Sorry that I've been slow on replying since my initial post. Consumed with
family commitments.
I've been catching up on what people have said and sounds like not much
success.
As per the question as to what boosting is - it's paying facebook money to
feature your event/post.
Here is some info:
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/547448218658012
We haven't tried it for our local contra dance.
It was my local community association that has done it twice for our events
this spring. One was a spring cleanup where we usually get 40 people and
we got 70... our biggest attendance ever. We don't think anything was
different from what we've done other years (or weather) but maybe our
memory is off. The thing with our community association is that the ad
specifically targeted people within 1km to capture our neighbourhood
only.... paid $10 for that one.
This would be harder with a contra dance as you'd want to target your
audience in a different way. (Supposedly there are various choices for
targeting audiences but I haven't done it).
Here is a comparison of five of our posts
Post /// # of Post Clicks /// # of REactions, comments & Shares
1 / 42 / 11
2 / 7 / 0
3 / 132 / 78 THIS WAS THE BOOSTED ONE
4 / 6 / 0
5 / 14 /5
As you can see, the boosted one seemingly got a lot more attention.
I have heard that the numbers can be off because of fake facebook accounts
but given my limited knowledge, it's been really effective for my community
association.
Maybe we'll give it a try at Ottawa Contra and can report back.
Anyway, good to know others haven't yet found it effective.
And yes... .... so many other ways to reach out to new folks. Just
checking out options!
Emily in Ottawa
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 5 May 2017 15:13:55 -0400
From: Don Veino via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
To: "organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net"
<organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Organizers] Facebook boosts
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I've tried FB boosting/Ads a few times for events locally. In summary, we
saw no return on the effort. And I do mean effort, as it is a relative
chore to set up the "boost" campaign (target audience, customized graphics
and copy, etc.) - at least the first time around.
In my opinion, they have a pretty good scheme going - for FB. Their initial
estimated exposure never materialized with the actual campaign yet the
funds disappeared just the same. Their reports demonstrating "success"
(views/placements) I found to be very vague. Over a span of three
"campaigns", the only related post "likes" we got were from people
well
outside our targeted audience and geography (e.g.: people in India don't
fit within 50 miles of Concord, MA). Follow up with new faces at the events
found no one sourced from the FB ads.
We got better results from the local free toss-away "Action Unlimited"
weekly rag, via their free community events articles. I've found Craigslist
event listings have also worked - again for free.
-Don