It’s not what you think. Well, it’s a little bit what you think. For months now, I have been captivated by the “boost” feature on my Easily Crestfallen Facebook page. My page is nothing to brag about, just a little bit over 100 followers. Sometimes I go weeks without posting on it or I’ll post an old picture of Joan Rivers or Meryl Streep and Facebook will tell me, “6 people saw your post.” wow.
But every time I am on my Easily Crestfallen Facebook page, below everything I’ve shared, there is a little button that says, “Boost Post.” And you click it and it tells you how much more exposure you’ll get if you pay Facebook money and they share you with people who probably don’t even want to see your blog or whatever it is you’re promoting, anyway.
I’ve wrestled with this for a while. Do I want more followers, more exposure? Yes, of course. I also know how annoyed I get when another ad for Dollar Shave Club comes up.
But last night, I succumbed. I spent $5 promoting two of my most recent blogs, each. $10, total. It’s my understanding that this $10 will promote these two posts for 24 hours, it’s been about 11 hours at the time of this writing. And yes, I see a small uptick on my blog’s Facebook page as well as the blog’s actual statistics counter. “Sandra” is currently my 18th most popular post, and to think just 11 hours ago, it was merely my 24th most popular. Sadly, even with the boost investment of $5, that I could have spent on a frappuccino at Starbucks or a happy hour mai-tai from Damon’s, “I Cain’t Go Back to Buffalo, I Cain’t!” is only ranked 47th. That’s what high stake risk is all about, I suppose.
But this morning, I will be honest, I had a little buyer’s remorse, and yes, I did feel a little dirty. And I felt bad for “God’s Pen”, which had been enjoying it’s reign as 18th most popular blog post and found its way there on its own merit. No boosts for “God’s Pen”, thank you very much. And by the way, “God’s Pen” is one of my personal favorites.
Oh don’t worry, I won’t beat myself up too much about that lost $10. Although, if I had a time machine, that $10 might have been enough to buy me a house or trip to Paris or a fur coat, not that I wear fur. But in time machine-less 2014, $10 doesn’t go far. Which I’ve proven.
And no, there is no real reason why I made Joan Rivers the featured image of this particular post, except that she is still all I can think about and I really don’t think enough people saw the picture when I posted it on Facebook the first time!
easilycrestfallen 
I find your writing very entertaining, extremely funny and touching. I think even if I didn’t know you I would enjoy reading your blog.
I think it’s well worth continuing the investment.
My 2 cents, your 5 bucks.
Well, I will say this: I do have some fabulous guest bloggers from time to time.
We all want success and to be seen, heard, acknowledged….to share our voice. Do it!! I’ve “boosted” posts and over time have gotten people more interested in what I do. It’s a cumulative thing. And there is no shame in an artist wanting an audience. Love you so.
It was worth a shot. I’m glad I tried it. I still don’t understand how they charge me. Will I get a bill?
The trick, I am told, is to make people interact with your fan page. Ask lots of questions and encourage fans to respond in the comments. Then, reply to their answers. Facebook then detects a deeper level of engagement than a casual “oh, yeah. i like that. whatever” between that user and your page, and will make sure that user sees your posts more often.
Likes and shares also work. But one-on-one interaction works better.
It’s ongoing, and per-user. And it doesn’t feel natural at all.
In your case, I’d share the blog posts as usual, but make sure your description is using each entry as a jumping off point for further discussion.
Leveraging all of this, I might also post a big open-ended question (“I know I’m going to regret this, but for one time only, I am taking requests — what do you want we to write about?”) and boost THAT post to make sure the maximum number of people have the opportunity to join that conversation.
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Also? I didn’t know you had a fan page for the blog. Just searched and found it. There should probably be a prominent link to it somewhere on the blog itself.
Aaron, thank you for taking the time to impart your advice. I appreciate your more tech savvy input. So, that being said, what do YOU want me to write about?
We should never have to pay for it! And if Facebook was doing its job better (or at all), more of your FB friends (and their friends, and so on) would see your posts. As it is, we each see a fraction of what our friends post, and only those we have recently had interaction with.
So I’ll share this with you Ray, and your faithful readers: Reddit. Go to reddit.com and sign up. Then you can share your posts (some, all, whatevs) on Reddit using the Reddit share button at the bottom of each post. (You only have Twitter and FB share buttons visible, so you’ll have to go into your Dashboard and move the Reddit button out there.)
A friend of mine suggested this to me a month ago, and the results have been amazing. Reddit makes you choose to share in only one ‘subreddit’ (think: category)… so go broad. Ferinstance, you might share this post under the /socialmedia subreddit.
In any event, your blog posts will reach new and larger (in some cases, vast) audiences. That will be reflected in your WP view counts. It won’t change your FB numbers, but who cares about FB? when your goal is world dominion! 🙂
Steve, thank you for the tip. I went to Reddit and signed up and as you might see, I’ve added Reddit and a few other options to my share buttons. I appreciate you taking the time to explain Reddit to me, I didn’t really understand it so I stayed away from it. Anyway, thank you!