Facebook: It Pays to Be with Number One
As the number one social media site on the Web, Facebook has a great deal to offer advertisers. In Part 1, we discussed reasons one through five of why your business should be using Facebook for promotional and advertising purposes.
To recap, Facebook offers these preliminary advantages:
- Enormous User Base
- Global Reach
- High Daily User Activity
- Large Blocks of Time Users Spend on the Site
- Influence of Facebook Friends
Now let’s discuss advantages six through ten:
6. Sheer Abundance of Content
According to Facebook, people interact with 160 million “objects” (which include pages, groups, and events) on the site, and the average user is connected to 60 such objects. Multiply that by the number of active Facebook users, and you can see how much the potential exposure for your ad increases. Every time a user clicks through to another Facebook page, new, targeted ads appear. Therefore, the more items a user interacts with, the more ads he or she sees. The abundance of content on Facebook can only benefit your advertising campaign. Even while using one of the 550,000 active applications on Facebook (including games, quizzes, etc.), the 70% of Facebook users who interact with these applications each month are also viewing targeted ads the entire time.
7. User-Created Content
The focus on user-created content on Facebook encourages people to spend more time on the site, generating content and interacting with other people’s content. It also encourages more content sharing. Both creating and sharing content translate to more page views and a larger amount of topical content to which ads can be targeted. The average Facebook user creates 70 pieces of content per month, giving you more opportunities to target ads to topics that interest them and their friends.
8. Shared Content
Content passed along via the “Share” button makes its way onto users’ friends’ home pages and/or their Facebook notification pages (as well as into their e-mail inboxes if they’ve opted to receive e-mail notifications). Since Facebook users average 130 friends apiece, the number of people who could potentially receive your shared info (e.g., your company page, website, or specific offer) can expand quickly. Users whose information is public can disseminate shared items to even larger audiences. In fact, according to Facebook, over 25 billion pieces of content (including news stories, blog posts, photo albums, notes, and website links) are shared on the site each month.
9. Outside Website Integration
Facebook’s recent integration with outside websites enables users to interact with the site from other locations on the Web. That makes posting content easier than ever before and ensures that even more items will make it onto users’ home pages. This added content in turn helps sustain user attention and interaction with the site for ever-increasing lengths of time. More than 250,000 websites have integrated with Facebook, and more than 100 million Facebook users interact with the site from these outside Internet locations each month.
10. Large and Active Mobile Market
The 100 million-plus active Facebook users who access the site via their mobile devices don’t simply have enough enthusiasm to engage with the site while on the go – they are also twice as active on the site as their non-mobile counterparts. This offers increasing sales potential to any business owner savvy enough to earmark part of the company’s advertising budget to Facebook. And if the 200 million mobile operators in 60 countries that are actively promoting Facebook have anything to say about it, this already substantial market segment will expand to ever-increasing proportions in the very near future.
The Facebook Connection: A Digital Win/Win
So, does Facebook warrant a chunk of your company’s advertising outlay? Only you can ultimately answer that question. For most companies that have budgeted funds for advertising, the 10 reasons covered in Parts 1 and 2 of this post will likely lead to a resounding “Yes!” Yet, even smaller companies with negligible budgets can ride the wave of Facebook’s popularity by setting up free Facebook pages and thereby garnering tons of complementary PR for their businesses. Either way, it’s pretty much a win/win.
We live in a digitally connected world – and right now Facebook is the number-one way to foster that connection, attracting new customers and keeping established ones enthusiastic about our brand.
Which of the above 10 points resonate most with you? Or, do you feel, perhaps, that the current focus on Facebook is overblown and better ways exist for promoting our brands?
Note: You’ll find all Facebook stats on the Facebook Press Room Statistics page. (These stats are/were accurate as of the date of posting. If any have changed by the time you read this, in all likelihood the numbers will be even higher.)
