Social Media: Facebook Marketing for a Small Business
Cochrane, Alberta, Feb. 2024
Small businesses often face two unfortunate outcomes by trying to be “everywhere” on social media:
- They struggle to create enough content for all their social media platforms, making it difficult to stay relevant.
- They don’t produce the right content for their target audiences and don’t engage with others’ content. As a result, they lose brand authority and aren’t unique.
When business owners ask me: where I should start my Social Media journey? What social media channel I should establish for my small business first? Most of the time, my answer is simple – start with a Facebook Business Page.
In this article, I want to dive into why it is a great idea to start establishing your Facebook Business Page and what are the advantages of having it.
How engaged are global users on Facebook?
Probably most people around you have their personal Facebook accounts. If you think from this perspective, you immediately can sense that Facebook is a great place to reach new audiences. Every month, around 37% of the global population uses Facebook.
The massive usage of Facebook allows people to engage with their friends, family, and in this case – your business. The average Facebook user spends about 19.5 hours each month on the platform. They browse, explore, search, use the marketplace, join groups, and share information with friends.
By joining this platform, you can promote your small business and story. Additionally, you can reach a new audience who may not be familiar with your brand in the market. By building community – you build trust, respect, and authority for your business.
68% of active monthly Facebook users come on this social media platform daily – it means that you have every day to establish or make stronger connections with your potential clients. Every day will present opportunities to learn more about your target audience, like what they love about you, what works for them, and new niches to target with content and advertisement. Almost 210 million people in North America use Facebook regularly. This makes it perfect for having conversations with customers in your town or with customers across the country.
What demographic advantages does Facebook offer?
Speaking about a target audience and how it is related to your business objectives might be tricky.
Approximately 20% of all active users are between 25 and 34, and 56% of users are male, but don’t let that stop you from opening up a Facebook Business Page for your senior women’s clothing line. The demographics who use Facebook are diverse and, alongside widespread use, it is very effective in targeting most audiences.
Looking into different aspects of online purchasing behaviours, millennials make the highest number of direct purchases on online marketplaces. Because Millennials are the largest group of active users on Facebook, it provides a great opportunity for small businesses to reach this age segment and increase their sales, just by being part of this social media channel.
How significant is a Facebook Business Page?
By having an established Facebook business page, you as a business owner, enhance your brand’s online presence. Active Facebook use is a great way to get your business noticed for the right reasons. Just by putting out content, and engaging in conversation, you will stand out from your competition and bring new leads to your business.
So many businesses underestimate the engagement element of Facebook’s Business page. The formula is fairly simple: thank your audience for commenting, start conversations with them, join different groups and provide value and knowledge. Finally, don’t be afraid to directly engage with your clients via Messenger.
More importantly, Facebook allows you to run ads to promote your small business, your services, seasonal deals and so much more. To grow organically is important, but if you can allocate a budget for specific campaigns it brings additional targeted online visibility. Furthermore, Facebook provides analytics and insights about your business page and based on this information, you can plan your marketing efforts and budget accordingly. It might incentivize you to rethink your business model and start working on new opportunities.
What is the impact on product discovery and video marketing on Facebook?
Most likely by now you are wondering: “Hmm… okay, I will establish a Facebook Business Page, but then what should I do?”. Thank you for asking :). You want to create a community.
Social media platforms are meant to create social communities, people would go straight to online shopping places like Amazon if they want to just buy a specific product. Over 80% of businesses share videos on Facebook and not all of them are about the product. Don’t forget that your target audience wants to see behind the product and understand what your small business’s mission and vision are, and what experiences you are selling to them.
Your potential target audience what to see what is going on with your business, they want to see what new products or services you are offering. If you learn how to make them engaged and always excited about your new posts – they will come back daily and converting that audience into sales will be much easier. Especially, when Facebook makes up above 50% of product searches on social media platforms.
How effective is Facebook advertising for a small business?
To answer this question in short: it is effective. To be able to reach your target audience and put your brand and your offerings in front of new audiences – is always a great thing for a business.
Let’s not forget that advertising is relatively cheap on Facebook compared to other social media platforms or channels. An average Facebook user clicks on approximately 12 ads every month. With a growing Facebook community, annual global advertising reach increased by 5.0% in 2023. With such a massive audience this percentage converts to millions of new potential clients.
If you are a small business owner and don’t know where to start in social media – start by establishing your Facebook Business Page.
To get started, determine a realistic goal for how many posts you can make per week. Then, create a social media calendar. Finally, only add more platforms when you are confident on Facebook.
If you see that social media is not your cup of tea – there are marketing agencies and affordable plans for your business, that professionals would take care of and help you to grow your revenue through this stream.
Article Resources:
