Facebook the review... Read on

[drfrightner]

Let me give you facts...

1) Of all the tickets I sold online LESS THAN 1% came from Facebook.

2) Facebook sent my ticketing link ONLY 519 clicks

3) Between social media managers, marketing we probably spent 20k on this aspect of marketing. Return on investment is so low we actually paid 4 times more to facebook than we sold as a direct result.

4) The only thing that is difficult to judge is that you can’t say how many people made a purchase decision based on talking about your haunt on facebook, or visiting your page and later attending. But if you we talking straight numbers Twitter and Facebook don’t equate into dollars into your pocket.

5) Facebook sent my haunted house website about 4500 clicks in comparison Hauntworld sent me about 15,000. When you consider the amount of money you pour into facebook and the traffic the site gets you would expect the opposite.

Bottom line is facebook is NOT worth growing you page, investing lots of money into it if any money actually. Facebook is actually in my opinion become a place where some people feel they must contact you and expect interaction from you. In other words again your investment into facebook should really be nothing more than hiring someone to manage that interaction, keep your page updated with content but spending money to grow the page is really more of an ego thing which is the heart and soul of facebook business. Idiots pouring money into growing likes to so they can tell another business we are more popular than YOU! Business owners ego’s driving Facebook business model not using facts, stats, and reasonable business sense.

Larry

[haunter1313]

Interesting read. We didn't invest much into facebook so don't really know how to judge it. Thanks for the information.

[poison]

Facebook pay to play

I have read and watched videos in great detail on how paying to promote on facebook is an absolute a waste money.
If you don't have 100% organic page likes you will not get anything from it.
My page went from 719 page likes to over 67,000 page likes in 2 1/2 months based on a Chair Screamer video I posted that went viral.
How many sales did I get from that about 20 orders 14 were Chair Screamers. It drove so much traffic to my website it created a page 1 ranking with google.
My ranking before was page on 9 for keyword searches. So facebook has helped generate business but again it was all organic. Paying doesn't work it's 100% ripoff BULLSHIT!!!

[wickedfarmer]

Hi; I'm A facebook addict......

but i have never paid for an ad on facebook. But I will this year just because my friend Adam from Poison Props said it is a waste. Hey; I'll give it a shot during prime time if it is local. But generally speaking...I think he nailed it. Well what was left to nail after original posting sliced, diced, burnt facebook at the stake, and spread the ashes mixed with cow manure.

Wicked farmer

P.S. And in no way do I suggest original posting was BS when i said it was mixed with cow manure.

[Jim Warfield]

The NEXT, Newest,Biggest THING!

Will be.... ?
Advertising on the Oui-ja board network, unplugged, (Never was plugged-in) "Sam", the savy Spirit guide, will handle your skittering little pointing indicator's requests for MORE PEople knowing about your business.
Using his unique supernatural smarts he will be messaging everyone within a 300 mile radius over their Oui-ja boards, even if it's buried 10 feet deep in the back of your largest closet, it will begin humming ,then screaming to be heard!
A voice will fill the room sounding just like one of their deceased relatives telling them about the King's Treasure hidden in your haunt, but you must be there seeking it between posted business hours only ,, or else a long, slow, terrifically painful. torturous death will follow.
(Of course some will show up just for that, Long, Slow, Terrifiically torturous death-thing, you know they will! )
(Some of the same people on all those" Talent-less" Shows or who appear before "Judge Judy.)

Looking for a guaranteed "spotlight " before the local or national (or World?) media? Understand when your story "breaks" it may only be a big story for a very short time. You might be compeating with stories that will trully enthrall, capture the hearts and minds or fears of a great number of people.
You may be up against very cute puppies or very cute Puppies being tortured? Or the now popular again.. beheadings!
You may have to invent your own rival quasi-religious stories to maintain everyone's intrest!
Will YOU be able to cure the terminally ill when the camera points at you? Suck it up! Go for it!
That "Cure" had better be complete and pretty fast.. or you are .. nowhere. Schlock-meister!

[drfrightner]

I think one of the biggest things we see now with Facebook is they want to squeeze and squeeze on you to limit how many people can actually be exposed to your business. They want you to pay because you are the only way they make money... I think and I honestly believe Facebook will be the new myspace SOON!

Don't put a lot of marbles into facebook it just doesn't work the way you think it does.

Larry

[Jim Warfield]

On FaCEBOOK IT SEEMS ...

Drops "Followers" for your page. Maybe their capacity is limited, UNTIL you fork over some cash!
Not that forking over cash actually helps , since they control the number of people who will actually be able to see anything from you.
I do try to be at laest somewhat "Entertaining" on Ravens Grin 's facebook site and that does "seem" to drag-along more likes and followers when I put some creative,storytelling efforts into what I am typing.
For me the term "Storyteling" does not mean lies, just being creative with the way you tell something so as to possobly peak someone's intrest....

[UnDeRTaKer313]

Larry, first i'll say Hauntworld did great for us this year and was worth the investment and we will be buying our banners and stuff again next year.

Second, I no longer accept clients or work with haunts on internet marketing so I have no bias in what i'm saying.

