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An In-Depth Guide For Beginners

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An In-Depth Guide For Beginners

Every month, 2.98 billion people around the globe open up their laptops or smart devices and navigate their way to Facebook.

That’s roughly a quarter of everyone in the world, visiting the same social media platform, every single day.

Mark Zuckerberg likely didn’t imagine such astounding reach in his wildest dreams when he launched the first iteration of what would become the world’s most popular social networking site in 2003.

These days, nearly everyone uses Facebook, and it’s become as much a part of daily life as watching television.

For marketers, this means a massive opportunity to reach and engage with new audiences.

But you can’t just set up a company page and hope to attract millions of followers. You need a plan to capitalize on these opportunities and make the maximum impact.

If you’re a Facebook marketing beginner, this may sound like a daunting task, but don’t worry – it’s easier than you think.

Continue reading for an in-depth guide to Facebook marketing that you can use to get started right away.

What Is Facebook Marketing?

Facebook marketing is the process of using the social media platform to promote your business to potential buyers.

There are a variety of ways to do this, both paid and organic.

Paid Facebook marketing means using advertising campaigns within the platform to target people on the site and ideally, convert them into customers.

Organic marketing on Facebook occurs when you post content that your targets will find valuable, with the goal of increasing your following and engaging with your audience.

Why You Should Be Marketing On Facebook

If nearly 2 billion potential customers using Facebook didn’t entice you to create your own business profile, maybe this will: There are currently more than 200 million businesses already using Facebook’s free tools and apps.

And, of those, more than 3 million are actively advertising on the platform.

That means there’s a good chance your competition is already using this social media site to grow their business.

And if they’re not, jumping on board now will give you a serious edge over them.

So, with no further ado, let’s get started.

How To Set Up Facebook For Business

The very first thing you need to do to launch your marketing efforts on Facebook is to create a page for your business.

It’s free to set up and gives you a place for people to like or follow you. It also gives you a chance to engage with your customers (and potential customers), and share content with them via posts.

In your web browser, go to facebook.com/pages/create and select the category that best describes your organization. For most people, that’s going to be “Business or Brand.”

You’ll then be directed to a page where you can enter your brand’s name, select the category your business falls under, and add bio information.

If you’re a bit stuck on what to include in your bio, don’t worry – you can always change it later.

You’ll also have an opportunity to add a logo and cover image – again, don’t worry, these can be changed.

Next, you’ll be able to claim your unique URL, which will likely be something along the lines of facebook.com/TheNameOfYourBusiness.

The next step is an important one: editing your page info.

Make sure you provide all relevant details including your address, service hours, and other details customers and prospects might be looking for.

Congratulations – you’ve just created your Facebook business page. Now, it’s time to figure out how to use it for marketing.

How To Build A Facebook Marketing Strategy

As you probably already know, Facebook makes its money via advertising revenue. As such, it has made it simple for even the most technologically inept person to use it for marketing.

And this includes offering free information on how to create your own social media strategy.

You can read that helpful guide at your leisure, but for now, let’s break it down into eight steps:

  • Set your goals – What do you hope to accomplish via Facebook marketing? Facebook has three marketing objectives: awareness, consideration, and conversion.
  • Identify your audience – How old are they? Where do they live? What is their level of education? How can your offering solve their problem? Facebook lets your market with remarkable precision, so the more information you have on your targets, the better.
  • Plan your content – Decide what kind of things you’ll post. It could be industry news, behind-the-scenes pictures, or promotions – get as creative as you like. Just make sure you’re planning content your audience will like.
  • Create a content calendar – Decide when you will post specific pieces of content. Be as accurate as you can, right down to publishing time, because there will likely be times when your audience is more active.
  • Create your content – It’s time to put step three into action and create engaging pieces. Read this article for tips on keeping your content interesting and relevant.
  • Explore Facebook’s free tools – Facebook has several options for sharing content, including text, image, and video posts, as well as Stories and live streams.
  • Determine how you will use ads – You have multiple options for advertising on Facebook. We’ll go into them in more detail in the next section so you can choose what’s right for your needs.
  • Add the Facebook Pixel to your website – Don’t forget to add the tracking code to your website to collect data, enable retargeting, and track conversions.

