Facebook Impressions - Ads for Nonprofits: Volume 1

There was a great article posted on cobizmag.com titled, "Facing up to Facebook - Social media adds a new dimension to marketing".  First, since it's Colorado Biz Magazine, the majority of the businesses featured are in Colorado so you are more likely to be aware of the specific campaigns and brands they mention.  Second, it got me thinking about how Community Shares thinks about marketing and costs and some potential shifts in mindset.


The key statistics/concepts:

• Facebook accounts for 10% of all time spent online by EVERYONE
• This blew my mind... Facebook accounts for 10% of all internet usage time!!!  I can't even wrap my head around that stat yet.
• 50% of Facebook users are between 18-34
• You know how much 50% of Facebook users equal?  250 million people.
• Women in their 50s and 60s are the fastest growing demographic
• I set up an account for my mom over the weekend, contributing to that stat.
• Social media as "scalable word of mouth"
• Yes, I will be using that expression ad nauseum in future trainings.
• Back again to the core concept we've got our eye on - social media as brand extension with unquantifiable impact on the monetization of your product
• If you haven't already, it's time to Like Community Shares.

I've been kicking around how we are going to measure success in our social media work.  Certainly click-throughs are ideal (followed by a comment and a pledge to be BFF forever) but how should we quantify the value of impressions?

I'm setting up a social media science project* using Facebook Ads.  Here's what I'm thinking:

• One boring ad that will get very few clicks but will have a huge number of impressions.
• One bizarre/look at this ad that will get attention but the impressions won't connect to our brand without a click.
• One targeted campaign with a return on investment.  (i.e. Time limited, voting based, prize drawn...)

Part of me loves the boring ad I already put up while thinking about the other two.  It costs nothing unless people click. So far that's meant 26k impressions by college educated Coloradans with no clicks.  For $0.00, we've put our logo up in front of our target audience 26k times.

This is volume one of our foray into Facebook ads at Community Shares.  We'll keep you posted on our science project*.


*Why "science project"?
Although I am a mathlete (1988 Math Olympics representing St. Anne's School), I don't have a lot of science experiment skills.  Anything that involves measuring results makes me think science!  If that is alarming to you, keep in mind that no science education is required in my job description.