Using Facebook to disconnect: dark posts and the next small thing.

No one likes to be spammed; I know I don’t. Since email became an everyday tool it’s been used for communication, marketing and those friendly Nigerian princes looking to transfer vast sums of money to your bank account. So thank God for spam filters, otherwise that relentless stream of adverts and junk mail that my inbox has coped with over the years would have finally driven me to smash my computer and head to a cave in the hills.

However, as bad as email splurge marketing and e-greeting cards from a company I used ten years ago have become, something worthwhile has found its way through the jungle. In short, it has shaped the way we view online marketing; how we deal with it, consume and discard it, every day. We live in the information age, and knowledge is king, no getting away from that, but what information do we really need or want? And how can you as a business control that flow? How can you use the flow of information without ending up in the spam folder or irrelevant list on social media and sharing space with a MySpace invite from 2002?

Let’s focus on Facebook; because, well it’s the biggest, baddest, continually evolving, marketing machine on planet internet, with many built in features that can used to target an audience. They do this in a variety of ways; some successfully, some not so much (but that’s the point isn’t it?). Which side will you be on?

In the past page managers would roll out content across their followers and test its response rate by seeing how the post interacted across other forums on the site. Sound familiar? Well it should, because there is no difference between that and the deluge of spam email marketing inhabiting your inbox. And as I’ve mentioned – nobody likes to be spammed. This ‘spamming’ will eventually lead to a loss of certain subscribers as they become more and more disconnected from the original reason they liked your page and sour them to connecting with your content in the future. No followers – no exposure – no business; simple!

So what’s the solution? And what tools are available to you now?

Facebook wants you to use it to advertise. If they didn’t they wouldn’t make any money and they would soon cease to exist. The most recent and possibly underused of the tools they give you is ‘dark posting’ or ‘unpublished posts’. This type of posting gives page manager total control over who sees which message. For the first time, you can create posts for the sole purpose of promotion. And whatever you share never has to show up on your page. This means that it is now possible to specifically target diverse groups, with different language, in different social, economic, age and gender groups; whilst keeping the original voice of your brand.

So why don’t more people know about this?

Simply, because you don’t have a team of social media managers working day in day out to find patches, tweaks, backdoors and dancing pandas to use every corner of code to promote you and your business. But don’t despair with a little research you too can utilise these tools and make them work for you.

Now for a serious, instructional paragraph – I know what you’re thinking – but keep reading, I promise it’ll take less than twenty seconds and be infinitely beneficial – trust me!

To create a dark post, log into Power Editor, add your message, photo, or link as normal. Until you select “Publish Post,” the post will remain unpublished, but is still available for promotion. You can use unpublished posts to find the optimal post content without committing all your ad spend to one message.

There – easy. Using this method means you’ll never have to blanket your subscribers or potential subscribers with irrelevant information. They’ll be happy – you’ll be happy. But be warned, there is a real possibility of getting carried away and losing the voice your brand and your page started out with. Restraint is the key to success with dark posting, but used correctly and sparingly it could be an invaluable tool for promotion and communication; until Facebook introduces the next small thing of course.