Types Of Facebook Posts For Marketing

Facebook offers incredible flexibility when it comes to marketing, with numerous post and paid ad options.

Let’s first dive into the posts.

Facebook Marketing Post Types

The type of post you use when marketing on Facebook will depend on what you’re hoping to accomplish. Some of the more popular are:

  • Text posts or status updates – these are a great way to initiate conversations, share information, and educate your followers.
  • Photo posts – A great way to capture attention, images are useful for attracting new customers.
  • Video posts – Videos are a great way to engage with your audience and encourage interaction.
  • Facebook Live – Use the platform’s live streaming capabilities for product demonstrations, answering questions, or interacting with your followers.
  • Link posts – Use posts with direct links to your external website or blog. They include an automatic preview.
  • Stories – Just like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories are great for building engagement without disrupting your followers’ feeds.
  • Pinned posts – Stuck at the top of your page, these are great for maximizing the reach of top-performing posts or relaying critical information, promotions, or events.

Once you have your business page set up and you’ve begun sharing content, the next phase of Facebook marketing is to venture into paid ads.

Facebook Ad Types

At the moment, there are four main types of ads on the platform:

Image Ads

Screenshot from Facebook, January 2023

These are static ads in JPG or PNG format. They should include a headline of up to 40 characters and the main text of 125 characters.

You also have a link description area which should be used for a clear and succinct CTA.

Image ads are easy to set up and work well for driving traffic to your website.

For a list of best practices for this ad format, click here.

Video Ads

Facebook Marketing: An In-Depth Guide For BeginnersScreenshot from Facebook, January 2023

Facebook video ads are a great way to boost your brand and don’t require expensive recording equipment or software. You can record these spots using your phone and there are a number of free editing apps that can help you.

Video ads can be placed in-stream (the short commercials that are shown before a video your target wants to watch), in-feed, or in Stories.

As a general rule of thumb, they should be under two minutes long and have an attention grabber within the first three seconds.

For more video best practices, click here.

Carousel Ads

Facebook Marketing: An In-Depth Guide For BeginnersScreenshot from Facebook, January 2923

Carousel ads combine multiple videos and images into a single ad, which is a great way to improve your chances of conversion.

They tend to work best for ecommerce brands, as they allow you to showcase multiple products or angles of a single product in one ad.

Ideally, these should point to a purpose-built landing page.

Here are some other best practices offered by Meta.

Collection Ads

Facebook Marketing: An In-Depth Guide For BeginnersScreenshot from Facebook, January 2023

Collection ads are another way for e-commerce brands to showcase products but are more similar to image ads than carousels.

You are restricted to a 40-character headline and a 125-character primary text.

Read about collection ads best practices here.

Which Goal Should I Focus on For Facebook Marketing?

The type of marketing that will work best for your brand depends on your goals.

As was mentioned previously, Facebook has three objectives that correspond with the top, middle, and bottom of the sales funnel, respectively:

Awareness

Facebook has two awareness objectives to help you expand your reach and generate interest:

  • Brand awareness – Used to entice a new audience or keep your brand top of mind. This usually results in little audience action.
  • Reach – Designed to reach as many people as possible within your ad budget.

Consideration

Consideration lets you choose from six objectives:

  • Traffic – Choose this objective when you want to increase the number of visitors to your external website.
  • Engagement – This is used to encourage people to like and comment on your posts, or respond to event invitations.
  • App promotion – Used to drive downloads of your app in Google Play or the App Store.
  • Video views – If you’re showcasing your brand or highlighting a unique value proposition (UVP). It’s also a good way to lay the groundwork for future retargeting.
  • Lead generation – Collect information about your customers and add them to your sales funnel.
  • Messages – Use this when you’re seeking to start conversations around your brand.

