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The impact of social networking sites like Facebook on the world of marketing can not be overstated. Facebook is an inexpensive and efficient method that marketers can use to promote a company’s products and/or services and get people to visit their websites.
The universe of direct marketing has been taken to lengths never imagined even up to a few years ago by the social networking site Facebook. Millions of people with varied interests and backgrounds have joined Facebook for reasons that vary from keeping in touch with family and friends to networking. Facebook friends can be added or removed from individual profiles at any time. While Facebook is primarily known as a social tool that allows people to keep in touch, the social networking site can also be utilized by companies as a marketing tool that has the potential to be effective if used correctly.
A number of large companies including Toys R’ Us, Electrolux, Avon, and others have started to put fan pages up on Facebook. Facebook users who have an interest in these companies may join these company pages. The administrators of the fan pages, or groups as they are called, will update their fans on all of the latest company news, products, services, and events. Contact information, including most importantly company websites, is typically made available on such pages. This can translate into more clicks on the companies’ web pages. In order to draw attention to their spots on Facebook, it is becoming increasingly common for businesses to encourage potential customers to come and visit their pages on the social networking site. This may be done as part of ads deployed by traditional direct marketing methods such as print ads, radio spots, emails, mail pieces, or on websites, including the companies’ own websites.
While large companies have taken advantage of Facebook’s big pool of potential customers and used the site as a marketing tool that has the potential of increasing website traffic, Facebook tends to be a particularly effective method of promotion for small businesses as well. Smaller businesses tend to not have the discretionary marketing dollars that their larger counterparts have, which makes Facebook a very attractive marketing option for them. This is since it is free to join Facebook and to set up a page or more on the popular social networking site at this time.
The following is an illustration of how Facebook can be used to market a small business. An owner of a small cafe wants to promote his or her business. He or she sets up a page on Facebook which includes information about his or her company, pictures and descriptions of the different desserts offered at the cafe, testimonials about the business, and the url to the cafe’s website. Initially, the cafe owner can invite his or her friends to the page. Those friends can invite their friends, and the chain can go on to a point where the Facebook page has the potential of finding new customers for the business and increasing traffic to the cafe’s website. These actions in turn can positively enhance the cafe’s bottom line if enough people are made aware of the cafe and then decide to actually visit it. Thus, the more Facebook friends the cafe’s page has, the better.
Small businesses have always primarily relied on word-of-mouth advertising to promote their products and services. They tend to be locally based, and happy customers will tell their friends to visit the local merchants who have the best reputations. Facebook has now provided an online forum for small businesses to promote themselves; it is indeed a contemporary take on word-of-mouth advertising that more and more small firms are utilizing to their advantage.
Companies of all types and sizes are increasingly using Facebook to get the word out about their products and services. It should be noted that Facebook’s role as a marketing tool has been even more profound for small businesses, as they do not have the marketing budget that large firms do, and Facebook does not cost anything to join. Facebook can effectively promote awareness of companies’ activities and products, as well as drive traffic to companies’ websites. These aspects can in turn result in more customers for firms if they use Facebook in the correct manner.
The impact of social networking sites on the world of marketing can not be overstated. These sites are inexpensive and efficient methods that an internet marketer can use to promote a home business products and/or services.
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