Social media marketing is now one of the most effective ways to reach your message to the world. But like any other platforms, all platforms have their pros and cons. This article will explore the pros and cons of marketing on Facebook.
If you're looking at marketing on Facebook, it's important to keep in mind all the pro and cons so you can avoid making any mistakes. Because it is free to use, there isn't much in the way of consequences for using Facebook incorrectly but if you want your business to succeed, you need to choose your marketing tactics carefully.
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The Pros of Marketing on Facebook
1. It's free
Advertising is free, the only cost to you is your time. You can create a page for your business or brand and post updates on upcoming offers, share pictures of products or services you offer without having to pay anything at all. A common misconception is that social media is free, but this is far from the truth. However Facebook helps to cut out the middleman and helps you own your audience and reach with ease without having to pay anything. Learn about how optimize your Facebook page for success
2. It's easy for people to share
When you post an update or a picture on Facebook, it will automatically be shared on all of your followers' feed. This ensures that more people are exposed to the content you post. If your business has physical stores, this is a great way to advertise by boosting location awareness for yourself or even your spa or restaurant.
3. You can create events
Facebook allows you to create events for any of the following: an upcoming sale at your shop, a new product launch, a special screening of a movie etc. These events can be used to both build excitement for your business and engage with fans or customers in a fun way.
4. You have access to demographic data
Facebook has tons of information on who likes what and which adverts perform best for specific audiences (results may vary) but you at least have access to the data. This is much better than other platforms like Google who only gives you insights into your own website and not what others are doing on their websites.
The Cons of Marketing on Facebook
1. It can be difficult to measure results
With any marketing campaign, you want to know how well it's working for you to see what you should be changing or keeping the same. Facebook can give you great insights into performance but it's a common misconception that this data is easily available to everyone. It does require some creativity and work to figure out what's working and what's not working for your business, so keep this in mind when spending time on this platform.
2. It can be a huge time drain
Just like any other social media platform, it's possible that you could spend a lot of time updating your profile and sharing content that people aren't even seeing. Since Facebook is free, there's been no pressure to improve the user experience which has led to bloated profiles with lots of ads for irrelevant products. Use Facebook, but be aware of how much time you are spending on it and make sure your company is getting value out of it.
3. It's becoming a flooded market
In the past, Facebook was mainly used to build connections with friends and family so it seemed like a great idea at the time for businesses to start pages on the platform. With almost every single person in North America being connected to at least one other person on Facebook, many business have jumped on the bandwagon and now there are over 2 billion active users per month. That's a lot of competition for your business, which makes it more difficult to cut through all the noise and reach those people who will be interested in what you have to offer.
4. It's not as engaging as other platforms
A Forbes report found that people who don't have an ad-blocker installed on their browser spend around 24% of their time on Facebook looking at content from friends and family. This is a stark contrast to the 2% of their time they spent looking at adverts. While there are certainly some engagement methods that can be used, you're going to get a much better return on your investment if you focus on platforms that are more engaging and give users a better experience rather than trying to fit in with the masses.
Facebook has become one of the most popular social media sites, especially for businesses. It gives them an opportunity to connect with potential customers in real time which is something that other platforms struggle to provide so it's easy to see why so many people rely on it.