As I’ve previously stated on the blog, I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook advertisements. There are a number of ways to get new readers and followers on the site. Plus, while the targeting is okay, there are gaps in what people put on Facebook and what they actually search for on a regular basis. These gaps make it difficult to know if you’re truly targeting the right audience.

But with all that said, I’m really starting to see the benefits of Facebook Promote. And the reason is simple: Content development is king with this new media ad feature.

If you haven’t heard of one of the newer ad options on Facebook, Promote allows you to feature a post that you placed on your page. It can be anything from a sale that you’re offering to a link to a byline you just penned for the Wall Street Journal. Whatever you want to promote, add it to your company Facebook timeline. Then you click the promote button to add a budget. They can range from $5.00 on up, but that’s the cost to assure a much larger percentage of your fans see the post. Not only that, but Facebook just added a new feature, so you can assure that more friends of fans who interact with the post also see the update, which will greatly increase the number of eyeballs on the link.

It’s a simple process to launch promote, and it can assure your great content has readers.

Now, you might be wondering ‘why would I pay to promote content to fans that I already have?’ And it’s a valid point. But if you think about it, there’s nothing unusual about marketing to your already current fan base. Companies do this all the time with targeted email campaigns, promotions and special deals for current customers. It’s all about assuring that you don’t lose the current customer by providing value to them. And one way you can show this value is by assuring they see your updates on Facebook as well.

And it’s not like other Facebook advertising because it’s not pay-per-click. Instead you pay about $5, and between 20 and 2200 fans will see the post. It’s certainly worth a test drive.

But what I really like about the Facebook Promote is that you have the opportunity to show off your content. If you’re running a Facebook page correctly, then you likely share tons of different fun, easily-digestible posts. These probably range from deals, blog posts, third-party news, great photos and exciting updates from the company. If you have this great mix of material that would help someone who went through the process of clicking like for your company page, this can help assure that more fans see that content.

Remember, people have tons of options when they’re reading their Facebook timeline. They likely have well over 350 friends, combined with the fact that they also like a number of other company and promotional pages, so you can see how they might miss your latest post. Now you can make sure they don’t.