Chances are you have tried social media for your business but did not see the results you were hoping for. In many cases, businesses give up on social media because they invest time and energy (and money) into posting content with the intention of eventually seeing an ROI.
When businesses don’t see an ROI, the logical next step is to stop… Unfortunately, it is likely the STRATEGY was flawed, not the platforms itself. In this post, we will discuss why your business simply cannot afford to turn it’s back on social media and offer a few solutions/strategies that you can implement into your social media advertising.
Why Your Business Cannot Afford to Ignore Social Media – Most Recent Facebook Statistics
1. Worldwide, there are over 1.94 billion monthly active Facebook users for March 2017 (Facebook MAUs) which is an 18 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook 5/3/17) What this means for you: In case you had any lingering doubts, statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore.
2. Age 25 to 34, at 29.7% of users, is the most common age demographic. (Source: Emarketer 2012) What this means for you: This is the prime target demographic for many businesses’ marketing efforts, and you have the chance to engage these key consumers on Facebook.
3. Average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes. (Source: Infodocket) What this means for you: You could have a short time period to make your impression, so use it wisely with relevant, interesting and unique posts and offers in order to get the most return on your efforts.
4. One in five page views in the United States occurs on Facebook. (Source: Infodocket 2012) How this helps you: This is a huge market on the web; if you use social media marketing efforts on Facebook well, you could have huge returns to show for it.
5. Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. (Source: The Social Skinny) The Implication: Again, there are a lot of engaged and active users, but also a huge amount of information competing for their attention, so quality and strategy on your part matter.
Statistics ground us to the power of sites like Facebook; however….
#1 Reason why your business should be plugged into social media: Your customers are engaging on social media and sites like FACEBOOK have KILLER advertising platforms that allow you to reach them – with LASER TARGETED DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING
Here is a quick example that illustrates the power of Facebook Advertising:
Let’s say you owned a restaurant and wanted to bring more people in the door. Here is the perfect use for Facebook ads (note: there are several other ways to structure this kind of an offer for other businesses).
- Create a special birthday “buy one get one free” offer
- Run an ad on Facebook for pennies on the dollar
- Target ONLY people that live within 10-15 miles of your business
- Target ONLY people that have birthdays in the next 30 days
- Target ONLY people that have good friends within the next 30 days
- Send these people to a landing page and collect Name, Email and Phone Number
- People that take the offer get an immediate email notification AND text message with their coupon code.
- As part of the condition of the offer, they must check in to your business to redeem the BOGO offer.
Four Huge Impacts From One Simple BOGO Offer (that creates future opportunity for more business)
- You have created “Butts in the Seats” of your establishment – who will spend money (very few people eat alone).
- You have created DISTRIBUTION for future marketing (you are creating a marketing list with names, emails, AND phone numbers). This means you can send them notifications & offers at any time.
- The average person on Facebook has between 200-400 Friends – when they check in to your establishment 200-400 people will see your business in their Facebook newsfeed (FREE ADVERTISING).
- Because you sent them to a landing page, you now have the ability to run re-targeting ads.
This type of advertising cannot be replicated in any other form (i.e. Direct Mail)
Here are 6 additional Benefits of Plugging Your Business into Social Media
TARGETING – businesses can place targeted ads or content in front of a laser focused audience (i.e. audiences that are the most likely and most qualified to actually purchase from them).
Reach/Visibility – The ability to quickly build up a following and keep your brand top of mind on social media has never been seen before. It is a markers dream if utilized properly.
The ability to push out notifications to your target prospects and social media following instantly
The ability to interact with customers and prospects through intelligent messaging.
The ability to use content to attract and convert prospects
The ability to target prospects on multiple social media channels through website pixels.