This is the first of a series of posts I will be doing throughout the week on Social Commerce Days and CuseCon, PRSSA’s northeastern regional conference hosted right in Newhouse this past weekend. The theme of the weekend is social commerce, and the line-up of speakers and activities is sure to make for a great time.

Social Commerce Days kicked off bright and early Thursday morning with a social media breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Recent Newhouse grad Jared Kraham and W2O‘s social commerce director Michael Westgate talked about the importance of social media marketing in the business world.

Jared started the morning off preaching to Facebook advertising.

“Organic reach is dead.” Facebook’s new algorithm controls what shows up on your newsfeed based on which accounts you have the most interaction with, making paid promotion a must.

However, simply promoting a post is not the way to go. Both Jared and Michael spoke to the importance of targeting in your advertising campaign. Michael’s “Know Thy Customer” presentation touched on “mo data, mo problems” with narrowing down your information to know exactly how to use it in your campaign.

But Facebook is here to help. To purchase an advertisement it brings you through step-by-step to design your campaign, select you demographics, and set your budget. “And it doesn’t have to be expensive,” Jared says, “a $50-$100 campaign can go a long way if targeted right.”