Conversions

Conversions lets you choose from three objectives:

  • Conversions – This could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or taking any other action.
  • Catalog sales – By connecting your e-commerce store with Facebook Ads, you can promote products from your catalog.
  • Store traffic – Use this to drive traffic to your physical location by targeting nearby potential customers.

Once you have determined your objectives, you can determine which format will work best to help you accomplish your goals.

From here, you’ll need to determine your budget and schedule. You can opt for either a daily or monthly budget, with the option for an end date for time-sensitive promotions.

Next, you’ll choose your audience – a process we’ll dive into in the next section – and select your placements.

If you’ve never placed ads on Facebook before, you will probably be best served by selecting Automatic Placements, which will allow the social media platform to determine where you’re likely to get the best results.

If you know what you’re doing, you can customize your placement and select things like device type and operating system.

When Not To Use Facebook Ads

There’s no question that running Facebook ad campaigns can be extremely beneficial. But it’s not a magical sales multiplier.

In fact, in some situations, it can be a complete waste of money – and Facebook Ads can be quite costly.

Here are some situations when you should not use Facebook Ads:

  • You’re unclear on your targeting – Nothing will blow through your ad spend faster, and with less to show for it, than going after the wrong demographic.
  • You’re not using your metrics – As with every marketing campaign, your Facebook Ads should be subject to measurement and A/B testing to find the optimal placement and format.
  • You don’t have anything worth sharing – To get engagement, your ads need to be compelling. It could be a unique product, a special event, or a sale, but people need a reason to click your ads.
  • Your landing page and ad are disconnected – If you’re promising one thing in your Facebook Ad and then delivering something different on your website, people will not follow through with your CTA.

Using Facebook Analytics

Facebook’s biggest value to marketers lies in its analytics capabilities via Facebook Insights.

To access it, go to your Page Manager and click on Insights.

You’ll be presented with quite a lot of data, created using a default range of 28 days. You can change this as needed.

The first thing you’ll likely want to check is the Overview tab, which will tell you how your page is performing. This gives you key metrics about your page and your most recent posts, and compares you to similar pages.

Use the Likes tab to see the averages, growth, and source of your likes to help you understand how your page is performing.

The Reach tab tracks how many people have seen your posts, their reactions, comments, and shares, as well as how many have hidden them or reported them as spam.

Page views help you identify where your traffic is coming from and how many views your posts are receiving.

Under the Actions of Page tab, you’ll get a report of what actions visitors took on your Facebook page, as well as demographic information on the people who clicked your phone number or website or took another action.

There are also separate tabs to tell you how your posts, events, and videos are performing on the platform.

The People tab gives you information about who saw and engaged with your posts or page. It gives you data on your fans, as well as reach and engagement numbers.

The Messages tab tracks Messenger analytics, including response time, while Promotions gives you an overview of recent sales and promotions.

Branded Content lists your mentions from Verified Pages (those with a blue checkmark).

Finally, there’s the Local tab, which while not relevant for strictly online businesses, is extremely valuable for any company with a physical location.

It gives you information about the foot traffic in your area, as well as demographic information about these people and the number of people nearby who saw your ads.

How To Create Great Facebook Campaigns

There is no question that Facebook can be an excellent marketing tool for virtually any organization.

But if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, it can also be an easy way to blow through your advertising budget in no time.

