• It is free to set-up a FaceBook Business Page.Yes, but this is just for the pleasure of having a page that you can post messages on.
  If you want to reach out to an audience you have to use FaceBook Paid Marketing.

• If you are a business forget about FaceBook being a 'Social Media' and think of it as the ‘worlds greatest database of potential customers’.
  With GDPR rules ruling out unsolicited E mails old-fashioned post being so expensive, its one of the most cost effective ways to reach an audience.

• Your customers can communicate with you over FaceBook
  If you use FaceBook Messenger you may have more questions coming to you this way than through email. All your key staff have access to e mail, but who has access to answer the FaceBook Messages?

• The younger generation does not use e mail so much to communicate, they prefer Messaging App such as Whatsap and FaceBook Messenger.
  So are you set up to receive queries and customer communications this way?

• On average people look at Facebook 14 times per day.
  A widely disputed figure. But you need to be where your customers eyeballs are, and they probably aren’t on newspapers anymore.

• More than 60% of the western worlds population have a FaceBook account.
  Another disputed figure, but accept that if a lot of your customers are spending time in that space you need to also.

• You can target FaceBook users who come into your locality.
  The classic case being a hotel who is close to an airport. They can use FaceBook Paid Marketing to target people when they arrive in that area.

• You can target people by relationship status ie Married/Engaged etc
  Yes, you can even target parents who have kids of a specific age group.

• You can arrange for people who visit your website to be targeted with FaceBook Ads afterwards.
  Called FaceBook Pixel, (and not an exact science in our view) if someone visits your website you can arrange for a FaceBook ad to be displayed to them whilst they are browsing their FaceBook account. Good for brand awareness.

• It is possible to measure how many people see your ad and do something with your ad.
  At last, the beauty of the internet, you can measure the impact of your ad, ie How many people it went in front off, how many clicked on it etc etc.

• The best people to get the most out of FaceBook Paid Marketing are the people who DONT understand it.
  If you are old enough to manage or own a hotel, you probably weren’t born in the internet generation and you might shie away from things you don’t understand. Don’t try to understand it, boil the promotion down to;

Message – What are we trying to sell
Market - What is the audience we are trying to reach?
Method – What method are you using to get the message out.
Money – How much are you going to invest in the Promotion.

In our experience the ‘geeks’ tend to lose their focus and get lost in the technology. You can get things back on track, even if you don’t understand the mechanics of your marketing method ie FaceBook, by using the 4 ‘M’s above.

2 Fictional FaceBook Promotions (using the 4 ‘M’ framework above)

Example 1 - Lime Trees Hotel has a good sized Function Room and wants to boost their wedding business. They know that many people get engaged over the Christmas Period and want to run a promotion between December 25th and the end of January.

Message – In the month of January 4 Free Rooms to anyone who books their wedding with us in the month of January.
Market – People who have recently become engaged.
Method – FaceBook Paid Marketing.
Money – 100€ total spread over the 35 days.

Example 2 – Galway Towers Hotel is situated next to a major Golf Course and is just 12 miles from Galway Airport that has flights from Edinburgh. They want to attract groups of Golfers

Message – Free collection and return to the Airport for Groups of 12 or more staying 2 nights in the Hotel.
Market – Men, in the age group 30 to 65, with the interest ‘Golf’, living in a 50 mile radius of Edinburgh .
Method – FaceBook Paid Marketing.
Money – 150€ total spread over 30 days.