The Secret Use of Facebook in 2019

You’ve probably heard about Facebook’s move to improve the privacy of its users.

Among many other things, Mark Zuckerberg’s planning on encrypting the messaging used on Facebook and WhatsApp so nobody – even the government – can read the messages!

Anyway, with that said, Facebook still has a powerful secret use. And it’s not advertising.

It’s actually audience data.

Even after Facebook’s moves to improve privacy, you can still get access to raw data about your audience that’s otherwise incredibly difficult to come by.

Here’s what you can find, and how you can find it:

1. Audience Insights

This tool really took a blow as Facebook has opted to improve privacy. However, you can still get some nice data based on those who have liked your page.

By the way, looking at this data proves why you don’t want to pay for likes. Because, the data’s highly corrupt if you have gained likes in an illegitimate way (quite common on Facebook).

Here, you can learn demographic data about your audience like age, gender, relationship status, education level, and more.

2. Research Your Facebook Competition

Facebook is a phenomenal place for up-and-coming companies to get their start. They may not even advertise anywhere on Google at all, instead opting completely for Facebook.

Anyway, under Audience Insights, you can find out who those competitors are.

Then you can visit their pages, look at their ads and offers, and strategize what you can do to top them.

You can even add these competitors as an interest when you create your ad set (if they have enough followers on their page) and work to swipe their followers away to your own Facebook page.

3. Facebook Analytics

Now, this is where the real power in researching your audience truly lies. First, you have to set up your Event Source Group so you can see this data. That’s another process, and here’s a guide for it.

Under the “Funnels” section in Facebook Analytics, you can then tie strings of actions together to see how user segments behave on your Facebook page.

For example, if someone likes your page, how long does it take before they visit again?

Then, you can decide what to do with those users. Do you want to target them with an ad to get them back sooner, or are you content letting them return on their own time?

Or maybe they just leave entirely, never to return. So, what advertising can you use to win them back and keep them interested and engaged?

These are just small examples of ways you can use Facebook to learn more about your audience and how they behave.

But clearly, it shows Facebook is a highly powerful platform for researching your audience and growing your business.

The 5-Minute Guide to High YouTube Rankings

If you create YouTube videos to post throughout your website and blog, you might as well optimize them to rank in YouTube also.

Every little bit of traffic helps. And searchers in general are looking more at videos than ever before.

So what do you do?

Brian Dean’s team at Backlinko researched 1.3 million YouTube videos. And here’s the highlights of what they found:

  1. Keywords Actually Don’t Have a Lot to Do with High Rankings

Believe it or not, optimizing video tags with keywords didn’t have much of a correlation with high rankings.

You should still do this. It does help. But in general, you get much better results from focusing your time elsewhere.

And here’s why…

  1. Engagement Signals Make the Most Difference When Ranking Videos

Think about it for a second…

YouTube doesn’t want the perfectly optimized video at the top of its rankings any more than Google wants the perfectly optimized web page at the top of search.


Because optimization doesn’t reveal how much searchers actually like a specific piece of content.

Optimization gives YouTube an idea of what searches your video should rank for.

Engagement signals like the number of video views, comments, shares, and likes have a strong correlation with high rankings.

So it’s not the optimization…it’s your ability to produce videos your audience likes – and how well you promote your video to them.

Google search works on the same general concept.

  1. Video Length

Don’t make a video long just to rank.

If you put your focus on length only, you’ll sacrifice those engagement signals because you won’t create valuable enough content.

Instead, the focus should be the afore-mentioned value. And then, your video runs as long as it does.

The more value you can provide to your audience, the better. That keeps them watching and then taking actions – like sharing, commenting, liking, and subscribing.

Brian Dean’s team found the average length of a video on YouTube’s first page was 14 minutes, 50 seconds.

  1. Your Video’s Gotta be in HD

68.2% of first-page YouTube videos are in HD. It makes sense. Google, and YouTube, are all about user experience.

And people would certainly prefer an HD video.

So anyway, that’s what you do to get a video to rank on YouTube. If you want greater depth, you can read the full post here.

How to Stand Out on Social Media in 2018

Doesn’t it seem like Twitter and Facebook are bloated with people screaming their political opinions?

If you get that feeling, you’re not alone. 

As a small or local business, how do you stand out on social media in 2018, without doing something outrageous and making a complete fool of yourself?

Well, you can absolutely win attention.

And here’s a few ways you can do it:

  1. Own Your Unique Personality

Authenticity attracts attention. You could also call it “openness” or “transparency.” Maybe even “vulnerability” would be the right term.

See, most businesses don’t do this. They want to appear invulnerable, always having the answers and saying and doing the smartest thing.

You can certainly share your successes. But share what it’s like to truly be your business. Some of the greatest challenges you struggle with it during the day.

For example, you made an embarrassing mistake. Share it on social media. But also make sure you share what you learned from it and what you’ve done to fix it.

You could even turn it into an opportunity to show what you do for your customers when you make mistakes (because no business is perfect).

