Why use Facebook for marketing?

Posted at October 9, 2009

For most small businesses, finding opportunities to promote themselves with massive reach and very little cost seem like miracles. Facebook is growing faster by the day and yet most business owners I speak to are not sure if its even worth considering to advertise or market themselves on this social network.

So what is the big buzz about Facebook and why should you care?

Well, it doesn’t matter if you’re not on it. Without a doubt your customers are, and before you try to challenge that, let me show you the undeniable truth of this statement. It doesn’t matter who you are targetting with your products and services, you can reach your ideal clients through Facebook.

Most people assume Facebook is for kids or uni students, they assume it is all about people under 25 and it really is a young persons website.

Don’t make this mistake! Let your competitors assume this is true and get your business on Facebook while they mutter to themselves about how they don’t ‘get’ it.

Check out these stats I’ve collected by closely monitoring Facebook user statistics over the last four months:

The fastest growing age bracket of Facebook users in Australia is 25-40!

You can see in the graph above that there have been almost 400,000 people in Australia between 25 and 40 that have joined Facebook since June 07, 2009. It is also clear in the graph that the over 25 market is growing much faster than the under 25 market which is great news for marketers.

Facebook has always been a great new medium to connect and attract new customers for retail businesses and industries related to the under 25 market. Now it is clear that there are swarms of new Facebook users that open up opportunities for b2b marketers and almost any industry wanting to reach their target market for a very low cost.

There are actually more people in Australia over 40 than there are under 18. Check out this pie graph below to get a visual idea of the split in demographics…

While these statistics will open your eyes and might entice you to consider marketing on Facebook, it is very easy to waste countless hours on this website and not achieve anything.

I always advise people to consider the big picture – there is no point spending hours on Facebook to grow your list of friends or fans unless you have a strategy to convert these people into qualified sales enquiries.

So how can you create a strategy for your business?

If you are in the b2b market and have a high volume of customers each day / week  / month then there is a good chance many of them are on Facebook and connected to other business owners who may be interested in your services.

A simple way to leverage Facebook without you doing much work at all, is ask your customers to mention how fantastic your service was, or how good your price was, or share any benefit about your business with their friends on Facebook. This is free advertising that works like digital word of mouth.

In fact, this strategy when combined with a sales video is like word of mouth on steroids!!

All you have to do is provide your customers with the tools and the direction on how to help promote your business to their friends.A sales video is a great way to do this because it works like a salesperson giving a presentation that is available 24/7 to speak to new prospective clients that find you online.

Simply ask your happy customers to mention on Facebook how great your service was and link through to your website (or ideally a sales video) and you’ve got a marketing system working hard to attract new clients while you’re sleeping or out playing golf!

While other marketers are trying to get more friends on Facebook and pay for advertising, you can be letting your clients do the work for you and achieve much greater results.

You might even want to consider giving your customers an incentive such as a discount voucher for future services or even a dinner voucher if they succesfully generate you more work through their friends list.

This is one strategy that can be put in place for very little cost – it is simply an investment of your time or money.

If you don’t have a Facebook marketing strategy at this point in time you should certainly consider your options.

Reading this article was your first step – what will you do next?

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