Five reasons why your business should be on Facebook

Heard about Facebook but not sure what all the fuss is about? Clever businesses are finding ways to make Facebook one of their most powerful weapons in their online marketing arsenal.

Here are five reasons why your businses should be on Facebook:

1. Extreme Targeting and Testing of your Market

Facebook Ads allow you to target the audience of your ad campaigns down to: city, gender, age, occuptation, interests, relationship status, education level and workplace. Where else do you have that degree of targeting online?  You pay per click – with a daily limit that you’ve set  – and you can access reports that help you determine what’s working and what’s not.  Set up multiple campaigns and evaluate which specific demographics are clicking and/or which are buying.

2. Facebook is GREAT for promoting events

Use Facebook Events to promote your next event.  Once you’ve filled in the details for the event it’s a click of your mouse to invite your ‘Facebook Friends’ and to monitor their replies and RSVPs.  As a latin dancer I am invited to dance events every week and the smart latin dance event promoters are milking it for all its worth.

3. Friends of Friends – the viral effect

When someone RSVPs to one of your events, their friends can see this.  There have been many occasions on which I have decided to attend an event (even a 3-day seminar in another city!) on the basis of a seeing a friend sign up to it.  You can even set up your Event so that your invitees can invite THEIR friends.

4. People want to do business with…?

Facebook allows you to re-connect with people you’ve met and discover others with similar or complimentary interests.  Online networking works for the same reason that offline networking works: people want to do business with their friends.

5. Facebook helps you demonstrate that you’re good

Facebook allows you to set up a ‘Facebook Page’ for your business(es) and people can become ‘fans’ of your business.  A ‘fan’ can be a friend or a happy client or someone who simply thinks you do good work.  I have a Facebook Page for my photography, for example, and I have attracted ‘fans’ whom I’ve never met or known before.  Again, when someone becomes a fan of your business, their friends can see that and might be inclined to check it out.  If what you’ve got on offer is interesting enough, it can potentially spread through the friend networks virally.

Your action items

1. Sign up to Facebook and import your address book – look me up, too!
2. Look up old friends with whom you’ve lost contact
3. Set up a Facebook Page for your business
4. Set up a Facebook Ad as a trial to see how it works
5. Participate and play… experiment and see what works for you