Facebook Ads Update

I logged in to update my Facebook ads today and noticed that the interface had changed again. The “Create an Ad” interface is now dynamic—populated based on what you’re trying to advertise (URL, page, group, app or event). After you indicate your ad’s destination, it asks you what you want to promote (on a Facebook page, for example, you can promote the entire page or just a post). Then, it will ask you how to promote it.

Where the change gets really interesting is the pricing structure. You’re no longer given a choice between paying on a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) basis. Instead, Facebook asks you to indicate the objective of the ad. Sometimes, you actually have a choice. For example, if you’re creating a sponsored story about a page like, you can choose to show the ad to people who are likely to like your page, or click on the sponsored story.

The objective determines the pricing structure you will be using. If your objective is for people to click on something, you’ll automatically pay for each click. If the objective is not to click, it will default to CPMs.

This may become an issue for you if you are advertising an external URL. It appears you’re only given the option for your objective, which is to pay per click.

How does this break down from a cost perspective? I’ll use the example of my ads for campus visits. In the past, I always directed my campus visit ads to the sign-up form on our website. I paid per impressions (about $.08 CPM), and my average cost per click was $1.24. The ads I just set up this morning for our upcoming visit suggested a CPC bid of $2.82. Checking back tonight, the suggested CPC bid is now down to $1.80, and I was charged $1.20 for the first click I received. Maybe the new platform is adjusting, but at first glance it seemed to suggest I should be paying more for clicks to external URLs.

Ads that were created before the system updated are still running at the preferred payment method, but if you update your ad it will default to the new system. For some ads in my account, that means a suggested CPC bid 6 times greater than I’ve been paying for the last six months.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on, and to keep in mind when you’re budgeting for next year’s ads.

If you like this post, you find these interesting:

How to Advertise Off-Facebook Content & Still Benefit From Social Impressions

How Facebook Ads Stack Up Against Traditional Online Display Ads

How to Turn Engagement Into Promotion With Facebook Sponsored Stories

Why Facebook Ads Work for Higher Education

How Much Time Does Your Full-Time Job Take?

I have a confession to make…I am not a workaholic. Far from it. I don’t show up more than 15 minutes early, and most days I’m out of the office when the clock hits 5:00. Yes, I’ll put in extra hours when a deadline demands it, but I’m likely to try to balance that with a few hours off the next week. I work 40-45 hours per week, and I’m proud of it.

This came up in a discussion with my boss this week. When discussing my career goals, I said, “You may have noticed I’m not a workaholic. If a position requires 50 or 60+ hours each week, I’m not interested.” He smiled and said, “I know, you’re a true millennial.”

Generational comments aside, I appreciate that my supervisor supports my idea of what a full-time position is, even if he doesn’t share the same view of his own position.

Because I value my free time (which is dedicated to work-like activities, like studying, research and gardening), I would not apply for a job if I didn’t believe I could fulfill the responsibilities in 40-45 hours per week. When I’m in the office, I work hard, using technology to make my work as efficient as possible.

The question remains in my mind: are there senior leadership positions at colleges and universities that only require 40-45 hours of work? My utopian view of career progression involves positions that require higher levels of intelligence, problem-solving ability, and a wider range of skills while requiring the same amount of time. Increased capacity, rather than increased seat time.

What do you think? What do you think a “full-time” position should entail? Must you commit to more work hours as your career progresses?

Why I Will Never Be A Social Media Director

Social media is trendy (even if it’s useful). Large companies have positions and even entire departments dedicated to engaging customers on social media. The University of Michigan recently hired a social media director for a cool $100,000 salary.

People like me, who enjoy, understand and effectively utilize social media, dream about a gig that lets us engage with stakeholders via social media full-time. For many of us, the thought of analyzing those interactions, matching them to key business metrics (in the case of higher education—applications and enrollment) and making flashy reports sounds almost as good as a European vacation (hey, I said almost).

In reality, there aren’t a lot of those jobs out there. Unless you work for an agency, or a large organization with customers spread across the country or world, there likely isn’t support for a full-time social media strategist. The more likely scenario is a position in marketing and/or communications that incorporates social media. Or, for my friends in higher education, a position in admissions, advising, or student activities that incorporates social media.

