The Facebook Trick You’re Probably Not Doing

Published:

By: Ceci Dadisman

In: Audience Development, Marketing & Communications,

It is clear that Facebook wants you to pay to have lots of people see your content.  Full disclosure: I myself am a big proponent of running organized, targeted Facebook campaigns because they really do work.  However, we can’t afford to pay for every post that we put on Facebook and here is where this little trick comes in.

When you’re creating a post, have you ever noticed this little icon?

FacebookTrick1

If you click on it, it opens up some free organic targeting options for that post.  Now, you don’t get the same level of detail or organization as you do with a full paid campaign, but it does give you at least some help to make sure that more of your target audience will see that post.

FacebookTrick3

So, let’s say I’m creating a post about an event that my Young Friends group is hosting.  That gives me some pretty finite targeting that I’ll want to go for; namely people who live in my area who are within the age requirements of the group.

FacebookTrick2

Easy as pie!

Now, this targeting means that only the people within your targeted parameters will see the post in their feeds but everyone will still be able to see it if they go directly to your Facebook page.  The vast majority of people who interact with brands do it through content that they see in their feeds so that is just fine with me.

Some other applications that immediately come to mind in the arts marketing world are:

  • “Date night” campaigns targeted to people who are in relationships
  • Foreign language campaigns
  • Student rush ticket campaigns targeted to people in college
  • High school student programming
  • “Girls night out” campaigns targeted to women

And, if you’re promoting a specific event, don’t forget to utilize the Post End Date option to tell Facebook when to stop showing the post in feeds.

Have you experimented with organic post targeting?  How did it go?  Leave a comment to share your experience!

Ceci Dadisman
Author
Ceci Dadisman
Ceci Dadisman is a marketing professional with more than 15 years of experience creating effective communications campaigns utilizing innovative, forward thinking methods. She is nationally recognized as a leader in digital marketing and specializes in multichannel communications campaigns. A frequent public speaker, Ceci’s recent and upcoming engagements feature national conference appearances at NTEN, Museums and the Web, National Arts Marketing Project, Arts Midwest, American Alliance of Museums, OPERA America, Midwest Museums Association, and Chorus America in addition to many other local and regional events. Known for her easy-going and vernacular style, she creates open learning environments with an emphasis on information sharing and useful takeaways. She is a member of the National Arts Marketing Project Advisory Committee and the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts Visiting Committee, and is a mentor in West Virginia University’s Creative Consultant program. She also teaches the arts marketing course at West Virginia University’s College of Creative Arts and is on the faculty of Chorus America’s Chorus Management Institute. Ceci was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from West Virginia University’s College of Creative Arts. She currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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4 thoughts on “The Facebook Trick You’re Probably Not Doing”

  1. Hi Eric! You may not have it enabled on your page. To enable it, go to your page and:

    1. Click Settings in the General tab.
    2. Select Targeting and Privacy for Posts.
    3. Check Allow targeting and privacy options when I create posts on my page.
    4. Save your changes.

    I hope this works!
    -Ceci

    Reply

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