Facebook’s prominent role as a promotional method can not be reiterated enough in the contemporary marketing world. A cost effective way to get the word out since it is free to join, Facebook is fast becoming an efficient method of promoting many a company’s products and services.
Facebook is a social phenomenon that has transformed the world of direct marketing to heights unimaginable just a few years ago. Millions of individuals with differing tastes, opinions, personalities, and characteristics have joined Facebook for many reasons, including: networking, getting back in touch with former classmates, keeping in touch with family, etc. People can add or delete as many Facebook friends to their individual profiles that they wish. However, for as much of an emphasis that is placed on Facebook’s main purpose of keeping people across the world in touch through an online forum, Facebook can also be an extremely effective marketing tool if it is used properly by companies.
Many Fortune 500 companies like Avon and Toys R’ Us house fan pages on Facebook. People who are interested in these companies and who are members of Facebook can join the organizations’ pages. Those who run these fan pages, or groups as they are alternately named, give their fans the most up-to-date product and company information. The companies’ website and other contact information can be found on the fan pages, an aspect which can result in an increase in web traffic for the firm. In their traditional print, radio, email, mail, and web ads, companies have started to make consumers aware that they have pages on Facebook, and people are encouraged to visit the firms’ pages on the social networking site.
While large companies have taken advantage of Facebook’s big pool of potential customers and used the site as a marketing tool that has the potential of increasing website traffic, Facebook tends to be a particularly effective method of promotion for small businesses as well. Smaller businesses tend to not have the discretionary marketing dollars that their larger counterparts have, which makes Facebook a very attractive marketing option for them. This is since it is free to join Facebook and to set up a page or more on the popular social networking site at this time.
An example can describe a small business’s utilization of Facebook to promote itself. A small cafe owner would like to market his or her products and services. With this, he or she starts a Facebook page containing the cafe’s background, as well as pictures of the desserts offered by the cafe. The cafe initially invites his or her friends to join the cafe’s new home on Facebook. Eventually, those friends can tell their friends about the page, and the cycle can continue to a level where Facebook can potentially scope out new customers for the cafe.
Recommendations from other customers have typically been the most potent force for small businesses looking to market their products and services. Small firms tend to be community-based, and many of them are shops that have been in families for generations. Facebook provides many small family-owned businesses with a modern take on advertising via word-of-mouth, a phenomenon that small companies are increasingly using to further their interests.
Large and small companies alike have been using the popular social networking site Facebook to market their products and services. However, the impact of Facebook as a promotional tool has been even bigger on small companies which do not have a lot of discretionary funds for marketing. Small companies can effectively use Facebook, which is free to join, to promote awareness of their firms and to drive more traffic to their websites. This in turn has the solid potential of increasing small businesses’ customer bases if they use Facebook effectively.
The impact of social networking sites on the world of marketing can not be overstated. These sites are inexpensive and efficient methods that an internet marketer can use to promote a home business products and/or services.
