FIVE THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE FACEBOOK BOOST
I've been exploring the social media machine again with a short video for my father-in-law's store Williams Hardware. I was curious what would happen when I boosted the video for broader reach on Facebook.
Bob Williams has owned Williams True Value Hardware for many years. He inherited a love for his town and a strong work ethic from his dad, who worked in hardware with his grandad. Bob's legacy has been to bring profitability to the store even in the midst of challenging financial times, and to continue the charity and goodwill begun by his fathers.
Just recently the CEO of True Value (John Hartmann) was on a CBS show Undercover Boss and Bob thought it would be funny to parody the show with a 'Vermont Style' version.
We shot our spoof very quickly - one or two takes at most for any scene - and I chose to add in a variety of 'mistakes' during the edit (audio not synchronized, odd reaction shots) which I felt helped add an authentic 'homemade' quality to the final render. Then we created a few teaser Facebook posts (coming soon!) to whet people's appetites.
When we launched we started to receive a LOT of great comments, likes and most importantly, shares. The number of views of the video shot into the thousands on the first day. I was surprised - and decided to take action on the engagement.
1. YOU CAN GET A BIG BOOST FROM A FEW $$
I decided to spend only $30 to Boost the post on Friday afternoon upon seeing it's potential to go 'viral'. The extended reach from $30 was into the tens of thousands, all of whom are directly connected to the people who have liked the Williams Hardware Facebook page (1200). This is why 'likes' of your business page are important - you can capitalize on extended relationships that exist organically when you need to reach out to a larger audience. Our video would appear as 'sponsored' in thousands of regular feeds.
2. FACEBOOK WILL HESITATE TO BOOST CERTAIN CONTENT
FB reviews all boost requests and is usually quick to publish the boost. It took much longer than expected to have Facebook staff review our video for questionable content (I believe the infringement was the graphic elements I stole from real Undercover Boss posts to YouTube). I reviewed the 'Fair Use' laws related to parody in the US and felt sure they would ignore this infringement. I was right - the boost went public and we started to see even higher numbers. But having capitalized on the first hours of activity would have been nice - just an FYI when boosting.
3. YOUR AUDIENCE IS PICKY
The organic numbers from Friday to Sunday continued to amaze us. But even though the boost numbers were adding in (views, likes, shares) they didn't rise as quickly as I expected. And I'm going to attribute that to something specific: regionality. The organic likes, views and shares continued to outdo the boost numbers because the post is so 'Vermont'. I won't go into a definition of what that means but I will say that an authentic 'take' on the personality of a region can leave other parts of the country scratching their heads. Let's call it 'Portlandia Syndrome' - some people have never thought of putting a bird on it, but if you're from the Northwest, it totally makes sense.
4. BOOSTS STILL NEED QUALITY CONTENT
By Monday at the end of the 'viral' excitement the boost had taken over and was doing quite respectably and I attribute that to the popularity of the show Undercover Boss and the intention behind the parody that Bob wanted to create. He wanted something that's approachable - not slick and polished - something that didn't take itself seriously. By Sunday night the organic energy had dissipated and still we were putting on views from the boost. We eventually reached 10,000 views - not bad for a smartly produced video and a $30 Facebook ad investment.
5. UNEXPECTED MARKETING DISCOVERIES
There's one more item that I feel needs to be addressed: Is Bob a charmer or is there some other reason why the strongest engagement came from women - of a particular age? The gender breakdown of the likes and comments alone was 82% female and 18% male - boost or no boost. This kind of revelation is a boon for marketing to a segment of the population that hasn't historically found hardware stores in general very interesting. Unfortunately, I can't comment any further on this discovery so that Bob Williams will continue to retain his humility and keep his ego in check.
