Facebook is fast becoming a major force in the online world, and marketers are beginning to realize its immense social power. If used effectively, Facebook can be an excellent marketing tool to drive traffic to your site. Still not convinced? Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t miss out on the potential Facebook has to offer.
1. Facebook Spending is up, Against Odds
According to e-Marketer, online social networking advertising spend grew less than expected in 2009. It is predicted to grow nine percent, despite e-Marketer’s prediction in March of this year that it would grow nearly twice that much.
However, Facebook does not seem affected by this dip in social networking spend – spending on Facebook ads is expected to rise 20 percent worldwide, to reach $300 million in 2009. Facebook is demonstrating high tenacity despite the economic climate, a strength that marketers would do well to embrace.
2. Facebook is now More SEO-Friendly
Facebook became more SEO-friendly recently when it rolled out its ‘vanity URLs’, which allow a brand name or keyword at the end. Search engines are better able to read and index these vanity URLs than the number strings that were attached to old Facebook URLs. If brands are/were quick enough to grab their brand-name URL before it was snatched, their fan pages and Facebook groups will fare far better on Google and other search engines.
3. Know Who You’re Targeting
Since so much personal information is provided by Facebook’s users, marketers have a much easier time targeting their specifically-desired groups, according to age, preferences, gender, habits, etc.
It is also possible to look at studies showing the type of people that use different social networks, like the recent Anderson Analytics study, which showed that the average Facebook user is older and better off, and more likely to be married, white and retired than users of other networks. They are also extremely loyal – the study showed that 75 percent of Facebook respondents said Facebook was their favourite site.
4. It’s Easy and Diverse
Setting up ads, groups, and fan pages on Facebook could not be easier. Facebook ads can be set up in minutes, with customized pictures and text. The advertiser is also able to choose his or her preferred payment model – either cost-per-click (pay according to number of clicks on your ad) or cost-per-impression (pay according to how many times ad is displayed on a page). It’s also possible to track the progress of these ads, with advertisers being able to see who is clicking on their ads.
Setting up a fan page or a Facebook group is not only easy, but it’s free. All it requires is that the creator has a Facebook profile themselves. Pictures, videos and links are easy to upload to these groups and pages with just a few simple clicks.
Facebook applications are also incredibly popular, and relatively simple to set up provided a web-developer is at hand. These are now quite as simple to set up as Facebook’s other marketing tools, but may be even more effective if used properly.
5. The Potential to Reach Millions
Facebook is easily the biggest social network out there, with 200 million users – nearly the size of the entire American population.
In addition, these users are well-connected – the average Facebook user has 120 connections.
The users are also heavily interactive with the site. More than 100 million of these users log on to Facebook every day. More than eight million become fans of pages every day, and every month, almost three-quarters of all Facebook users engage with its applications. View more Facebook statistics here.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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