To ensure your Facebook marketing campaigns give you the biggest bang for your buck, here are some key takeaways to keep in mind:

  • Identify your audience and write to it – Keep your posts only as long as is required to persuade a target. Keep your ads within specified limits. Keep your CTAs short and to the point.
  • Don’t take a “one-size-fits-all” approach – Facebook allows you incredible targeting options. Use them. Highly targeted ads are going to perform much better than those that take a scattergun approach.
  • Have a good offer – Even the best copy and image can’t overcome a bad offer. Make sure you’re providing something people want.
  • Connect your visuals with your copy – Copy should reinforce your images and videos and vice versa. Make sure yours does.
  • Refine your strategy – You’re not going to get everything perfect for your first, second, or even hundredth Facebook campaign. In fact, there are no perfect campaigns. That means you should always be working on your strategy and content, striving to find something better.

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TikTok CEO To Testify In Hearing On Data Privacy And Online Harm Reduction

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TikTok CEO To Testify In Hearing On Data Privacy And Online Harm Reduction

TikTok CEO Shou Chew will testify in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce this Thursday, March 23, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

As CEO, Chew is responsible for TikTok’s business operations and strategic decisions.

The “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms” hearing will be streamed live on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s website.

According to written testimony submitted by Chew, the hearing will focus on TikTok’s alleged commitment to transparency, teen safety, consumer privacy, and data security.

It also appears to broach the topic of misconceptions about the platform, such as its connection to the Chinese government through its parent company, ByteDance.

Chew shared a special message with TikTok yesterday from Washington, D.C., to thank 150 million users, five million businesses, and 7,000 employees in the U.S. for helping build the TikTok community.

@tiktokOur CEO, Shou Chew, shares a special message on behalf of the entire TikTok team to thank our community of 150 million Americans ahead of his congressional hearing later this week.♬ original sound – TikTok

The video has received over 85k comments from users, many describing how TikTok has allowed them to interact with people worldwide and find unbiased news, new perspectives, educational content, inspiration, and joy.

TikTok Updates Guidelines And Offers More Educational Content

TikTok has been making significant changes to its platform to address many of these concerns before this hearing to evade a total U.S. ban on the platform.

Below is an overview of some efforts by TikTok to rehab its perception before the hearing.

Updated Community Guidelines – TikTok updated community guidelines and shared its Community Principles to demonstrate commitment to keeping the platform safe and inclusive for all users.

For You Feed Refresh – TikTok recommends content to users based on their engagement with content and creators. For users who feel that recommendations no longer align with their interests, TikTok introduced the ability to refresh the For You Page, allowing them to receive fresh recommendations as if they started a new account.

STEM Feed – To improve the quality of educational content on TikTok, it will introduce a STEM feed for content focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Unlike the content that appears when users search the #STEM hashtag, TikTok says that Common Sense Networks and Poynter will review STEM feed content to ensure it is safe for younger audiences and factually accurate.

This could make it more like the version of TikTok in China – Douyin – that promotes educational content to younger audiences over entertaining content.

Series Monetization – To encourage creators to create in-depth, informative content, TikTok introduced a new monetization program for Series content. Series allows creators to earn income by putting up to 80 videos with up to 20 minutes in length, each behind a paywall.

More Congressional Efforts To Restrict TikTok

The TikTok hearing tomorrow isn’t the only Congressional effort to limit or ban technologies like TikTok.

Earlier this month, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the RESTRICT Act (Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology), which would create a formal process for the government to review and mitigate risks of technology originating in countries like China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.

Organizations like the Tech Oversight Project have pointed out that Congress should look beyond TikTok and investigate similar risks to national security and younger audiences posed by other Big Tech platforms like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta.

We will follow tomorrow’s hearing closely – be sure to come back for our coverage to determine how this will affect users and predict what will happen next.


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How Is It Different From GPT-3.5?

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How Is It Different From GPT-3.5?

GPT-4, the latest version of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s language model, is a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) technology that has revolutionized how we communicate with machines.

ChatGPT’s multimodal capabilities enable it to process text, images, and videos, making it an incredibly versatile tool for marketers, businesses, and individuals alike.

What Is GPT-4?

