Why You Should Be Using Facebook In Your Business (Whatever You Do For A Living!)
Facebook presents a massive marketing opportunity for all businesses, whether they are online already or a conventional 'bricks and mortar' business.
image: poqstudio
In spite of Facebook's massive success, I still meet many smaller businesses who say things to me like:
'It's just for kids isn't it?'
'What about all the privacy issues?'
'I can't afford it'
'It won't work with my business'
'It's too technical for me!'
The truth is that none of those statements is correct.
Facebook is extremely easy to use - if you can create an eBay listing then you have all the technical skills required to use it successfully for business.
So, in simple terms, if you can write and format text and you know how to browse to an image and upload it to a web site, then you already have the core skills required to make the most of Facebook.
It is true that Facebook still has a young demographic, but these are credit card holders and not 'kids' (i.e. school age) as many people believe.
Business Insider reports 'the 45-to-54-year-old age bracket has seen 46% growth since year-end 2012', and the key aim for anybody in business is that they are able to target prospects who have money to spend ie they have a disposable income.
Other objections such as cost (Facebook is free) and privacy issues (you can remain very private on Facebook if you know how to use it properly) fade into insignificance when considering the potential business opportunity of being able to target over 1 billion people worldwide.
Facebook will work for any business in any Geographical location that it serves, so even if you're a small store serving a local community, Facebook's laser targeted precision will allow you to communicate with your prospects in a very small area.
So, having overcome some of the key objections about using Facebook, what are the immediate advantages?
It surprises me that many Facebook commentators don't make more of some of the very big, immediate and obvious benefits of having a business on Facebook.
Big Advantage 1: Being on Facebook means that your business immediately has an optimised presence on mobile devices with zero expense.
Wait until you get a quotation to mobile optimise your existing web site - with Facebook you can be mobile optimised and ready to go in the next 5 minutes and at no cost.
Big Advantage 2: Being on Facebook gives you instant SEO.
Because Facebook is currently the 2nd most popular site in the web universe, having a business page properly key worded on the platform can race you to the top of Google's listings much faster than years of back-linking, search engine optimisation and keyword research can.
And it comes at a fraction of the cost of getting SEO experts in too!
By carefully selecting your unique URL on Facebook, and then properly completing the 'About' sections for your business page, you can quite literally rocket to the top of the search engine listings, flying past the blog or web site that you've spent so many years - and so much expense - optimising.
So, that's just a Facebook taster if you're still resisting it as a platform your business.
Facebook is extremely powerful and like everything in life, once you know how to use it properly, it can be an extremely effective ally.
Paul Teague
Paul Teague is a social and digital marketer and creator of the Clixeo software for Facebook at http://clixeo.com
Why You Should Be Using Facebook In Your Business (Whatever You Do For A Living!)
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Reviewed by Paul Teague
on
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Rating:
Paul Teague
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