Facebook: Targeting your pub's page at the right people

24-Oct-2012 - Last updated on 12-Mar-2017 at 00:44 GMT

Daniels: Urging licensees to make the most of Facebook

It was wonderful to be invited to speak about online marketing at the Freeholder Business Conference last week, and I always get a little buzz from being able to help people spot new ways of getting more from their social media and other online channels.

And, as I said while standing on the stage, the social media marketing space is one which changes rapidly. Even as I’d been finishing off my presentation for that day, new features on different sites were being announced and the same thing will continue to happen for as long as the online advertising world continues to grow.

This morning, I spotted a new feature for Facebook Business Page owners – the ability to directly target your posts to specific demographics of those who already like your page.

The new feature allows you to post a Facebook status on your business page to everybody who likes the page, or narrow it down to a specific audience.

So, you can choose a particular location your target audience lives in or an age group for a special offer. There is the option to limit posts to only being seen by a particular gender; should your venue provide particular activities or offers that are gender specific you can make sure the right people see the message.

Activating the feature is quite straight forward: from your business page click Edit Page near the top and then Manage Permissions. Towards the bottom of the options that appear, select ‘post privacy gating’.

This gives you control over the targeting of your posts and, as you build in specific targets, the ‘Targeted To:’ number at the bottom right of the text entry box will adjust accordingly, allowing you to get a better understanding of the best ways to target your posts.

For most of us, the best option will always be to leave the default setting to Public and make sure everybody who can see the post does, but the feature is a good one to be aware of and many will find it useful for seeing exactly how many people have the chance to see your announcement.