GPT-4 is 10 times more advanced than its predecessor, GPT-3.5. This enhancement enables the model to better understand context and distinguish nuances, resulting in more accurate and coherent responses.

Furthermore, GPT-4 has a maximum token limit of 32,000 (equivalent to 25,000 words), which is a significant increase from GPT-3.5’s 4,000 tokens (equivalent to 3,125 words).

“We spent 6 months making GPT-4 safer and more aligned. GPT-4 is 82% less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content and 40% more likely to produce factual responses than GPT-3.5 on our internal evaluations.” – OpenAI

GPT-3.5 Vs. GPT-4 – What’s Different?

GPT-4 offers several improvements over its predecessor, some of which include:

1. Linguistic Finesse

While GPT-3.5 is quite capable of generating human-like text, GPT-4 has an even greater ability to understand and generate different dialects and respond to emotions expressed in the text.

For example, GPT-4 can recognize and respond sensitively to a user expressing sadness or frustration, making the interaction feel more personal and genuine.

Screenshot from OpenAI, March 2023

One of the most impressive aspects of GPT-4 is its ability to work with dialects, which are regional or cultural variations of a language.

Dialects can be extremely difficult for language models to understand, as they often have unique vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation that may not be present in the standard language.

However, GPT-4 has been specifically designed to overcome these challenges and can accurately generate and interpret text in various dialects.

2. Information Synthesis

GPT-4 can answer complex questions by synthesizing information from multiple sources, whereas GPT-3.5 may struggle to connect the dots.

For example, when asked about the link between the decline of bee populations and the impact on global agriculture, GPT-4 can provide a more comprehensive and nuanced answer, citing different studies and sources.

ChatGPT 4 article exampleScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023

Unlike its predecessor, GPT-4 now includes a feature that allows it to properly cite sources when generating text.

This means that when the model generates content, it cites the sources it has used, making it easier for readers to verify the accuracy of the information presented.

3. Creativity And Coherence

While GPT-3.5 can generate creative content, GPT-4 goes a step further by producing stories, poems, or essays with improved coherence and creativity.

For example, GPT-4 can produce a short story with a well-developed plot and character development, whereas GPT-3.5 might struggle to maintain consistency and coherence in the narrative.

ChatGPT 4 creative exampleScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023
ChatGPT 4 creative writingScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023

4. Complex Problem-Solving

GPT-4 demonstrates a strong ability to solve complex mathematical and scientific problems beyond the capabilities of GPT-3.5.

For example, GPT-4 can solve advanced calculus problems or simulate chemical reactions more effectively than its predecessor.

ChatGPT 4 complex physics problemScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023
ChatGPT 4 equations of motionScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023

GPT-4 has significantly improved its ability to understand and process complex mathematical and scientific concepts. Its mathematical skills include the ability to solve complex equations and perform various mathematical operations such as calculus, algebra, and geometry.

In addition, GPT-4 is also capable of handling scientific subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy.

Its advanced processing power and language modeling capabilities allow it to analyze complex scientific texts and provide insights and explanations easily.

As the technology continues to evolve, it is likely that GPT-4 will continue to expand its capabilities and become even more adept at a wider range of subjects and tasks.

5. Programming Power

GPT-4’s programming capabilities have taken social media by storm with its ability to generate code snippets or debug existing code more efficiently than GPT-3.5, making it a valuable resource for software developers.

With the help of GPT-4, weeks of work can be condensed into a few short hours, allowing extraordinary results to be achieved in record time. You can test these prompts:

  • “Write code to train X with dataset Y.”
  • “I’m getting this error. Fix it.”
  • “Now improve the performance.”
  • “Now wrap it in a GUI.”

6. Image And Graphics Understanding

Unlike GPT-3.5, which focuses primarily on text, GPT-4 can analyze and comment on images and graphics.

For example, GPT-4 can describe the content of a photo, identify trends in a graph, or even generate captions for images, making it a powerful tool for education and content creation.