  1. Video Builds the Deepest Connections

Thanks to mobile devices, demand for video is surging.

Why do so many people prefer video to podcasts and written content?

Because you get to experience the humanity of the person talking.

It’s the next closest thing to sitting in the same room with that person.

Facebook opened up Watch to compete with YouTube late last summer.

YouTube has all sorts of mini-celebrities.

I’m not saying you have to create some sort of popular mini-series.

But you should include video wherever possible because it’s in such high demand.

  1. Strategize a Unique Approach

Most SMBs simply fill their social media channels with more content.

The market already has plenty of choices.

It wants a unique option.

So, let’s say you sell cleaning products to businesses.

How do you make that interesting on social media?

Record before/after videos of your customer’s experience with the product. Show how it makes the floors or countertops shiny and clean. And then follow up with the business results you get for your customer – such as fewer employee work-related illnesses. Or, time and money saved.

Boom. Now you have an interesting story.

Or, say you’re the standard HVAC company.

Share how the product or service you’re recommending helps your customers stay cool and comfortable.

Creative approaches like these win attention because they’re so rare.

Can you win attention on social media in 2018?

You bet.

It just takes some original thinking and willingness to take small risks!



…And you likely have a good one.



  1. Be the Most Useful Company in Your Niche







  1. Consider Paid Advertising Options




  1. Make the Most Efficient Use of Your Time





Yes, Social Media Works. You Just Need Experience or Time on Your Side.



How To Drive Traffic from YouTube to Your Website

For whatever reason, YouTube floats under the radar when it comes to driving traffic to your website. You don’t need 100,000 or more views to get a significant number of customers. And it’s one of the levelest social media channels out there because it doesn’t take a lot of work to get thousands of views.

  1. First, You Have to Get YouTube Views

The first logical step is that you have to get people viewing your videos. You do that by:

A. Creating amazingly valuable content to your audience, usually by teaching them things they didn’t know. Think about the most common customer misunderstandings or questions you get…and then answer those. This is your foundational step and determines the success of the rest of the process

B. SEO optimize your video’s title, tags, description, and thumbnail. The title itself should address a problem your market has.

C. Create an eye-catching thumbnail.

  1. Send People To Your Website

This one’s deceptively simple. In the intro of your video, say,”Hey, this is [name] from [].”

Close your video by saying the same.

Most businesses don’t do this. They think it sounds too simple. You might also edit your video to include your website URL at the beginning and end of your video.

You can also add an annotation, which is a clickable link that appears in your video.

If you get questions in your comment section, they present an awesome opportunity to send people to your website.

  1. YouTube Rocks Because Marketers Focus So Much on Other Channels

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, organic search, and Google Adwords get all the attention. And they’re great tools to use.

Facebook has precision targeting. LinkedIn is where everyone in business hangs out.

But YouTube doesn’t get a whole heck of a lot of attention by comparison. It presents a golden opportunity for you to snatch up search traffic that your competitors don’t even know of or care about.

And the nice thing is, you don’t even need an existing audience. You can build yours from scratch…with comparatively little competition.

Strongly consider adding it to your marketing mix in the future.

How to Get More from Your Marketing Videos

If you’ve read our blog for a while, you’ve heard us trumpet the value of video marketing. It simply works.

But what about video marketing works?

It’s not that you simply shoot a video and your customers pay attention to it because you have a video. That’s not enough to make a huge difference.

Here’s what works about videos, and how you can get more business from yours:

  1. Tell an Inspiring Story Filled with Emotion

Stories and emotions get remembered. Facts and monotone speech don’t. Your customers may be uptight when they do their video testimonials. But that’s okay because they’re not experienced being in front of the camera.

Videos that get shared like crazy and drive real business tell touching stories about problems you solve. So don’t hold back when you shoot your own videos. Be anything but corporate and professional.

  1. Add a Call-To-Action at the End

This used to not exist. Videos used to…just end. Now, you can add a button and your contact information to the final few seconds of the video. Customers touched by the story you tell who believe you have the perfect solution for your problem are more likely to take action when you tell them.

You don’t want that call-to-action appearing until the final few seconds of your video. If you show it earlier, it’s annoying because your potential customer hasn’t had the opportunity to experience the story and solution you have to offer.

  1. Make Sure You Promote Your Video

Posting your video on a page on your website is a good idea. Visitors will have the opportunity to view it and build their relationship with you. But if that’s all you do, you’re greatly harming your success.

Promote your video via every method you have available. That could be your e-mail newsletter list, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and so on.

  1. Gather Data and Monitor Your Analytics

Analytics can get sophisticated enough to the point where they tell you exactly where people stop viewing your video. That gives you insights as to what your customers do and don’t like about your video. Then, you can learn what to do so you keep more people watching longer.

It sounds so simple. But to really get into your customer’s minds takes time and study.

Here’s to Your Success

With these tips, you’ll get more engagement, interest, and sharing from your videos. Ultimately, that translates into more sales. So make sure you include them in each video to the maximum extent possible.