Should your business be using Facebook for marketing?
Social media is a crucial marketing tool for New Zealand businesses in almost every industry. In this section of our social media guides, our content specialists share insights on whether Facebook is right for your business and how to use the platform effectively.
How does Facebook work for businesses?
With more than 2.91 billion active users, Facebook is a robust platform for personal and public content, media sharing, messaging, events coordination, shopping, entertainment, and advertising.
Using Facebook for your business is a great way to grow your customer engagement and reach. Meta (Facebook’s new name) allows companies of all sizes and sectors to promote their services, increase brand awareness, and boost sales and website traffic through effective Facebook content strategies.
What are the benefits of your business posting on Facebook?
While using Facebook may seem daunting due to the ever-changing layouts and algorithms of the platform, when used correctly, it can be a highly effective marketing and sales tool.
Facebook helps to build online communities.
Facebook is great for helping you build up your business’ online community, which is an efficient way to grow your brand with people interested in what you offer.
Social proofing your brand
Customers are now the only thing that matters; they are your advocates who can get you into the conversation and spread the word about you. This is called social proofing, and Facebook can help you do it.
When people shop, they look for reviews, recommendations, and often ways others have used a product before making their decision. Facebook is a place where these actions organically take place.
Your potential and existing customers can leave reviews and comments on a post and give your brand media coverage, which is all helping social-proof your brand.
Gain in-depth audience insights
Facebook can show in-depth insights of your audience. For example, the ‘page overview‘ section offers your page views, post reach, likes, and much more.
These audience insights can empower your company to deepen its understanding of your audience to deliver more meaningful messages that drive growth. It also shows demographic information such as gender, age, location, and when your customers are most active online.
These comprehensive insights may also help your brand understand why certain audiences gravitate towards specific products and services. All of this information can help you refine your marketing campaigns.
Build brand loyalty
Facebook can be a great place to help build your loyalty as a brand.
Constantly providing valuable, entertaining content means your followers are still engaged, and your brand will remain in the front of your customer’s minds.
Gain insights into your competitors
The social media profiles of businesses similar to yours can provide valuable information. The Meta Business Suite has useful features that allow you to compare the performance of your page to your competition, which is an excellent way to see how other companies in your niche are.
Some other benefits of using Facebook as part of a more comprehensive content marketing strategy are:
- Lowering your marketing expenses
- Amplifying website traffic
- Boosting SEO
- Increased brand awareness
How do you measure success on Facebook?
Facebook has specifically designed tools to help you measure your brand’s success. Some reporting KPIs include sales numbers, link clicks, website traffic, how much revenue Facebook has driven for your business, follower growth, and many more.
Just about any quantitative goal you have can be measured on Facebook!
Read more about the Facebook KPIs that could be most useful for your business here.
Paid Facebook ads and post boosting: What’s the difference?
If reaching users organically is something you struggle with, then Facebook boosting or Facebook ads might be a good option for your business.
Facebook boosting is when you allocate marketing budget to advertise an existing post on your Facebook page.
Facebook ads are the same principle, except it provides additional functionality and placement options for more precise targeting and reporting. It can give you a deeper analysis of results from your campaign, which can be used for a more practical retargeting or general understanding of your target audience.
Is Facebook good for B2Bs?
Yes, it is!
While Facebook might have a reputation for not being for B2B marketers, 74% of users reportedly use Facebook for professional purposes.
Because most people are already on Facebook, your customers are there whether you are doing paid ads, lead generation, or posting for engagement. Everything depends on your marketing goal and capacity to connect with B2B decision-makers.
A CEO might use Facebook to read memes, but your advertisement might still get their attention!
Learn how to set up your business Facebook page here.
Is Facebook right for my business?
While Facebook is one of the ‘original’ forms of social media, Facebook still remains one of the most successful platforms in the digital marketing era.
However, Facebook does tend to favour larger companies. Boosting and paid advertisement is more expensive than on other platforms, and having incredibly engaging content is critical, which is more synonymous with larger companies.
However, this isn’t to say if you are a smaller business or have just started up, that Facebook isn’t an excellent platform to include in your marketing strategy.
It may take time, but if you utilise the platform correctly, Facebook can be a great place to start.
When asking if Facebook is right for your business, you also need to consider your audience. Facebook has the most users of all social platforms, however, the most substantial and engaged demographic for Facebook is males and females between 25 and 35. Facebook tends to attract many people over 35 as well; this age bracket is more likely to use Facebook as opposed to Instagram and TikTok exclusively. So, if your product or service targets consumers aged 35+, Facebook might be right for you!
If you think Facebook might not be the right social platform for your business, there are several other platforms that could provide you with excellent opportunities to market yourself online! Check out our insights on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn to learn more.
We are here to help
Facebook marketing takes planning, creativity and an in-depth understanding of social media. If you need more time to focus on core operations whilst reaping Facebook’s growth benefits, consider a Content Cartel social media package. Our content producers work to understand your brand’s unique needs and voice, then strategise and deliver impactful social media content.
Contact us today to learn more about our social media services.
