This is the Transcript of the #WeddingMarket Chat on July 30, 2015 with Jesse Stay, “The Social Geek”. The answers were made on Twitter so responses will appear different.

Jesse Stay, “The Social Geek”, studies and learns about new business-altering paradigm shifts in technology, and shows businesses how to embrace these paradigm shifts before their competition does. He has written 6 books, helped design some of the top apps on Facebook through his specialty of “social design” and “growth hacking”, and has consulted and worked for multi-national organizations and companies including Facebook, Inc. itself to help them improve their marketing, particularly mobile performance marketing, and social media strategies.

Jesse has grown Facebook Pages in the millions for multiple organizations and individuals using a few simple techniques in Facebook marketing and ad strategy. Like for instance made sure their facebook cover photo size was correctly formatted. He has tripled traffic on websites through Google+ authorship and integration strategy, and performed similar for other clients using his special “hub and spoke” technique of social presence strategy. In his books, blogs, webinars, and coaching, Jesse teaches his audiences that anyone can be a marketer. He has since been recognized as one of the top 20 developers to follow on Twitter by Mashable next to Jack Dorsey, and top 10 entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter by Mashable and Entrepreneur magazine next to Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Guy Kawasaki.

For more information about Jesse Stay, please visit www.staynalive.com

Q1: What was it like to work with Facebook, Inc.?

Answer

Jesse Stay: I was a contractor for Facebook briefly, asked to help with writing some of their developer documentation. It taught me a lot about how Facebook thinks – they truly understand social and think differently than most organizations. I learned about “social design” and designing apps so people and relationships are at the focus.

Q2: What do you see are the most common problems with Facebook pages?

Answer

Jesse Stay: First, most Facebook Page admins don’t understand their audience – know your audience! Second, Facebook Page content should always have a call-to-action. People generally do what you ask them. If you want them to like, ask them to like. If you want them to share, ask. For comments, give them something to comment with. Don’t make them think. Make it easy to respond.

@sytinvitations How do we go about doing that?

Jesse Stay: Hard to describe in 140 chars, but use Facebook Insights and Graph Search to learn about those in your audience. Queries like “Pages liked by people who like X” will give you a lot of data about your audience.

Q3: Is it good to schedule posts for Facebook with Hootsuite or other programs?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Hootsuite is good 4 general scheduling. If your going to tag other pages or share posts, Native Facebook is best. Tagging other pages (type @ and the page name) puts your posts in front of that page’s audience. Tagging is one of the best organic ways to gain related followers.

@BridalBalance So the @ works in FB the same way it does in Twitter?
Jesse Stay: yes – @ works the same (sort of) 🙂

Q4 How can a wedding pro make their Facebook pages effective with the current and upcoming changes?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Find things to get your audience talking. Engaging posts, images, giveaways all do well. Engagement is king.

Q5: Is having a huge following the only way to have an effective Facebook page without paying?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Most important is having a saturated audience full of people that are interested in your message. Size doesn’t matter. Personally, I like using ads (for cheap) to build that audience first. When I first started out in the digital marketing world, I didn’t know much about ads and social media. However, once I searched for questions like ‘is Billy Gene a real legit online marketer‘, I began to learn quickly. I’ve done lots of online courses to try and educate myself and I have a sound knowledge of marketing now!

Q6: Will Facebook pages be changing so that nothing goes through the feed without payment?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Absolutely not. There will always be organic ways to grow a Facebook Page. It’s just slower than using ads.

Q7: How can wedding pros use their brides email addresses to connect with their Facebook pages?

Answer

Jesse Stay: ooh that’s a fun one 🙂 First, you can type their email into the search bar and their FB profiles will show up. ooh that’s a fun one 🙂 First, you can type their email into the search bar and their FB profiles will show up. Use search to connect with them, invite to like Page. Second, create custom audiences in FB ads.
You can upload a csv list to FB ads with brides email addresses and target ads to them.

Q8: What is the best way to post an event on Facebook (individual, group or FB page)?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Create a Facebook Event using your Facebook Page. Invite fans. You can advertise it too. Then, for those that RSVP, ENGAGE! RSVPers of the Facebook event get email notifications for most updates.

