Facebook's "Bait n Switch"

So you own a small business, and you're trying to acquire more customers. Being that Facebook has 1 billion users, you decide to start a Facebook campaign.

You build a nice Facebook page for your business, you start marketing your Facebook page to your customers and you even start generating a lot of likes from your customers and potential customers.

Seems like a win right?

Wrong!

Introducing Edgerank and Promoted Posts! That's right, your Facebook updates are only visible to a small percentage of your fans (you know, those who have opted in to receive updates from your business).

How do you reach all of your fans you ask? You need to PAY Facebook! It's obvious why many small business owners feel that Facebook has pulled a "bait and switch".

This is why you need to be building a real customer database, by collecting their email address or cell phone #. Of course, the best way to do this is to offer a special deal for customers that add their contact info to your database.

Mobile is especially important considering the state of email marketing and as shown in this survey, mobile users actually WANT you to send them special offers via smartphone.

In short, yes you should create a Facebook page for your business, but do NOT spend a lot of time and money building up your "likes". I recommend connecting with customers using Twitter or Google+ instead. At least with Google+ your search rankings should increase as you become more active. The same can NOT be said with Facebook.

So what is a Facebook fan really worth? Watch the video to gain more insight on this matter.

What's a Facebook Follower Worth? - YouTube