Why is Facebook so popular with business?

14 replies
A recent study of 18 to 24 year-olds has found that Facebook is more popular that porn. This makes a lot of sense, when you compare the degree of interactivity of either medium. Facebook offers a connection to other human beings that is more than skin deep.

From the marketers side, we are seeing that virtually every big business is featuring Facebook as a touch point to their products or services. Pick up any magazine and review the advertising. You will see Facebook featured rather prominently in many of the ad-spaces these corporations are paying big money for.

Is Facebook just a lot of irrational exuberance on the part of business? Or are companies actually showing a proven ROI in this medium? If so, how are they using Facebook to attain these proven ROI's?
#business #facebook #popular
  • Profile picture of the author WebRank1
    2 Words: Name Branding and also brand awareness.
    That is what most big company's like Coca Cola, Porsche etc are doing atm.
    I have stated in the past that I don't think Facebook is a shopping platform but a social platform firstand anything else second.
    Also, big brand names and corporations don't mess directly with consumers but through distribution channels of course. So a measurable ROI is hard I think, a little (lot) like TV advertising.

    Now, for companies that deal directly with their customers and prospects, without going through distribution channels. Like webshops or local businesses, FB can certainly be a profitable platform as long as they remember that social comes first and not 'buying'.

    Anyway, I have been flamed for this before so I won't go into much details on this anymore but these are my 2 cents.

    Regards,
    Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
      Originally Posted by WebRank1 View Post

      I have stated in the past that I don't think Facebook is a shopping platform but a social platform firstand anything else second.
      ... So a measurable ROI is hard I think, a little (lot) like TV advertising.

      Mark,
      This makes the most sense to me of anything I have heard. It falls under the umbrella of advertising dollars and branding, and not purposed for direct
      sales efforts.

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author danej
        Facebook advertising is intrusive, so you won't see as high of a return against a ppc campaign. But, the ability to run a brand awareness campaign is huge. Plus, from everything Facebook collects about each person, they have a far greater ability to segment demographics for products.
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      • Profile picture of the author Randy Miller
        Several years age when RSS was the newest rage, there was article after article touting the thing that made it so great was that it was "Push" technology. The user indicated their preferences and the RSS feed would "push" content at them that matched their interests. Porn on the other hand, has always been a "Pull" technology (pun intended).

        When studying the ancient texts on sales and marketing, books by Zig Ziglar and Dale Carnegie, a central theme of the books is relationship building.
        It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a customer is more likely to return and make additional purchases if they feel that they have a "relationship" with you.

        Facebook offers both push and pull communication. It encourages relationship building in the virtual world that is somewhat similar to the offline world. Smart marketers are now utilizing social networking and Facebook in particular as a powerful and cheap way in which to build relationships with their customers, and make more $ales.
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesGw
    Facebook is great because of the amount of time people spend on it - it holds attention for a longer period than most other advertising mediums. Also, I'm not sure if you were aware, but Facebook advertising lets you target demographics real accurately, which is fantastic. For example, for a lot of my campaigns, I've targeted college grads for increased conversions. I haven't ran a FB campaign in a while, so I'm not sure if that feature is still available. Either way, it helps you get targeted traffic and see who is interested in your brand.
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  • Profile picture of the author whaldorf
    It seems like anybody in business is almost obliged to display a Facebook "F" and Twitter "T" on their store window these days.

    QR code sheets have appeared in almost every shop-front in my area over the last 2 or 3 months.

    In a couple of years time Facebook might have go the way of Myspace and end up replaced by the next great social scene!
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  • Profile picture of the author Seoligy
    I use facebook more than I use my email.

    I also would never make a fake facebook account to "like" something like I do with my email
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  • Profile picture of the author ladywriter
    I sometimes wonder why people would go anywhere outside of FB to do anything---for a lot of us, our clients are spending a lot of time on facebook. Why not meet them where they are, instead of waiting out in the desert for them to find us? I'm toying with the idea of not even doing a blog for my niche project and just writing Facebook notes and sending FB emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    600 million users enough said ..... Facebook is a monster who wouldn't want to advertise their business to all those people?
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  • Profile picture of the author pmbrent
    Businesses like facebook because they are able to interact with their customers and get their feedback. It's also a large market that they can target their campaigns to.
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  • Profile picture of the author OzMan
    +1 for extremely targetable and interactive
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    • Profile picture of the author Mrmuscle90
      Because almost everyone is on Facebook and they are on it longer than most sites
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      • Profile picture of the author paulhollins
        Originally Posted by Mrmuscle90 View Post

        Because almost everyone is on Facebook and they are on it longer than most sites
        You're absolutely right.

        The old way of doing things was for a business to try and get a client to visit their website/store.

        The new way is for that business to 'hang out' at the same place as their clients.

        In other words: Facebook.

        Companies have realised this it's much more cost-effective for them to be where their clients hang out and are now more desperate than ever to get on there...

        Also when you factor in just how much data each member shares with Facebook when they sign-up it means that a company can target people with specific hobbies/interests/age-groups when they use Facebook Ads.

        The result is that Facebook is a truly powerful website - more so than even Google... and the best bit? It's still real easy for most people to use.

        Paul.
        Signature

        Paul Hollins, Creator

        www.thezerocostmethod.com - How To Create Your Own Profitable Products
        www.thefiverrformula.com - How To Make A Real Income By Micro-Jobbing

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  • BRAND
    BRAND
    BRAND

    Built in Community.

    Very low cost of entry.

    What's not to like? Well you don't control you own destiny putting content in the hands of a 3rd party, but there are ways to leverage this.
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