Over the summer we ran an off season event and we sold that event out in 1 week only advertising on facebook, sold over $75,000 in tickets in 1 week with 1 facebook video that we targeted and set up correctly.

During our season we drove over 25,000 unique people to our website in my local area with Facebook ads. Next to word of mouth it was the biggest reason people said they heard about us when we polled them at our door.
Our attendance this season sky rocketed and it was thanks to all of our online marketing but Facebook played a huge role.

I see what everyone is doing with facebook ads and I have yet to see a single haunted house doing it correctly.

Larry there is no need to spend $20K on marketing your local event. I was able to get my CPC down to 3 cents and 4 cents by just using the right approach.

Like i said, I have nothing to gain from this, just sharing that when Facebook is done properly it can work. Just gotta think outside the box, because there is not a single haunt doing it right.

[Jim Warfield]

Well "Fear Experience!"

Your short video on your web site sure looks very good! Teasingly short,quick "takes" just as it should be (in my opinoin) Sound defects very good too.
I liked the "Jerry Lee Lewis" Piano too! That was a great ball of FIRE! Ha Ha!

[UnDeRTaKer313]

Thank you Jim, just wait till next year. Believe it or not we shot that entire commercial in an hour and a half with about 3 hours of prep before film crew showed up. The video editing and audio production took a while longer. Long story short we built a wonderful relationship with a film company and i'm very excited for what the future is going to bring with that when we actually have the proper time to plan out and shoot video lol

[PanicHollow]

IMHO, if you're not getting anything from Facebook, you're doing it wrong.

Facebook is one of the best marketing tools available today. Many people think they can figure it out themselves. The majority can't. Like any marketing avenue, you need someone who does marketing to know how to design and execute your Facebook campaign.
Marketing is a specialty with tried and true methods and a requirement of how marketing works. Social media marketing is even more specialized. If you aren't getting results, hire someone that will.

[Jim Warfield]

"Marketing?" Buy "Fresh!" Spend those "Greens!"

26 yrs. ago a young woman had just graduated from College majoring in "Marketing". She offered to promotre my house.
"Sure, OK."
Later she was rather depressed when she found out after she had written numerous glowing letters to every media company, every High School Student Council , covering a huge metro area, all radio and TV stations... I got no response at all from all of this.
Yes, this was a long time ago, but she supposidly she was taught something in College concerning Public Relations and how to reach the un-washed masses? Wrong. theories don't always hold up to actual consumer's real spending desires and time and distance limiting factors.
Facebook would like for us to purchase advertising . We are in the middle of a huge cornfield, 120 miles from Chicago.
Most promotions I and "We" have ever tried only "Work" ever so slightly , not well enough to justfy spending even just a few hundred dollars doing it.
I love working to give every customer a really unique experience here, and reputation sells Ravens Grin among most people and groups of people who have ever been here.
Give them something to talk about, remember, and that is what happens,along with priceless free advertising from this happening.
Facebook might work for others. If you feel like a gambler, go for it, just don't sell your kid's playpen to do it.

[TheDarkestHour]

Yeah, Facebook has made some major changes in the way you can reach your customers via posts on pages. Which is frustrating, since you spent lots of time and effort, and sometimes money, to get people to like your page. Now, they want you to spend more money, to reach the people you've ALREADY paid or worked to reach. Organic reach is pathetic these days, unless you are AMAZEBALLS at choosing effective content that makes lots of people interact with each post via comment, likes, and shares. It's a scam, only in that it's no longer free to reach your existing audience. But, like some have said, if done correctly, it can work.

However, I work for Adobe in the Digital Marketing business unit, and Adobe Social is struggling right now. We have extremely high churn (attrition, or termination) on our social product. Social advertising isn't really what it used to be. Some companies have said only 1% of their business comes from social advertising, and they have full visibility to where people came from because of our other analytics products.

It will be really interesting to see how the whole social phenomenon changes in the coming years, because it won't stay the same, it's just a matter of time before the "new hotness" hits the market, and throws a wrench in the spokes of everything we have come to know.

[Jim Warfield]

Yes Tanner!

Ain't all this new-fangled modern stuff all the time, just the chittz!?
28 Years ago when i was buying my Haunt , the East coast Newspapers were already croaking, bankrupt, sold cheap to the next guy who then went under a short while later.. cable TV had come around all those channels and nobody knew who was watching what, when" where does the AD go?
So it goes and probably always will, terminating with brain-implants when you are born to receive mass communication.
A few people living in the Nursing homes still read newspapers if they can, they aren't spending much money anyplace except on the bed and housekeeping...

[Grey Lady]

location, location, location

I think it really depends on where you are geographically. I am in a very rural area, the largest city, Omaha, is 3 hours away.
Newspapers still work here, facebook worked, though I didn't buy ads. I did bust my butt every night after working on my haunt all day trying to post things people were interested in.
Another reason facebook worked for me is I had 3 teenagers helping me all year, they shared and their friends shared etc. I actively encouraged my actors to share every post, every day.
All of these things come and go, we just have to stay up to date with what will work in our individual areas.
Jan