In the social media marketing world, change is the only constant thing. When you finally think that you have figured it out, the rules of engagement change. There was a time when you could easily fill up on an organic reach – they were the good old days.

But now with constant up-gradations, it can be tough to stay ahead of the curve. Plus, the popularity of social media has swamped each platform with hoards of photos, videos, and articles, soaring the content supply and decreasing the demand. This has sent marketers on a spinning teacup ride as the number of opportunities that brands can leverage to interact organically with their fans has decimated.

Needless to say, social media marketing has become more of a pay-to-play strategy. And one of the best ways to leverage it is by boosting your posts.

When you boost a post on any social media channel, you pay that channel to amplify one of your existing post’s reach to your target audience or your followers.

Facebook



Having around 2.74 million monthly active users, Facebook is by far the most popular social media channel that is used by a huge chunk of people and businesses alike.

And therefore, it is a daunting task to cut through the noise and reach your target audience. However, not with the Facebook post boost option, which lets you grab eyeballs easily. It’s similar to a regular Facebook post, except, you have to pay a little to promote it to prospects who won’t see your organic posts.

The first thing is to pick an existing post on your Facebook page for boosting. It is best to choose a post that has a high organic engagement as compared to others cause there is the confidence that it will work.

Next, after clicking the post-boost, select the goal that you want it to help you achieve. If you are someone who is just beginning, then you can let Facebook choose the goal that will suit you best. There are different goal options such as automatic(Facebook decides), to get more engagement, website visitors, leads, etc.

Now, you have to choose the audience for your boosted post, you can either choose an audience that already likes your page or create a new one using Facebook targeting options.

The last step is to set the boosted post duration and budget. Select the number of days you would like to boost your post and then choose the amount you are ready to spend on it.

Instagram



With the growing popularity of Instagram and its bank of the younger, more socially engaged audience, it has become one of the main marketing channels for businesses.

That’s why if you have an organic post that’s doing well despite the high competition, it’s time for you to leverage its benefits by using Instagram post boost to get even more likes, followers, and to increase brand awareness. Here’s how you can do that.

First things first, select the post that you want to boost and click the promote button given at the bottom of your posts.

Next, you have to pick a goal, it can be to get more profile visits, drive website traffic, or promote views. Make sure to select an option that best aligns with your specific post.

Now, you have to pick from three targeting options: Local, Automatic, and Manual. Automatic allows Instagram to target people who are similar to your followers, local allows it to target people at a specific location, and Manual allows it to target specific people, places, or interests.

The last thing that you have to do here is the same as on Facebook set your duration and budget. Instagram boost estimates the expected reach and clicks that your posts will attract after the budget and ad duration are set.

There you go – that’s how you boost a post on Facebook and Instagram. Though the manner is similar, the results that you get can be different. Facebook is more suited for your business if you are someone whose audience is more of baby boomers and GenX, while Instagram is perfect if you want to reach Millennials and GenZ. At the end of the day boosting your post is important to cut through the clutter and reach your potential audience.