Most of us have heard about and been using Facebook. So, what exactly is Facebook? And why is it important to marketers?
Facebook is an online social media platform that allows people to connect and stay in touch regardless of geographic limitations. With several features such as text status posts, images, videos, pages, public and private groups, and messenger, Facebook users can contribute ideas, engage in meaningful conversations, and participate in social activities. Through an open and online networking environment, people can find new friends who share the same or different interests with them. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, “The Facebook” was launched to connect Harvard students with one another. Needless to say, Facebook has grown rapidly over the past 18 years and is now the most used social platform in the world.
In March 2022, Hootsuite released 39 Facebook statistics to help marketers gain more insights into this social media giant. The following are some general Facebook statistics provided by Michelle Martin (Hootsuite):
- Compared to 2021’s 2.74 billion users, Facebook has 2.91 billion monthly active users in 2022. That is a 6.2% jump from 2021’s number.
- 36.8% of the world’s population uses Facebook monthly.
- 77% of Internet users are active on at least one Meta platform.
- Over 1 billion Stories get posted every day across Facebook apps.
- 79% of monthly users are active daily.
- Facebook is the favorite social platform of the 35-44 demographic.
- Male internet users, 25-34: 15.9%
- Male internet users, 35-44: 17.7%
- Female internet users, 35-44: 15.7%
- Female internet users, 45-54: 18%
- 6- 9% of Americans use Facebook.
- Users spend an average of 19.6 hours a month and 33 minutes a day on Facebook.
To access the full report, please go to HootSuite
Based on some statistics above, it is undeniable that Facebook is one of the best tools for marketers to reach their audiences. Nowadays, most businesses use Facebook to promote their brands, and to create, maintain, and improve their social media presence. By building brand awareness and running advertisements on Facebook, businesses can grow their online following, increase leads, and generate more sales. There are several features on Facebook that can be used for marketing, including but not limited to the following:
- Organic text, photo, or video (“organic” refers to unpaid content)
- Paid text, photo, or video
- Facebook Stories and Reels
- Facebook ads
- Facebook Groups
- Facebook Messenger chatbots or auto-responders
It is worth mentioning that most of the features listed above can be utilized at no cost. This means marketers with a budget constraint or no budget at all can still run Facebook marketing entirely for free. However, you can definitely boost your business growth with paid services such as Facebook ads, paid text/photo/video content, or even an influencer campaign.
Create your Business Page
To start your Facebook marketing campaign, the first thing you need to create is your business Facebook Page with your personal account. If you haven’t had a Facebook personal account, check out this video guide:
For more specific information about Facebook features such as Facebook page, group, event, profile setup, and more, you can check out this article on HubSpot.
After logging into your personal account, go to the menu (nine dots symbol) on the left widget and click on Page under the Create section.
To create your business’ page, you will need to enter:
- Page name (required): your business name
- Category (required): type in the industry or related field to see available options. For example, “marketing agency” or “information technology.”
- Bio (optional): a brief description of your business. This is optional and you can go back to add or edit it later.
After filling out all the required fields, your Page is officially published. You can go to Edit Page Info to provide more details about your business, such as website URL, contact information, and other social links. In addition, even though this is optional, you should consider verifying your business’ Facebook page to distinguish and establish your reputation. Verifying business pages is fairly easy, especially if you have a physical location.
Please go to Facebook Help Center to get the full guide and a verification request form.
Facebook ads account
As mentioned earlier in this post, you can completely run Facebook marketing without using paid services. However, having a Facebook ads account is beneficial even though you don’t plan to use it at the moment. After finishing your page setup, you can access Facebook Ads Manager (as part of the Business Suite) and follow the instructions to create a new Facebook ads account.
Promote your brand
Now, you are ready to promote your business on Facebook and build your presence on this social media platform. For general social media marketing objectives such as engagement and brand awareness, you can generate a good mix of post content such as viral/fun content for interaction, product/service information, link promotion, and more.
Netflix is an excellent example of how a brand leverages its image and social media engagement. The platform outperforms many other movie and TV series networks and generates many followers across its social media channels. In particular, Netflix currently has 20.3 million followers on Twitter, 31.2 million followers on Instagram, and over 90 million followers on Facebook.
The following are some examples of Netflix’s Facebook content:
And, of course, Netflix also runs Facebook ads to generate more leads, increase its audience size, and encourage potential customers to enroll in paid memberships.
Besides these features, you can also take advantage of Facebook stories, groups, and events. However, please remember that it is important to clearly identify your objectives and content topics and develop a thorough marketing strategy for a successful Facebook marketing campaign.
I hope this little how-to guide is helpful to you. Please like this article and click follow my blog to get notifications for future posts!
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