. Social advertising, on the other hand, is used by digital marketers looking to drive a specific action or activity through the creation and deployment of social advertising. While Boosted posts appear in the same form as organic posts, social ads can include links to content, videos, carousel ads with products, and more.

As a part of this content series, SOCi sat down with some of our customers and asked about their strategic approach to different components of localized social marketing. Our hope is that other marketers can read through the answers and learn best practices from the brands that are excelling! 

Goldfish Swim School has a proven boosting strategy – they see the true value of incorporating boosting and are getting results from this tactic.

Q&A with Goldfish Swim School 

According to their website, Goldfish Swim School is the premier learn-to-swim facility for kids ages 4 months to 12 years. Ryan Allen, Marketing Technology Manager for Goldfish Swim School, answered the following questions on the franchise’s best practices for Facebook Boost. 

Q: How long have you been using social Boosting?

A: Our locations have been Boosting posts since it became available on the Facebook platform. They just started Boosting on Instagram as well. Additionally, we Boost posts on our franchise Facebook and Instagram pages.

Q: What are you trying to accomplish through Boosting (what does success look like)?

A: Typically our locations are trying to ensure that an initiative or piece of quality content gets seen by as many relevant people as possible. Success can come in many forms, but we mostly use impressions and engagement (likes, comments, clicks, etc.) to measure the success of Boosted posts.

Q: How do you choose what content to Boost?

A: It varies, but the first thing to consider is the objective of Boosting the post. Is it to get more impressions? More engagement? Spread awareness of an event or fundraising effort? Typically anything that rises to the top as “important” is what gets Boost priority; this could be an on-location event where the franchisee wants to optimize attendance. It could be to raise awareness of a local fundraiser in which the franchisee is participating. It could be that a franchisee spent a lot of time creating a video showing off a child having success in the pool, and they want to increase reach. Any of these objectives would make for prime Boosted content. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Q: What have been the greatest benefits you have received from Boosting?

A: The greatest benefit is the guarantee that people will see your post. Oftentimes lots of hard work goes into creating posts or putting on an event. And Facebook’s algorithm changes make it difficult for your followers to see your content, but Boosting your post is the way to make it all worthwhile.

Q: If someone called you and asked “Why should I boost my social content?”, what would you tell them?

A: If you want to guarantee that a segment of your audience will see and potentially engage with your social content, Boosting your posts needs to be a necessary part of your social strategy.

Q: Do you have any boosting best practices that you would like to share with other marketers?

A: Boosted posts are not ads. Ads are a different beast and should be designed to drive leads, spread brand awareness (or both) and drive people to a specific call to action. So it is important that an ad does not get confused with Boosting posts, which is more intended to get great organic content in front of a relevant audience. To measure the success of a Boosted post, use Facebook/Instagram metrics (easily accessible in SOCi) to evaluate the effectiveness of your Boosted post, and if it is deemed successful, try and replicate it. Pay attention to how many posts you Boost in a week/month. You should only Boost about 1 post a week so you are not sabotaging the organic content on your page.

One of the best ways to leverage existing social content and maximize social media ROI is by boosting posts. As a marketer, you can learn and apply some best practices from Goldfish Swim School to your localized social strategy. However, marketers should not rely solely on boosting to increase engagement. A diversified localized social marketing strategy incorporates localized content that encourages engagement through organic efforts, while leveraging tactics such as social boosting to enhance the reach and engagement of certain key pieces of content. 

To learn more about how SOCi empowers multi-location marketers to boost content in mass and efficiently, click here.

Download the Q2 2019 State of the Market Report to learn emerging trends in social media marketing, review sites, and social advertising