Facebook Targeting in 7 Simple Steps

Facebook is a prominent resource in advertising your business, with a variety of ways you can target potential customers. Whether it be swapping out images or altering the tone, small changes can have the largest impact on your advertisement.

The development of your target audience will determine the overall effectiveness of the advertisement. Although targeting a certain age group or location may seem like it’s restricting potential clients from seeing your ad, Facebook offers a variety of ways to enhance and personalize the message. Let’s check out 7 approaches to make a lucrative and profitable ad.

1. Financial Capital

Now Facebook has an option to target your audience based on their financial resources. Under the Demographic setting, people can be concentrated based on their overall income or net worth. Age, occupation, number of children, and property information factor in to determine the level of financial capital.

2. Age and Gender

If you are creating an advertisement to market to only local customers, it is possible to designate an age and gender limitation on your audience. In the U.S you can limit your market by zip code as well. For example, your business is in Scottsdale, Arizona and wants to narrow the market to males between the ages of 20 and 30 who live in Downtown and Old Town Scottsdale.

3. Business Field

People can be targeted based on the field they work in or occupation type. In this category, there is an option to market towards the type of office (home office, small office, small business).

4. On the Hunt

Under the Behavior section on ad settings, you can adjust your advertisement to target those in search of your product. For example, if you sell music equipment, you can specify your market to those within the music industry looking for materials.

5. Parents and Kids

Facebook has gone as far to differentiate between parenting lifestyles. Whether they are Moms of High School Kids, Corporate Moms or Moms of Toddlers, this section can target parents by the age of their children to determine the marketing strategies of each complex family type.

6. Culture Gap

Most Millennials aren’t interested in the same businesses as Baby Boomers. Generation gaps can be individually targeted to craft a market for each group.

7. Ethnic Affiliation

This targeting technique is only available in the U.S. Businesses are able to characterize their market to a variety of ethnic communities.

Facebook presents an excellent resource to filter your target audience for the desired needs of the customer. Relationship status, political views, employment and online shopping frequency are all potential setting adjustments used to target your audience. Search through the settings to find what option best suits your style of business advertising.

Five Reasons You’re Not Getting Press Coverage

Press coverage is important to all businesses/companies; both large and small. Trying to get coverage, however, can be a challenge in itself. Being aware of what succeeds and what fails can help tremendously. Here is a list of what NOT to do and an explanation of what to instead.

1. You’re not answering a reporter’s question

It’s important to remember that new people are entering your market niche every day. That being said, do not expect reporters or your target market to know everything about your company. Only answer questions that you are certain about. If you do not have an answer, find it and get back to the reporter or editor.

2. You’re not replying to editorial requests

It’s common courtesy to thank the reporter for thinking about your company. Even if the request is not necessarily up your alley at this time. Be sure to use this opportunity to consider a better fit for commentary in the future.

3. You’re not listening to your Public Relations adviser

With experience comes knowledge. That being said, it is important to listen to your PR consultant when it comes to dealing with reporters and editors. Your consultant will most likely know what they want and know how to meet their needs.

4. You’re responding before considering content

Today’s digital world makes content extremely important. With content being the top priority, taking advantage of it before your competition is key.

5. You’re distributing a boring press announcement

Sometimes it is best to excite your audience rather than educating them right from the start. When introducing the topic of discussion, let your receivers know what the benefits are, how this new device/service is going to help them, etc.

5 Steps To Becoming A Better Writer In 2017

Regardless of the field you work in, writing is a task everyone has to face. Some write more than others, but nobody is excused. How many emails, blogs, social media posts, or presentations do you create on a weekly basis? Today, all writing is meant to educate or advertise.

Here are 5 writing tips that will improve your writing and communication skills in 2017.

1. Edit your first paragraph

Setting the tone, giving context and establishing a structure are some of the most difficult tasks when writing the first paragraph. Going back to the beginning of the draft and continuously editing the first paragraph allows the writer to “warm-up”. Find what fits well and delete what doesn’t, so our readers don’t have to struggle with us.

