Facebook continues to launch new features in an attempt to position itself as a marketing platform. The latest is targeted page posts, which enable retailers to create Facebook Page posts that reach specific audience segments.
For example, if a merchant needs to market to women within a certain age bracket who also reside within a defined location, he or she is now able to do so. Similarly, if a merchant wants to appeal to Fans who express certain interests, that can be done, as well.
Facebook is rolling out this new targeting feature gradually, so you may not yet see it on your page. It will soon populate throughout the entire platform, however, but will be limited to Pages with more than 100 Fans.
How Page Post Targeting Works
- Before you publish your post, click the target icon in the sharing tool.
- Click “Add Targeting” and choose from one or more of the following categories.
- Gender
- Relationship Status
- Education
- Interested In
- Age
- Location
- Language
- Once you have selected the targeted categories, additional filtering options appear on the right that enable you to further refine audience segments. For example, when targeting by age, you are presented with the option of selecting an age range.
As you add filters, the number of people your post targets will update accordingly. The more filters you add, the fewer the number of Fans will see it. According to Facebook, the minimum number of people you can target your post to is 20.
- When you have finished adding filters, click “Post.”
Page Post Targeting: Features and Benefits
There are a number of features and benefits with this new feature.
- Increased relevance. Not every post will appeal to every Fan. Page Post Targeting increases relevance, enabling page administrators to target those Fans who are most likely to be interested in the content.
- Higher response. If a post reaches only interested Fans, the response rates should increase, versus non-targeted ads.
- Longer Fan retention. By selecting only the most relevant Fans, you decrease the chance that your page will be “un-liked.”
- Greater control. Page Post Targeting gives Page administrators more control over who sees posts in their respective news feeds.
- More personalization. The new targeting feature supports a prevailing trend in social media marketing toward greater personalization.
- Improved optimization. Targeted posts can be used with another of Facebook’s new features, Scheduled Posts, which I addressed in “Facebook Adds Post Scheduler and Admin Roles.” Page administrators can create a series of targeted posts that will go live based on a pre-determined schedule. That way, not only do posts reach the most relevant Fans, but at a time when they are most likely to see and engage with the content.
- Prolonged visibility. Page Post Targeting can also be combined with Facebook’s recently launched advertising format, Promoted Posts, to increase the amount of time it remains visible.
One Final Note
Page Post Targeting only affects your Fans who see the post in their respective news feeds. In other words, each of your posts, whether targeted or not, still appear on your timeline and will be visible to anyone visiting your Page. To ensure posts have the broadest appeal, you may wish to hide targeted posts on your timeline. However, this is a manual process.