To Ad or Not to Ad? - That is the Question for Integrative Waves

Integrative Waves is out on the Social Media scene, displaying our content and continuing to chat. Enjoying ourselves a lot! However, there is coming a time when exposure and promotion plans will turn to the thought of paid promotion on the social media sites. This is a bit scary as one wrong move and the very people who you have attracted with interesting content could 'unlike' you and move on.

So should it be considered at all? And if so, how can Integrative Waves achieve a successful campaign? Especially as a start-up with a moderate amount of funds. 

Advertising has to be done subtly on social media sites. There has to be a lot of thought put into the design of the campaign - the goal of the advertising, the available budget, the ad design, and which social media sites to use.

As I was trying to figure out how to do an ad,  I found an interesting article regarding Facebook ads and how the users are finding the ads annoying. Hmmm...
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519716/facebook-admits-its-ads-are-too-annoying/

If Integrative Waves considers Facebook ads, at first it will be to increase the exposure of the Page. When I designed the ad, it was to increase the 'Likes' for Integrative Waves' page. The potential market included women 35 - 70, living in San Diego, with  interests including aromatherapy, facials, manual lymphatic drainage, wine tasting, and alternative medicine. The budget was $10 a day on CPM (impresssions) for about 2 weeks.The timing would be 'immediately' so I could test it out and see what results were obtained before continuing on. I could not determine exactly how much exposure $10/day would get me - Facebook is rather obscure regarding this - however 2 weeks suited the budget.

Apart from Facebook ad Likes, the other options for Facebook ads are Standard Ads, Page Post ads, Sponsored Stories, and Promoted Posts.

I had difficulty doing this - the 'Ads Manager' button did  not show up on my page, just when I was in my personal page.I  must be a Facebook dunce because when I tried to get a preview of my ad, Facebook wanted me to pay first. Sorry Facebook - not happening! So, apologies, I took a screen shot of my order and what the ad would hopefully look like.

This ad shows my logo which reinforces my brand - and a short sentence "Integrative Waves - a wellness practice where health meets fun, caring and knowledge."

When I tried to do anything else, nothing would show a preview, except like this, without paying.

Paid social media advertising works for many businesses. At this time, however, the universe could be telling Integrative Waves to wait a little longer.....