I’ve had a daily search running on higheredjobs.com for months, seeking only the keyword “social media.” In all that time, I think I’ve seen 3-5 positions posted that focused solely on social media. More often than not, the positions are in marketing/communication, admissions/recruitment, or teaching. Social media isn’t just something one person does. It’s part of a larger strategy of communication and customer relationship management.

Social media strategy is a job skill, not a career path.

Do you know any email specialists? Billboard-buying managers? Comment card coordinators? Probably not. Each of these communication functions are a part of a position that fulfills a larger objective, such as communication, advertising or customer service.

Professionals and job seekers would be well-served to develop skills in social media use for businesses. However, this should not be done at the expense of developing your core professional expertise. The key is to understand the role social media can play in the job you already have (or want to have). How does it help you connect with customers or prospects? What goals should have related to social media? How does your use of social media integrate with others in your company using the technology? How do you assess your progress towards objectives? If you can answer these questions, you’ve gained a valuable job skill.

Olivier Blanchard (The BrandBuilder) said it well in his blog post about hiring a social media director:

Before you can be a Social Media Director within a Marketing department, you first have to be a Marketing Director. Before you can be a Social Media Director in a PR department, you first have to be a PR Director. Same with HR, Business Development, IT, etc. See where I am going with this? An individual with “extensive” Social Media experience (please forgive my liberal use of the term “extensive”) cannot function at the Director level without prior experience at that level outside of “Social Media.”

So, suffice it to say, I can predict with a fair level of confidence that I will not become a social media director. Don’t get me wrong—it’s definitely one of my dream jobs—but a large portion of college campuses operate with a skeleton crew for marketing and communication. There’s no room (or funding) to add a social media director. Until my dream comes true I plan to be able to add “social media strategy and management” as a bullet under every job title on my resume. If your job includes interacting with people, there’s room for social media. It may not be all that you do, but it’s an integral part.

How are you using social media in your current position? Do you feel this skill makes you a more marketable job candidate?

Look Who’s Not Online

If you poke around this blog, you’ll find that I live a lot of my life online. You ‘re clearly online if you’re reading this (unless someone gave you a printout). I’ve been online since I was 15. I don’t remember much of life without the internet. I read a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that gave me a reality check.

Look at these stats. For a change, I’m just going to post the data and allow you to draw the conclusions. What do they mean for our country? What do they mean for colleges and universities? What to they mean for marketers, who continually shift focus to digital efforts? Read the full report if you’d like more information.

Internet Access

• 80% of US adults use the internet
  • That means over 62 million adults in the US have never used the internet. That’s basically the entire population of California and Texas.

• 65% of adults who have a household income of less than $30,000 per year aren’t online.
  • Money isn’t the driving reason, however. When asked why they’re not online, 31% of offline adults said they’re just not interested, compared to 10% who said it’s too expensive.

• Adults who haven’t finished high school (45%) or have only a high school diploma (73%) are much less likely to use the internet than someone who has attended or graduated college.

Smart Phone Use

• Only 46% of adults own a smartphone.
  • This increases to 66% of the 18-29 age group.

• Adults without a high school diploma (25%) or just a high school degree (39%) are much less likely than college graduates (60%) to have a smart phone.
  • The younger generation skews this data. Among adults age 18-29, 63% of those with a high school diploma or less have smartphones, compared to 70% that have attended or graduated college.

• Among smart phone owners, 25% of White, non-Hispanics access social networking sites on their phone, compared to 39% of Black non-Hispanics and 35% of hispanics.

How To Conduct A Social Media Training That Works

Even though Facebook, Twitter and other platforms aren’t exactly new, there is still a need for social media training in many organizations. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 65% of online U.S. adults use social media. Although that’s a majority, there are plenty more prospective users that have not yet jumped on board.

So, why do some social media trainings fail? Because they’re presented as a how-to session. This is the wrong approach. If someone wanted to use social media, they’d probably figure it out themselves. Let’s face it—setting up a social media account really isn’t that hard. However, I’ve given trainings in the past that have not resulted in increased social media adoption by participants. Upon reflection, I think it’s because I jumped into the nuts and bolts too quickly, failing to pay attention to the emotional and intellectual needs of the audience. Recently, I adjusted my strategy and was pleased with the results.

