Two Changes You Can Make for Better Facebook Marketing
A couple weeks ago, as I was perusing Facebook and successfully avoiding doing anything productive, I stumbled on a post by Matthew Inman, better known as The Oatmeal. If you don’t know who this guy is, I suggest you take a look at his site. He’s hilariously twisted.
Anyway, he’s got two new books coming out and is marketing them to his fans. Facebook video is kind of the thing now, which works great for his audience since he’s got a lot of engagement on Facebook.
Now, when I dick around on Facebook, I always do it on my phone because this sets a good precedent for me that Facebook on the computer is work only and Facebook on my phone is play only. As you scroll through Facebook, it auto plays the videos that come up in your feed. And if you’re anything like me, I’m usually too noncommittal/distracted/expecting something boring, so I don’t even click on the video that’s caught my attention.
Usually that means you watch a video with some graphics and captions, and call it good.
But Matthew Inman is better than good. He knows his market, and he knows his medium. He made a video that was supposed to be watched automatically without clicking. That means a potential customer who otherwise might have thought, “I’m purposefully wasting precious time here — I don’t have extra time to waste on a video I’m not sure about” was happily watching his video.
So what did he do differently?
He put text in the video that explained everything without having to listen to it. I know that sounds simple, but almost no one takes the time to do this. Most videos are intended to be clicked on and watched, and if you don’t then you miss out on the context of the video. But by the end of this one, I understood all I needed to know: He had two books, they were hilarious, and I could help him fund one and buy the other.
If you’re interested in watching the video, you can see it here. Watch it without sound. Just let it play. Trust me.
Those are two new things you can do for your own Facebook marketing. First, try video because it helps people connect with you. (I’ll be trying more of this myself, soon.) And two, on those videos for Facebook, make them completely understandable when they’re running with no sound. Take the time to write in the main points of the video, and give yourself an even better chance of reaching the right people.
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