Is Facebook Right for Marketing my Small Business?

Social media marketing can be a confusing area. There are many choices and intricacies involved in each platform. And there’s plenty of opportunity for wasting valuable marketing budget finding the right strategies for your small business!

Let’s explore marketing with Facebook– when you should engage with this platform and when you can safely ignore it.

When Facebook Marketing is Right for Your Business

• Your customers are consumers. People mostly use Facebook for personal reasons, and usually engage with brands that are part of their personal lives.
• Your brand lends itself to passion and loyalty. If customers usually feel strongly about your brand, you should consider Facebook marketing. For instance, Facebook is a great fit for philanthropic organizations like Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.
• Customers consider themselves friends with your business. Small businesses have the edge here with Facebook marketing. Many consumers are friends with their dog groomer. Almost no one thinks of themselves as friends with AT&T or Verizon.
• You have enough customers to build a community. If you have 100 or fewer customers (And your potential for growth isn’t in the thousands), there are probably better places to spend your marketing resources.
• Your products or services are interesting to most customers. Let’s face it, some of us do work for customers that the customers themselves don’t want to think much about. But if you can find a way to be truly interesting to your customers, then Facebook might still work for you.

When Facebook Marketing is Wrong for Your Business

If your business doesn’t meet a majority of the above criteria, you can probably ignore Facebook and focus on other social media marketing efforts.

I have clients who have built successful businesses using nothing more than Facebook, search and referral marketing strategies. Give me a call if you want to find out if these efforts could work for your small business.