I’ve mentioned the growth of social media marketing in this blog before, but the fact that I’ve read a lot recently about how more and more businesses are using Facebook to promote themselves means it warrants some further discussion.
In my experience, Twitter and LinkedIn have been the first points of contact for businesses in the world of social media. They’ve led the march so to speak. Facebook has been able to accommodate it for quite some time, but all the same it has remained in the shadow of Twitter and LinkedIn.
Well, until now that is. Thanks to a discussion thread on one of my groups on LinkedIn, I’ve been able to read about a strong growth trend in businesses setting up their own pages on Facebook.
I watched a presentation the other day which stated that more than 700,000 businesses have active pages on Facebook. That’s just active ones – there are undoubtedly a good number of inactive ones, i.e. those that don’t update their pages with new content, whether it’s images, offers or links to blogs. In fact, I’d like to bet that the number is nearer one million now.
The Chichester Design team has just set up a Facebook page for Yellowstone Ski Lodge, which is just one example of the huge number of B2C companies that use the network. However, while B2C companies are the largest user group of company pages on Facebook, there are an increasing number of B2B companies using it as well.
A quick read through the discussion board lets me see that a marketing agency, a graphic design company, an IT trainer and a corporate events organiser to name but a few have their own pages. And, of course, we have our own Facebook page here at Chichester Design.
Another client that we’ve recently been doing some social media optimisation work for is Jacaranda Catering. One of the great things about a business using Facebook is the targeted marketing it allows you to do.
Because of the nature of Facebook and the information it has at its disposal, online marketing campaigns can be tailored to target very specific groups of people. For instance, campaigns can be aimed at specific age ranges, interests groups and locations. They can even be targeted at people who only use the social network at certain times of day.
Going back to Jacaranda, a catering company for whom wedding catering is a major focus, we’ve been able to create a campaign on Facebook that specifically targets engaged women.
And, of course, having an active Facebook page and linking it with your main website is a great search engine optimisation tool. This kind of activity is what helps makes businesses more visible online.
To find out more about Chichester Design’s web design and development services, including social media marketing, contact Michael on +44 (0)1243 787542 or info@chichesterdesign.co.uk.
You can trackback from your own site.