Facebook, Is It Worth It?

As a Business, Should You Invest Your Time on Facebook

My answer – yes and no.  I’ll explain further here in just one second.  Facebook is the one social media platform that we all know, and yet, can’t figure out.  It’s not our fault.  Facebook continues to change and evolve, trying to keep pace with the demands that we users place on them, and that the market necessitates.  Let’s face it, social media is an ever moving target.  There are new platforms that come out all of the time, and as everyone rushes to be an early adopter and attempt to gain Gary Vaynerchuk like success, the other platforms are struggling as ways to keep those users active on their own platform.

Back to my answer. Yes, you should have and maintain a presence on Facebook.  While it’s not the newest or shiniest of social media platforms, it has managed to retain a large portion of its user-base.  Now I say yes within reason, because to do well or gain new users and manage to engage them, it’s going to take an investment. Facebook now has share holders, who want to make money.  So the platform has changed it’s algorithm, now requiring many businesses to pay to share content with users.

How much time, effort, energy, and budget you invest in Facebook will depend on your individual business case.  If you are new and your budget it tight, I would say that setting up and maintaining a page is a great start.  This advice is twofold.  One you will have one more place to list your business information – including information about the business, products and services, and how to contact you.  When customers have an issue or brands want to partner, Facebook Messages are often a quick way to gain access to your brand.  The second reason is that there are some ways around having to pay for engagement.  You can run an email campaign, directing people to your page.  You can engage with a happy customer and ask them to leave you a Facebook Review.  Or at the point of purchase remind users to tag your brand in photos so that you can share them on your page.  This is all good will engagement and tends to help brands grow organically.  This can be time consuming – which is where McKeating Solutions comes in.  We can help you produce engaging content, and engage users to grow your brand’s presence.

Once you do that, you are in a better position to run paid promotions and sponsor posts.  Throughout the year, run a series of campaigns to acquire new users, and engage those that you have.  Be smart about the campaigns you run and the posts that you boost.  IE make sure that the content you are sponsoring or sharing is relevant, interesting, and/or entertaining to your followers.  Not every post you sponsor has to be an offer or a sale.  You might just share something interesting or meaningful to keep those users engaged with your brand.  There are other ways that you can pair your paid promotions with your organic strategy, for example by inviting those users who like or comment on your post to like your page.  McKeating Solutions is ready and able to help you craft your paid promotions strategy, and boost engagement, making the most out of your budget.

With paid promotions, you can accurately target your potential and current customers, engage them and keep them engaged with your brand.  It takes some time, energy and skill to create the right content and deliver it to the right people, but in terms of marketing dollars, a little bit of money here can go a long way.