One of the biggest social networking sites is Facebook. Facebook can be used for a variety of things, especially marketing and promotional activities which is why business owners should not ignore it.
Below is a list of 7 reasons as to why Facebook marketing is a brilliant form of marketing for business owners.
1. Facebook is massive
Facebook is undeniably massive! Facebook has a data system which processes around 2.5 billion pieces of content and 500+ terabytes of data each day. It is estimated that it is pulling in 2.7 billion ‘Like’ actions and also 300 million photos are being uploaded per day. 1.2 billion people are now using Facebook and that figure is still growing! 250 million people log in to Facebook each day and it is estimated that each user has an average of 130 friends.
Furthermore 250 million users have the Facebook app on their phone making it very easy to access which may be part of the reason that 700 million minutes are spent using Facebook. To put it into perspective, if Facebook was a country it would be the third biggest country in the world. Regarding Facebook’s use of advertising, is it estimated that there are around 1 million active advertisers using the site and that there are 2 billion connections between local businesses and people. Also, in an average week a local business page that is set up gets around 645 million views and roughly 13 million comments.
2. Facebook is free
Facebook is also free and who doesn’t love free things? Other than being free, Facebook is also very easy to promote on, you can write a status about new products that you have got in store or if you have set up a new Fan page you can write a status update about it, updating your fans that you have another page which they could be interested in, and making your profile grow. Depending on what type of business you are you can also create an event, this is a great way for your fans to interlink with their friends. By creating an event you can invite your fans and allow them to invite their friends building a bigger social platform for yourself.
3. Your customers are on Facebook
Another great reason to do your marketing through Facebook is that it is where your customers are! Facebook is available in 70 different languages, meaning that you can communicate with almost anyone in the world. Considering the amount of people that use Facebook day in and day out, the status updates that you make will be seen! Also if your business is on Facebook it is said to have a bigger impact on your customers purchasing behaviour. Another reason to promote your business through Facebook is that around 33% of potential customers are more likely to think that you are a credible company. If you have a Facebook page already set up, make sure that you update it regularly. It is important to update your page regularly because it is estimated that 82% of buyers say they trust a company more when it is active on a social media site.
4. Facebook Advertising Campaigns
Setting up a campaign through Facebook is also a great way to monitor your page. When setting up a Facebook campaign you are taken through a number of steps to reach your overall target. For example Facebook will ask you what kind of goal you want to achieve such as reaching more people, brand awareness or others and the ads within the campaign will help you reach your target. Depending on what type of industry you are in, for example if you sell women’s clothing, you can target specifically women. There is also a setting to targets people by age, so if you are a modelling agency trying promote through Facebook wanting women aged 18-36 you can create those settings. Saving you time and money as the enquires that you get will be what you are looking for.
5. Facebook Graph Search
Facebook Graph Search is a fantastic new aspect of Facebook. It allows you to search for more than you’ve been able to find before. It allows you to use simple phrases and sentences to search for people in specific places or things that may match specific characteristics. These search results are very valuable for a business as you can explore connections between people’s interests. For example if you are an antique business you can search for people who are interested in antiques and invite them to your page or events that you may be holding and so you will be targeting people that you know will be interested in your business, potentially saving you a lot of time.
6. Interaction through Facebook
Using Facebook as a way to market you business gives you a brilliant opportunity to interact with your fans and to build relationships. To do this effectively you should involve your fans in projects that you are doing in the workplace. For example if you are holding a charity event where you have to have the craziest hairstyles, why not post it on Facebook and ask your fans to post their craziest hairstyles? Another example could be, if you own a coffee shop and create coffee art why not ask people over Facebook to post their coffee art creations in? From this you could then make a status about whose was the best creation.
Another reason why Facebook is so great is that it gives you the chance to directly message people. If one of your customers has just bought a product off your company you can directly message them to ask how they are getting on with the product. The whole point of being on a social media networking site is to be social, especially with your fans!
7. Providing customer service through Facebook
If you want to provide excellent customer service you can do this through Facebook by being responsive, responsiveness is particularly important when problems and issues arise and your fans point them out. Responsiveness will help strengthen your relationship with fans and it is essential to your overall strategy.
Do not be thrown off by negativity! You can use negative feedback in a positive to way to admit your mistake and apologise to whoever has been affected. By taking responsibility for whatever you may have done you are showing maturity and a willingness to please your customers. Depending how big the mistake is you could offer all you customers a voucher or 20% off or something similar for the inconvenience.
These are just 7 reasons why, as a business owner, you will benefit from using Facebook and some ideas which you could implement straight away.
Article by Lydia Reynolds