Here’s how I conduct a training:

• Address misconceptions
• Inspire and evangelize
• Present a successful framework
• Allow for discussion and ideation
• Instruct
• Offer follow-up resources

Address Misconceptions

More than likely, their will be some skeptics in the audience. They may be skeptical because they believe that social media is only for young people, or it’s unprofessional. An easy way to find out what misconceptions exist in the room is to ask. Possible questions include “Why are you not using social media currently?” or simply “Why are you at this session?”

You can address misconceptions by presenting data on social media adoption and telling stories about professional uses. If you can provide stories/testimonials from people similar to those in your audience, it helps them identify with the point of view you’re presenting.

Inspire and Evangelize

This portion includes even more story telling. I like to tell the story of how a disparate group of professionals converged over a two-year time period using social media. The resulting group is my “dream team” – the Thinking Social team. This is also another opportunity to present stories from people similar to your audience, but if you don’t have at least one personal story included you run the risk of simply reciting ideas rather than passionately advocating for the bonds created by social media.

Present a Successful Framework

Translate your inspiring stories to basic concepts your audience can embrace to replicate (as much as possible) the results you described. Basically, you need to tell people how to go from being a social media nobody to someone with a valuable, connected network.

Allow for Discussion and Ideation

By now, things should be going well. But, if you jump straight into instruction mode, you may lose the audience before they buy into the concept being presented.

Get people together in groups to talk about how they can implement the framework presented in their life/office/organization. Bring the small groups together to the big group to further share ideas. This is where people start getting excited. They should be begging you to jump into the final part of the presentation.

Instruction

Now, and only now, are you ready to open up Twitter, Google+, or any other social media platform and give a step-by-step demo of how to create an account and use the interface.

Go slow. If possible, have the audience follow along on their mobile devices to create their own accounts as you go. Be willing to poke around in your own account to show the true functionality of the product.

Offer Follow-Up Resources

Your audience needs to know that they’re not going to be left hanging when you walk out the door. At the very least, provide handouts or links to online resources that they can refer to at a later date.

Even better, show them you care. Offer to connect online (by now, they should all know how to find you) and provide ongoing assistance. In reality, this won’t take up much of your time. However, it will give your audience a sense of security that their effort won’t be wasted if they get stuck.

My Method In Practice

I conducted a workshop today that followed this formula. You can check out the presentation below. SlideShare ruined some of the formatting, but the information is there.

Using Social Media for Professional Development

View more presentations from Liz Gross

How do you conduct a social media training? If you’ve participated in a training, what did you like or not like?

Is Your Free Time Really Free?

I almost had a meltdown this week. I was overwhelmed with tasks, yet had very few meetings on my calendar and was struggling to tell colleagues I was busy. Then, it hit me: meetings ≠ busy.

I took a deep breath, and settled down to translate my tasks into actual work responsibilities. A tried and true method (which I have fallen away from recently) is translating each email – or group of related emails – into a calendar appointment for the approximate time it will take me to complete that task. In Outlook, I’m also able to drag the email into the appointment, and then delete the email from my inbox. I don’t need to look at it again until I open the appointment.

In this specific instance, I scheduled every single minute of my time for the next three days I will be in the office. That’s a little overkill, but I needed to know how long it would take me to dig out of the hole. I made the appointments just as I would a meeting, which means the time became unavailable for others to schedule with me. And you know what? I didn’t feel bad about it. I had legitimate work to do that required adherence to strict deadlines. Failing to allow myself time to complete the work would result in one of two outcomes 1) completing the work late, or 2) cutting far into my personal time to finish work.

At least this week, this technique helped me control my stress. I’m not at inbox zero, but I have a handle on my messages. I also have a constant reminder of my goals for each day without having to create a to-do list. Finally, my colleagues have a realistic idea of my availability.

How do you manage a daunting task list? Do you feel your calendar availability accurately reflects the time you have available for meetings?

South by Southwest: Effective Social Media Presence In Higher Education

On Friday, Deb Maue and I led our core conversation at South by Southwest Interactive. I could tell you a lot about it, but Rob Evans did a phenomenal job with his storify. So here it is:

[View the story "Higher Ed at SXSW Packs the House" on Storify]