@TapSnapShare Love that you can advertise too 😉

Jesse Stay: You can actually optimize for RSVPs on a Facebook event, so you’re only paying for those that RSVP to the event.

Q9: When might it be good to embed Facebook content onto your Website?

Answer

Jesse Stay: When you want to increase engagement using your web audience. Inserting into blog posts works well for this.

Q10: What would you like everyone to take away from this #weddingmarket chat?

Answer

Jesse Stay: As I tell my students, always ask yourself, “what can I do to make people feel they just HAVE to like/share/comment on this post?”

#WeddingMarket Questions From Twitter:

@SoundViewLi What advice do you have concerning getting connected with your target market on Facebook?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Facebook ads are the best way to get connected with your target audience. Just $1 a day is usually sufficient.

@TapSnapShare How can you fully understand your audience with Facebook Insights?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Click on “People” in Insights and it will tell you gender, location of audience. Also, inside Facebook ads manager you can click “audience insights” and get even more info about your audience.

@EventPassion I’ve asked this in a previous chat but what’s the best way to get new clients?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Use ads targeting either a look alike audience for your customers or similar interests. Offer something free.

@DownTheAisleCT Is there a percentage or suggestion on how many Facebook posts should be tips vs. “click here” to one’s website?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Measure – not always same, but I like 80% engagement focus and 20% clicks/conversion focus.

@DreamyWeddingSK What time of the day is the most ideal time to post to Facebook?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Use your Page Insights to find best time – they will tell you the times your audience is most online.

@CloudWeddings My Facebook page is aimed at biz to biz which is wedding venues and brides therefore are my messages too confusing?

Answer

Jesse Stay: For B2B, use a lead-gen strategy. Ads to get free book, etc. Get email, send email to close the deal.

@eventsolutionsf What’s the best way to target Local Areas?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Use Facebook geo-targeted ads. You can target ads by location and narrow by interest. Very effective. You can also target posts by location for free – that can be more engaging than generic.

@DreamyweddingSK Do you think that your Facebook page should be linked to other social media pages eg twitter?

Answer

Jesse Stay: IMO keep them separate. Hard to fit a full Facebook post in 140 characters. People engage differently on each.

@BridalBalance Where on the Insights page does it give times for your audience?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Click on “Posts” to find out when your audience is online. You should explore Insights – lots of info there.

@DownTheAisleCT Is there anything we should be worried abt in terms of being responsive–mobile/tablet vs. PC/desktop when posting?

Answer

Jesse Stay: You can narrow posts by device type. Test to see if certain types of post do better on different devices.

@SupremeLev Have you tried boosted posts? They’re not that expensive and they do help reach your audience?

Answer

Jesse Stay: Boosted posts work, but I think they’re a waste of money. I can get engagement organically.

@DreamyWeddingSK How many times per week should you realistically have an engaging or promotional post on Facebook?

Answer

Jesse Stay: That’s something you really have to test. I post every day if I can, but different types of content.

@Caseyfphoto A follow up to that question though would be how to get people to actually SEE your Facebook content?

Jesse Stay: To get people to see content, 1. You need to get engagement. 2. Your content needs to be relevant to your audience and 3. Your content needs to be timely. Engagement is the most important of the 3 though. I never use ads 2 get visibility. I use ads 4 clicks, conversions, or likes. Visibility can happen organically.

@TapSnapShare Test the timing. Test off-peak hours so you have less competition for your content to be viewed.

@Caseyfphoto Thanks but I think we missed the point of my question. How can I try to get more of my existing fans to see content?

Jesse Stay: I think I’ve answered that in other posts. Engagement is King. Get them to engage, keep it relevant.

@Caseyfphoto Because if they aren’t seeing it, they can’t like it or share it.

Jesse Stay: If your content is relevant to your audience and something that makes them say “I have to comment”, they’ll see it. 140 chars isn’t enough space to go in detail, but I see >100% reach on many posts for varying clients.

@Caseyfphoto I don’t use ads for visibility either. When ads for clicks first came out, I got a great response. Now, not so much.

Jesse Stay: I prefer conversion-focused ads to click ads. Retargeting through Facebook native website ads can be effective.