Mark Zuckerberg established a website in 2004 that allowed his fellow students at Harvard University to keep in touch with various organizations on campus. Zuckerberg named his brainchild “The Facebook”. The rest has become history. Facebook has evolved into the biggest social networking website on the Internet, boasting millions of users. It therefore makes sense for online marketers to promote their products via this popular social networking site.
Online marketers find Facebook a highly useful and even fun tool. Businesses can connect with millions of users with the power of the social network. Facebook uses a network of friends to link users together. What this means is that a member’s walls, comments, photos, memorabilia, likes, friends list, and any other Facebook activity is open for viewing by other Facebook users who are linked to the member. A like is a very powerful tool since it works as a recommendation for a particular website or product. When other members notice that a friend has given approval for a site, they would also be inclined to check out the site. Getting a like from a Facebook user can make any marketing effort go viral.
Companies are able to use Facebook to make their products available to a huge number of people at any time of the day or night. It allows the companies to be much more accessible than they can be with the typical 30 seconds of air time they are allotted on television or radio. Facebook advertising and campaigning is significantly cheaper as well. This constant, active presence, combined with Facebook’s widespread user base, creates an ideal platform for developing brand awareness. As more and more people from different backgrounds continue to join Facebook, online marketers have wider access to a never-before-tapped audience. Companies that dedicate time to keeping their Facebook current will have a visible presence for the many new people who join Facebook daily. This will inevitably lead to more awareness for those companies.
Facebook is an excellent tool for managing a company’s public relations. The free flow of information can help business owners see exactly what the public thinks of their company and products. Customers are able to communicate directly with the company about what they like and dislike about the products or services. They can even offer suggestions on what to add or change. It’s essentially a free public opinion poll.
Facebook can also help a company improve its responsiveness. They can immediately respond to any comment and rapidly address any public relations issues that may arise. Answering consumer questions quickly can only help to enhance a company’s reputation.
Marketers are beginning to utilize Facebook as a portal for customers to access the company website, where the marketers can take the connection even further. Facebook links to sites can serve as an effective lead generator. Members can enter email addresses and contact details to take advantage of offers posted by the company on its page, while the company is collecting addresses for future promotions and communications. Today many companies have special staff dedicated to developing and building connections with Facebook members. These personnel look up other member pages to locate potential customers who identify with the company’s mission and goals and build contacts with them. Using Facebook in this manner essentially drives pre-screened, targeted traffic toward a company’s site for free.
Facebook is expanding daily, which means online marketers are never going to run out of prospective customers when using Facebook as a marketing tool. The advantages of being able to reach out to millions of customers is phenomenal. The power of Facebook can help companies boost their visibility and their corporate images with absolutely no strings attached. In the business world, there is no better definition of success.