Content Marketing from Word Sell
- 10 Reasons Your Business Should Be on LinkedIn, Part 2
- 10 Reasons Your Business Should Be on Facebook, Part 1
- Why Your Business Needs to Be on Facebook
Interactive Marketing from Northbound
- 7 Ways to Use Facebook for Business (Straight North)
- Prepare Your Business for Mobile Search – Part 2 (Straight North)
- Making a Case for Social Media in Your Business Part 1 of 2 on Social Media (Straight North)
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Jeanne, Very interesting developments. As recently as a year ago, the business value of Facebook was an iffy proposition at best. Now, companies are stampeding toward it with ever increasing velocity, and who can blame them? Facebook is a superior advertising platform and facilities community building and conversation far better than Twitter. I think the coming surge of the mobile Web is the best thing that could happen to Facebook – don’t you think the platform lends itself particularly well to this medium?
Facebook certainly does seem to lend itself particularly well to the mobile medium. I can’t help but notice how many of my FB friends use their mobile phones to connect there — though I have yet to do so myself. Chalk it up to my low-tech cell phone and the fact that I’m in front of my computer writing all day anyway, which makes my PC the most convenient way for me to access FB and the rest of the Web.
Yet, for many people, who tend to be on the go a lot, the mobile Web is the most practical way to stay connected while out doing other, equally important things. Facebook is clearly benefiting from this phenomenon and is poised to enjoy even greater gains as the mobile Web continues its incredible growth.
Jeanne, this was a great series and you captured all the reasons that businesses should consider Facebook. For anyone seeking to reach the mainstream, Facebook is undeniably the virtual place to be. Unlike Twitter which attracts more of the leading edge early adopters, Facebook is main street. Businesses must adapt their language and approach on Facebook but it’s definitely a tool worth adding to the social media toolkit.
Thanks, Karen! I think you’ve hit the nail on the head: Virtually everyone who’s active online has a Facebook account, so it’s a great place to reach the masses with your message. With over twice as many users as Twitter — and more ways to target them — Facebook is the number-one place on the Web to begin creating brand recognition. Twitter is valuable too, of course, and is certainly a great adjunct to Facebook; but, for any but the most specialized businesses, the company that’s serious about connecting (and collecting) via social media should certainly begin with Facebook.
I have found that people do access Facebook via their phones, rather than on a computer. This is just general observations of people I know, but I can already see that it an be easier, convenient and quicker to stay updated with your Facebook on your phone. If as a business we can tap into this new way of communicating virtually then, a company can really reap the rewards. This means full access to your target market not just when they are on their computers but when they are on the go too.
Excellent point, Mandeep! With the mobile Web, the target market is always active and always available, unlike those who use desktop PCs to access Facebook. Even those who have laptops don’t have things quite as easy or convenient as those who surf the Web right on their mobile phones. The mobile Web really offers great potential for businesses that step right up and implement a wise mobile marketing strategy — and I think today any such strategy would pretty much have to include a Facebook presence.
Jeanne,
With all this talk about accessing Facebook by phone, I’m beginning to feel like I’m behind the times.
The only thing I myself am capable of doing with my phone (and about the only thing I ever want to be able to do with it) is to make phone calls. I guess I’ll have to move into the twenty-first century at some stage.
If Facebook by phone indeed becomes popular, this does represent a huge opportunity. Still, marketers will have to be careful so as to make their ads easy to view on tiny screens.
You and me both, Andrew! I’m not very technically savvy with my cell phone, either — and I’m always worried about extra charges, so I rarely ever do anything unconventional with it. Truth be told, when I’m at home I already spend so much time on the computer/Internet that if I were to also access the Web via my cell phone while out and about, I’d be on the Internet almost literally all day and never get a break!
So, this turns out to be a form of protection for me!
The good news for advertisers is that, despite mobile phone users like the two of us, the market is rapidly expanding, providing them with major profit-generating opportunities. As you’ve said, Marketers do need to be careful to provide content that can be viewed easily on smaller, non-smartphone type screens. However, as smartphone sales increase — and eventually surpass conventional mobile phone sales — this will be less an issue, since (at least the high-end) smartphone screens can handle most (if not all ) of the same types of content that PCs can.
Thanks so much for your feedback!