How a Chamber of Commerce Chapter dramatically increased engagement with its Facebook page

Overview

The Fauquier Chamber of Commerce wanted to raise awareness of its value by elevating that same awareness of the Fauquier small business community, using its Facebook page.

Since there wasn’t any formal digital strategy in place, the initial page followers were obtained organically and so numbers were low. The goal was to establish a comms plan with frequency and cadence with content built to target a specific audience to include business owners and consumers who weren’t page followers. 

 

Approach

The first steps involved using analytics to obtain a clear and definitive understanding of the demographics of who was following the Chamber.

Once the audience was determined, Rappahannock Digital used both paid boosts and targeted shares to get posts in front of business owners in Fauquier and adjacent counties. They also added a Facebook pixel to the Chamber website to help understand advertising response and overhauled the site’s SEO keywords.

 

Results

  • First-month paid reach: Facebook page reach was up 135% over the previous month on the back of a <$100 media spend. The ad saw a total reach of over 8,000 with 129 clicks. Rappahannock Digital had set the campaign to reach people on Fauquier County with business-relevant interests. Using data from the Facebook pixel, they anticipate the conversion (click-through) to improve over time

  • Second-month organic sharing: Facebook page reach was up 315% over the previous month (at 7229 views)

 

Conclusion

  • Discovery is critical in the formation of an effective and measurable strategy

  • Sharing by knowledgeable local social media managers can make awareness skyrocket quickly and cost-effectively

  • Facebook ads, properly set up for geography, demographics and duration can also boost awareness

  • Fully optimizing your website and Facebook page to “talk to each other” sets up advertising for better long-term performance

  • SEO needs regular assessment and updating to deliver the best possible organic search results

Diagnosing and turning around traffic drop for a local news site

About a year ago, The MadRapp Recorder started to see a noticeable decline in page users. Google Analytics reported traffic dropping from a high of almost 25,000 users per month to around 9,000 per month in August 2022.

In reviewing the business’ social media presence, we discovered that Meta had made significant changes to what types of content was appearing in users’ feeds. (And it turned out MANY local news outlets were experiencing the same problem.)

We pursued a three-pronged strategy.

  1. Manually sharing stories into local FaceBook groups we knew had interest in local news stories

  2. Researching the new Meta algorithm and aligning The MadRapp Recorder with the Meta Business Manager and verifying the business with Meta

  3. Diversifying The MadRapp’s digital presence onto Twitter and Instagram

The strategy paid off.

In the short term, our manual sharing immediately began to raise traffic to The MadRapp. We also built a strong relationship with and understanding of Meta that lasts to this day. Our Twitter presence also paid off long-term, putting The MadRapp into position to have a story go viral in early 2023—seeing over 6000 viewers in a single day. Today, The MadRapp is in a stronger social position than ever. Now aligned to the Meta framework for news sites, the MadRapp and the Greene Journal are showing up regularly in the new Facebook feed. Both sites have a growing Twitter following. And both sites continue to thrive.