Facebook for Small Business: Still a wise marketing investment?

Sometimes, when something has been around for a long time people tend to take it for granted. It may even be considered “old” and not “trendy” after a short period of time.

Facebook is one of those items that has been around for more than eleven years. It can certainly be considered “old” in the still growing world of social media and not “trendy” by most in the industry.

However, don’t let its age and familiarity fool you. It is still an internet marketing powerhouse and should be considered in any marketing plans for your small business. In fact, Facebook is still so popular with the public, it had a record one billion plus people online during one hour just this past August. One billion is impressive by any measure.

Facebook should remain an integral part of your small business marketing plan for the following reasons:

• Mobile phone users love it: 80% of Facebook users access their page through their cell phones and visit at least 14 times a day! Your business page or advertising will be seen by a large number of visitors. It is a very busy place. Your product will not only be seen by present and potential customers using their phones, they can also call you immediately to find out more.

• Facebook advertising is inexpensive: This channel is still known as being the best way to reach the largest audience for the smallest marketing dollar. The ROI is outstanding even though Facebook has changed its algorithms making it more difficult for a larger audience to see your free postings. In return, though, it is a great source of leads and still outperforms most other advertising venues. You even save money as you don’t have to buy a spot on a mailing list. Facebook has done massive data mining and is working with data leaders like Axciom and Datalogix to access information on customer habits, shopper loyalty and credit card accounts. All this mining and research helps your company reach the right customer efficiently and cheaply.
• Facebook ads send traffic to your small business website: Your main reason for all your ads should be people going from the ad to your website. While your business page is important in your engagement and marketing efforts, your website is the most important focus. Your advertising campaign should have them click on the ad and go directly to the landing page in which you are featuring the product. From there, you can “convert” them and sell the product.
• Your small business Facebook page is still free and still crucial:  Facebook still has free business accounts and their importance in engagement, branding and sales cannot be understated. Small businesses should post on them five times a week using the “80/20 Rule”: 80% quality content (sharing posts from other sources) and 20% marketing (sales and promotions).  Even though fewer people see your business page, you may still get hundreds even thousands of people reading your posts, commenting on it, sharing it or even messaging you for more information.

There are even more reasons for keeping Facebook on your business marketing radar screen and we will discuss them in a future blog. The answer to the question of whether Facebook is a wise decision for your advertising dollar is still a resounding “Yes!” Facebook remains the most popular social media channel in the world and there is no decline whatsoever. It should be on every business marketing plan for many, many years to come.