The Fundamental Goal of Facebook Marketing

If you’re running a business online, there’s no avoiding the social media giant that almost everyone knows (and is likely using): Facebook.

Since its beginnings, Facebook quickly became the most popular social networking platform, allowing users to stay connected with friends and family. This has changed significantly into one of the most competitive places to promote your business and sell your products or services.

This article explores the fundamental goal of Facebook marketing and why you should use it to grow your business.

What is Facebook?

Let’s get started by looking at the history of Facebook.

Facebook was founded in 2004 by the well-known Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook started as a social networking site available to Harvard students only, then expanded to more universities nearby.

As its popularity increased, Facebook opened access to users aged 13 or over. It continued to grow worldwide, and in 2012, Facebook announced it had 1 billion users on the platform. In the same year, Facebook purchased Instagram for 1 billion dollars. Following this, Facebook bought Whatsapp in 2014 for $19 billion and other companies such as Oculus VR, Ascenta, and ProtoGeo Oy.

As seen in the chart above, Facebook currently has over 2 billion active monthly users, which has significant potential for your business.

 What Does Facebook Mean For Your Business?

For your business, Facebook is more than just a social networking website. Facebook is a place where you can communicate your products and services and make connections with potential customers.

To do this, you would start by setting up a Facebook page for your business. You can create a page specific to your company, product, service, or brand.

Once you have your Facebook business page, the next thing to do is find people that “like” your page and want to follow your posts. This sounds simple, but it can be one of the biggest challenges for any business.

Making connections with Facebook users will depend on various factors, such as the type of content you provide, what time you post your content, and much more. If you’re unfamiliar, posting images and videos gets more engagement than text-based posts. A user may also be checking their Facebook at any time of the day; however, the most common times to check it seem to be first thing in the morning or after work/school. Posting between 9 am to 5 pm can result in sporadic results.

To make the most of your time and effort using Facebook with your business is to understand the potential of Facebook marketing.

What is Facebook Marketing?

Facebook marketing combines creative and active strategies to communicate with users and attract them as new customers. As mentioned, Facebook allows businesses to create a page dedicated to their products, services, or brand. After that, it’s entirely up to you to attract a following with users interested in your business.

Here are a few examples of Facebook Marketing:

• Adding Facebook “like” and “share” buttons to your website
• Participating in conversations on Facebook groups
• Providing contests and prizes for liking your page and sharing your content
• Using Facebook Ads

That last point, Using Facebook Ads, has become one of the most commonly used methods for Facebook marketing. Just take a look at the revenue growth from 2010 to 2017 that Facebook has in advertising alone:

The majority of Facebook’s earnings come from advertising. This is because Facebook has incredible buying potential due to its 2 million active users.

Facebook has dedicated considerable effort toward developing tools and resources you can use to market and advertise your business. Finding the right users can be done using Facebook’s advanced search variables. You can choose the location, interests, behaviors, and demographics of all the potential users to attract your business.

Facebook has evolved from just a social networking platform and has become a marketplace for businesses to find their customers. This is why many companies use Facebook Ads to promote their business and grow their channels and primarily to find their buyers.

 How to Successfully Market Your Business on Facebook?

 Facebook Ads offers unlimited opportunities to reach out and find new customers for your business. With Facebook Ads, you can:

• Builds awareness
• Gets your posts seen
• Encourage engagement
• Drive traffic
• Increase sales

Generating any revenue from Facebook can take a lot of trial and error. Your ads’ images, copy, and style may or may not be the perfect fit for your target audience.

However, if done successfully, your return on investment can make Facebook your primary platform to find customers for your business. To optimize your efforts, there are a few things you can do to improve your success:

1. Understand Your Following. As your Facebook channel grows with likes, you’ll see what kind of people are interested, the posts they engage with more frequently, which advertisements drive the most traffic, and other critical information to improve sales. As you learn more about your following, you can maximize your marketing efforts and spending.
2. Market Specifically to Your Following. While you can use Facebook Ads to grow your channel, you can create specific ads for your Facebook following. Don’t forget that the people who like your page are genuinely interested in your business. Creating a campaign with special offers and promotions specific to them can be a supplemental approach to growing your business.
3. Communicate with Facebook Users. While the ultimate goal of any business is to generate revenue, Facebook remains a social platform. As you promote your products and services, don’t forget to maintain communication with those who comment on your posts or send messages to your inbox.
4. Participate in Facebook Groups. Another powerful method of engaging with Facebook users who may not already follow your channel or know about your business is by participating in Facebook groups. Although this may consume a significant amount of time, joining groups relevant to your business where you can share posts and engage in conversations can help attract new customers.
5. Use Facebook Ads. It has been mentioned a few times in this article the potential of Facebook Ads. If you’re unsure how to use Facebook Ads, this article has more details. 

The fundamental goal of Facebook Marketing is to attract users to your business, introduce them to your products or services, and generate revenue. So, if you’re business isn’t already using Facebook, now is an excellent time to get on it.