Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Facebook Advertising Euphoria - Is it Good or Bad for Small Businesses?

By Julia Koor


In the not too distant past, when an individual decided to find out more information about a business or service, they usually 'Googled' the business, and all was well and done. However, today there is another option, custom Facebook fan pages for business promotion.

Facebook landing pages are a form of social media savvy that has proven to result in positive outcomes for larger businesses. With more than 800 million possible Facebook users, with an extra 50% active online on any given day, Facebook has emerged as the No.1 method for business advertisements. Many larger companies such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks all have Facebook profiles, or Facebook landing pages. However, the million-dollar question for smaller businesses is "can they afford to go all-out via advertising on Facebook!"

Nearly any big company today such as Nike or Ralph Lauren, have Facebook landing pages. In spite of this "big business" take over, small businesses are catching the hint.

Even so, the most urgent concern for small businesses is "whether their budget can stretch for advertising on Facebook or not!" So far, statistics show that this may be a smart small business move. Stories abound about small companies that have created custom Facebook fan pages for business, showing an increase in revenue by 50%. Success stories with such large monetary returns show the effectiveness of a social medium like Facebook.

However, a few small business proprietors were not pleased with their Facebook campaigning efforts. The trick behind a beneficial Facebook business campaign is to comprehend the vibrancy of the medium. Once the correct method is discovered, there's no reason for a small business not to take a chance. A company shouldn't "break the bank" when they first begin advertising on Facebook. A small amount allocated to such an endeavour should suffice in the beginning stages. Facebook gives small businesses the opportunity to create specific packages catering to their target audience, times when they want the advertisement to appear, and how much they want to spend, whether pay-per-click or in volume.

Thus, businesses can apportion a moderate budget while commencing their campaigns on various demographics and afterwards changing the campaign as they go along. Compared to other Internet advertising forums, Facebook is considered the perfect spot to advertise forums, events, blogs and websites. With the privacy settings on Facebook, visitors can select when and how they want to be exposed to advertisers, groups, or individuals. When users signal what their interest are makes it easier for businesses to filter traffic and aim at the appropriate audience.

It should be of no surprise that Facebook has more in-coming traffic than Google, another advantage that marketers can exploit. Facebook offers more convenience to small business as well with their well thought out word count mechanism.

In the final analysis, Facebook is beneficial for small businesses, if not only for its cost-effectiveness and bigger target audience alone. Facebook advertising will take effort, but the effort has a better chance of paying off if a business takes it seriously and really understands the how, and why they should advertise on Facebook.




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