Facebook has become a very effective location for promoting and communicating with local, regional and even international audiences.

FACEBOOK ALGORITHMS AND REQUIREMENTS CHANGE CONSTANTLY. THIS INFORMATION WAS ACCURATE AS OF NOVEMBER 2018.

Let’s say you are running a local craft show before Christmas; this would be a great thing to put out onto the internet and Facebook in particular. Your largest target audience would be a large city we will call Thunder Bay which about an hours drive from your craft show. We have set aside $40 to spend on Facebook Sponsored posts.

Screenshot of a nearly boosted post showing spending limit of $20 to run for 7 days and potential reach under current settings.

This is the power of Facebook for your community. With Facebook, you can target just the people you want to in only the areas you want them. Imagine sending out A fishing store sale to only males with 25 miles that enjoy fishing. You may have a few hundred; however, a very high proportion of those will be interested based on their Facebook behavior.

Compare this to traditional print media which targets everyone based on local subscription (Newspaper, TV), Geographical area (Radio, TV) or niche groups (Hobby Magazines). With traditional advertising, you are displaying to everyone with only a low percentage of interest as not everyone would be interested in your event, post or organisation.

An example of a Facebook Audience

First, you can target by geography; All people within 25 Kms of Thunderbay.
(Could be any town or any combination of towns)
Then you can focus on age group; Say people over 40.
Then you target male or female; Say female.

Then through Facebook, you can further sort an audience based on their Facebook activities which Facebook has conveniently grouped into interests and hobbies. Let’s say People who are into crafts, arts and hobbies.

With a few clicks, we have created an audience for women in Thunderbay over 40 who are into crafts and hobbies, a simplified example audience for a craft show. Craft show attendees fit into this audience, and you could expand the audience more with a simple keystroke and even exclude groups based on different behaviors and interests.

Facebook, in real time, will calculate how many potential Facebook users you will reach and will adjust as you change any of the variables. This is the power of Facebook. I know that this particular audience would reach up to 25000 people with a daily reach of 1000 to 3800 and result in 19 to 120 clicks (engagements). These numbers will change day to day as the whole system is dynamic and continuously changing.