How many times have you heard it said that if your brand is not represented on Facebook then you are missing out on a chance to gather your fans in one place and let them discuss your business and share their experiences with all their friends. There is a question however, about whether Facebook is really “actively” marketing your brand.
If you compare the number of hits on your businesses website to the number of fans on your Facebook page, you would like to see similar numbers. If your website sees visits in the tens of thousand then a Facebook page with 500 fans may not be worth much. There may be areas where your brand marketing might be better focused.
Where businesses see the greatest ROI is with the use of a brand champion. Think sports teams and the numerous sponsors they are constantly drawing attention to on television before millions of people all at once. Now that is brand awareness! This type of exposure is not cheap though and ideally you will be able to find a balance between the two extremes of brand marketing.
Years ago Facebook was more advertisement friendly as friends shared their favorites with one another. Soon the feeds filled with ads and many users learned to hide those “friends” that did nothing but promote their products. Today Facebook is used more for family connections, posting photos and vacation stories and sharing memes and images. There is barely any interest in the sidebar of ads. The users of Facebook are in the news feeds or playing games.
There is another area in which Facebook falls short and that is in connecting with mobile devices. At this times the ads do not display on the mobile platform. As the popularity and ease of use increases on these devices special attention needs to be paid to effective integration. Hopefully, Facebook will find a way to make this work for everyone’s benefit.
Finally, do not believe that all of your posts are being seen by all of your fans. The fact is that the more feeds people subscribe to, the less chance they have of seeing your posts. People are also becoming more savvy about avoiding ads and have been using the “hide” function more frequently. There is a real possibility that many of your fans do not read your posts at all.
While it is probably not a good idea to abandon Facebook entirely, it may be time for a discussion about which social media platforms will best serve your social media marketing efforts. We pride ourselves in finding the latest and in providing the best utilization of the greatest. When you are ready to expand your horizons, contact us to explore the possibilities.
