Facebook is a social utility for connecting people with those around them – friends, family, coworkers, or simply others with similar interests. Facebook started in 2004 as a closed community for college students (requiring users to sign up with a valid university email address) but has since expanded beyond that to high schools, corporations, regional networks, or any user across the world. Facebook allows users to connect and share information in a variety of ways.
Business Goals for Using Facebook:
- Get found by people who are searching for your products or services
- Connect and engage with current and potential customers
- Create a community around your business
- Promote other content you create, including webinars, blog articles, or other resources
Think your customers aren’t on Facebook? Why You Should Care…
Facebook demographic
According to recent surveys, 40% of active users in the United States are under 25 years old, and 23% are
between 26 and 34, while those over 35 are the fastest growing demographic. The typical Facebook user is connected to 130 friends.
TechCrunch has recently reported data from comScore that Facebook web traffic is now nearing that of Yahoo! It has already surpassed Yahoo! in monthly page views, and will soon overtake that search engine’s mark of more than 594 million unique visitors.
Of the 69% of online shoppers who regularly use social media sites, the overwhelming winner in terms of shopper presence is Facebook, with more than 50% of respondents saying that they use Facebook regularly.
Tapping into the enormous Facebook opportunity
Facebook ad spending in the United States went from $335 million in 2009 to $450 million in 2010 (a 34% increase). Facebook ad spending worldwide was even more impressive, going from $435 million in 2009 to $605 million in 2010 (up 39%). Non-U.S. ad spend went up from $100 million in 2009 to $155 million in 2010(a 65% increase).
eMarketer predicts that in the United States overall online social network ad spend will increase in 2011 to
$1.395 million—and this is just for paid advertising, which is a fraction of total spend.
Capitalizing on the Facebook marketing opportunity
With 400 million worldwide users and 100 million users in the United States, Facebook clearly presents an amazing opportunity for online marketers, and it is only getting better with each passing month. Over 50% of the user base goes onto the site every day, and users spend over three times as much time on Facebook as they do on the next-most popular site.
But the popularity of Facebook presents marketers with some interesting challenges as well. Users spend more time engaging on social media sites than searching, so it is essential that marketers learn how to harness those connections to create a strong relationship with the right customers in their target markets.