2. Embrace the reader

When referring to the audience, using pronouns such as “you” or “we” creates a captivating style of writing. Although this technique isn’t always in line with editorial guidelines, you will find it makes your writing direct, short, and more lively (active verbs).

3. Short and sweet

Keep it simple! Keeping jargon out of your writing will help readers who may not know as much about your field, understand. You can reduce this by reading your writing from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about the topic, and inspecting it for confusing ideas or misunderstood terminology.

4. Control the exaggerations

We often like to illustrate and exaggerate our writing with words like “very”, “incredibly”, “most”, or “often”. Too many overstatements can minimize the effect of your message. Replacing these hyperboles with precise and sincere statements allows for the message to be clear and available to the reader.

5. Headlines and subject lines are key

Article headlines and email subjects are crucial components of writing. If your title is expressive, memorable, short and literal, more people are likely to open and read your piece. Although it is easier said than done, there are tools available to analyze the quality of headlines. Practice and analysis will help determine what titles work best.

Writing is a skill that can always be improved. Committing to becoming a confident communicator begins with impactful writing. In 2017, having an established plan to communicate ideas provides the basis for powerful business writing.

SDSU Senior Joins H&A for Spring Internship

Michele Chapman, a senior at San Diego State University, has joined H&A as an intern account coordinator.

Graduating from SDSU in May with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology, Michele will assist clients with writing and editing press releases and media advisories, client research, and special event planning.

Meet Sam, H&A’s Newest Intern!

San Diego native, Sam Donk has joined Heying & Associates for a spring internship as an intern account coordinator.

Sam will graduate from San Diego State in May with a double major in Communication and Spanish. At H&A, he will serve as an account assistant for several of the firm’s public relations and marketing clients including various regional law firms and educational clients.

New Year, New Book of Lists

Happy New Year! H&A is starting 2017 on a good note – we are featured in the San Diego Business Journal Book of Lists 2017. We are ranked #15 on the Public Relations Agencies list. H&A is also noted as one of 13 agencies listed with a female principal. If you would like to download a copy, click here (you can find us on page 25).

We can’t wait to see what else 2017 has in store for us and our clients!

Taking Adult Education to the Highest Level

Marcela Gomez is a student who benefited from adult education and stayed with it all of the way from intermediate English as a Second Language (ESL) classes through earning her Master’s Degree at California State University San Marcos. She then circled back to help students who have the same challenges she had at a Palomar College – where her journey began.

To read more about Marcela’s awe-inspiring story, click here.

Writing Tips to Spice Up Bland Topics

The PR world is often fast-paced and full of excitement. But sometimes you get stuck with a not-so-exciting topic to write about or present on. While the task of turning something that may seem dry or uninteresting into something that people would care about may seem daunting, there are several ways you can spice it up for your audience – visuals, industry experts, and intriguing data.

To learn more about transforming a boring topic into a compelling piece of work, click here.

Garfield High School’s 19th Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon

This afternoon, our office attended Garfield High School’s 19^th Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon at the Prado. The students from Garfield High School’s Culinary and Hospitality program along with chefs from The Prado and Cohn Restaurant Group put together an incredible buffet-style Thanksgiving spread for nearly 400 people.  The menu consisted of fresh salads, garlic mashed potatoes, chorizo stuffing, roasted turkey and too many desserts to fit on your plate.

To accompany the delicious food, Garfield High students shared inspirational stories about how they persevered through hard times and how the teachers and counselors at Garfield brought hope and encouragement back into their lives. Garfield High School is a continuation school where at-risk youth are provided with comprehensive services through the use of exemplary instructional strategies, flexible scheduling, and guidance and counseling services.

We have been proudly supporting and attending the Garfield Luncheon since its inception and invite people to learn more about the school by clicking here.

We hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Press Release Ideas for Any Industry

More often than not, creating a topic for a press release is easy – your client just won an award or is hosting an event. But sometimes writer’s block creeps in and finding something to write about is difficult. You want to get press for your client, but don’t want to waste anyone’s time with fluff.

So what are some good ideas for any industry? Click here to learn more.