Marketing on Facebook

The internet has opened a whole new world of free or inexpensive marketing tools to small businesses. One of the great options for marketing online is by using Facebook. This article discusses a little bit about small businesses using Facebook as a marketing tool.

Why use Facebook for marketing

There are many reasons why a small business owner should use Facebook for some of their marketing. One great reason that a small business should use Facebook for some of their marketing is that there are around 70 million active users of Facebook; that is a larger audience for a small business to reach. Another great reason to use Facebook for marketing is that Facebook is the second most-trafficked social website in the world and is the sixth most-trafficked website in the entire world.

There are many networks on Facebook such as work, high school, and collegiate networks which help to draw more people to Facebook. And Facebook is not only made out of high school and college age kids. Facebook also draws in professionals and adults.

Another, possibly one of the biggest, reasons that a small business should use Facebook as a marketing tool is that it is free. This can be a great advantage to a small business with a small budget.

Where to begin

The first thing that a small business needs to do when they want to use Facebook for marketing is set up a Profile Page. This is the page that the small business has a lot of control over and let's their audience know a little bit about the company. A small business owner should let people know about the product(s) they want to promote through their profile page. They can also use the profile page to let people know why they need the product that the small business is selling.

Next a small business owner should set up a Group on Facebook. Doing this can offer friends, customers, and partners of the small business, a central meeting place. They can have discussions, post videos, pictures, and links. Setting up a Group also makes it easier to send daily updates and news about the small business to the group members.

A small business could also create a Facebook Page instead of creating a group. Pages are a little bit different than Facebook groups. For example, a Facebook Page allows a small business to add HTML, Facebook applications, and Flash to their Page. Pages do not limit the number of fans that a small business can have. And any fans that join the Page have to "Share" the small business' Page with friends or their friends have to notice that the person is a fan of the page through their news feed or profile page but they cannot invite their friends to be a fan of the page.

There are many more options and applications that a small business can use as marketing tools on Facebook. Once a small business owner gets used to the basic parts of Facebook they can begin to branch out a bit and reach even more people by using Facebook as a marketing tool.

Keep in mind

A small business owner who uses Facebook as marketing needs to realize that they are going to associate their own identity with their service or their product that they are trying to market. Because of this, a small business owner needs to be real. If they would prefer not to show who they really are then it is probably better that they do not use Facebook as a small business marketing tool.

Along with all of the good there is some bad. Facebook is not immune to spam. It can take a lot of time to delete spam wall posts and report any users that spam a small business' group on Facebook.