Business Marketing with FaceBook

FaceBook is the most visited social network, with nearly 1.2 billion visits in January 2009, largest photo-sharing site with over 10 billion photos on the site and is now the world's most visited Web site. This latest feat bumps Google out of the Top spot.

According to a study released in July 2009 by iStrategy Labs (www.istrategylabs.com), FaceBook has experienced a 513% growth in the number of users that are 55 years old and older during the first half of 2009. The Los Angeles metro area experienced a 96% increase in new users, second only to Atlanta, GA with a 142% increase over the same period. During this same period the number of college age users on the site dropped by 20%.
 

These tough economic times make online networking especially attractive. Using online social networks like LinkedIn and FaceBook can make it easier to connect with many people outside of your normal business circles and is the next logical step for business networking. Social Networking sites like FaceBook can also assist your company to improve customer interactions. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group concluded that companies that utilize social networking sites are "17 times more likely to improve customer satisfaction" over companies that don't.
 

It is important to have a plan when using FaceBook for marketing your business. Some people invite or accept hundreds of friends and soon realize that it is hard to process so much information. A better tact is to accept or pursue strategic relationships with movers and shakers in your industry. This helps you to build a stronger network.
 

One thing that FaceBook is really good at is promoting brand awareness. There are several tools FaceBook offers that you can use to promote your brand such as the NewsFeed or the Ads feature. The Ads feature works much like Google AdWords and the ads appear on the side of people's pages. These ads are very effective for raising brand awareness. Using the NewsFeed tool to insert your blog, videos or photos into the stream or "feed" of information that is going to your friends on the network, can also raise awareness of your brand.
 

FaceBook is a great tool to spread the word about a business event or function. Posting your event and allowing your attendees to RSVP can create viral traffic to your page. Friends of your attendees see that they have just responded and so they go to your page to see what the event is all about, then they RSVP and so on and so on. The most important thing to remember when marketing on FaceBook is that the hard sell won't work. This is relationship marketing, not cold calling. If you are going to talk about your products or services to your new FaceBook "friends", you would be wise to do it in the context of a social conversation or a friendly post. When members smell marketers they run the other way.
 

While rarely a huge source of traffic or revenue, social networks like FaceBook can be a great arena for branding your company and staying in touch with your customers.