ChatGPT problem solving with dataScreenshot from OpenAI, March 2023

Imagine this technology integrated with Google Analytics or Matomo. You could get highly accurate analytics for all your dashboards in a few minutes.

7. Reduction Of Inappropriate Or Biased Responses

GPT-4 implements mechanisms to minimize undesirable results, thereby increasing reliability and ethical responsibility.

For example, GPT-4 is less likely to generate politically biased, offensive, or harmful content, making it a more trustworthy AI companion than GPT-3.5.

Where Can ChatGPT Go Next?

Despite its remarkable advancements, ChatGPT still has room for improvement:

  • Addressing neutrality: Enhancing its ability to discern the context and respond accordingly.
  • Understanding the user: Developing the capacity to understand who is communicating (who, where, and how).
  • External integrations: Expanding its reach through web, API, and robotic integrations.
  • Long-term memory: Improving its ability to recall past interactions and apply that knowledge to future conversations.
  • Reducing hallucination: Minimizing instances where the AI is convinced of false information.

As ChatGPT continues to evolve, it is poised to revolutionize marketing and AI-driven communications.

Its potential applications in content creation, education, customer service, and more are vast, making it an essential tool for businesses and individuals in the digital age.

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Should Congress Investigate Big Tech Platforms?

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Should Congress Investigate Big Tech Platforms?

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a full committee hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Chew to discuss how the platform handles users’ data, its effect on kids, and its relationship with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.

This hearing is part of an ongoing investigation to determine whether TikTok should be banned in the United States or forced to split from ByteDance.

A ban on TikTok would affect over 150 million Americans who use TikTok for education, entertainment, and income generation.

It would also affect the five million U.S. businesses using TikTok to reach customers.

Is TikTok The Only Risk To National Security?

According to a memo released by the Tech Oversight Project, TikTok is not the only tech platform that poses risks to national security, mental health, and children.

As Congress scrutinizes TikTok, the Tech Oversight Project also strongly urges an investigation of risks posed by tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google.

These platforms have a documented history of serving content harmful to younger audiences and adversarial to U.S. interests. They have also failed on many occasions to protect users’ private data.

Many Big Tech companies have seen TikTok’s success and tried to emulate some of its features to encourage users to spend as much time within their platforms’ ecosystems as possible. Academics, activists, non-governmental organizations, and others have long raised concerns about these platforms’ risks.

To truly reduce Big Rech’s risks to our society, Congress must look beyond TikTok and hold other companies accountable for the same dangers they pose to national security, mental health, and private data.

Risks Posed By Big Tech Companies

The following are examples of the risks Big Tech companies pose to U.S. users.

Amazon

Amazon has made several controversial moves, including a partnership with a state propaganda agency to launch a China books portal and offering AWS services to Chinese companies, including a banned surveillance firm with ties to the military.

Apple

Independent research found that Apple collects detailed information about its users, even when users choose not to allow tracking by apps from the App Store. Over half of the top 200 suppliers for Apple operate factories in China.

Google

The FTC fined Google and YouTube $170 million for collecting children’s data without parental consent. YouTube also changed its algorithm to make it more addictive, increasing users’ time watching videos and consuming ads.

Meta

Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest the private data of over 50 million users. It also failed to notify over 530 million users of a data breach that resulted in users’ private data being stolen.

It also allowed Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The influence operation posed as an independent news organization with 13 accounts and two pages, pushing messages critical of right-wing voices and the center-left.

TikTok 

TikTok employees confirmed that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is involved in decision-making and has access to TikTok’s user data. While testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Vanessa Pappas, TikTok COO, would not confirm whether ByteDance would give TikTok user data to the Chinese government.

Conclusion

While the dangers posed by TikTok are undeniable, it’s clear that Congress should also address the risks posed throughout the tech industry. By holding all major offenders accountable, we can create a safe, secure, and responsible digital landscape for everyone.


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