Small Business Network Marketing Guide

As a small business owner in Orchard Park or anywhere for that matter, you are probably more than aware of the need to have your business on Facebook. With its 2+ billion users, it is the place that you need to be and the place that your business needs to be.

Recently, though, Facebook has been seeing scandal after scandal.

From Cambridge Analytica, to account hacking, to Russian interference, and more, the question is: "Is Facebook still worth investing time and energy?" Or should we all move to another platform?

The answer is that despite all the nonsense, research shows Facebook’s users don’t seem to have changed their behavior.

You’ll still find your best marketing opportunities on the world’s biggest social network, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Spending time learning Facebook marketing is worth the investment.

So we have started a series of helpful articles to get you going in the world of social media.

Now most of you probably have some sort of Facebook presence for your business already but has it been effective for you? Are you getting enough likes? Are the right eyes seeing your goods and services?

You need to get sales for your goods and services but the issue is that most people do not initially come to Facebook to buy or to be advertised to. They come to talk to friends and family. They come to read shared stories or watched shared videos. They come to trade recipes. They come to see how friends and family across the country are doing. Their intent is not to buy something. For you to market to them you need to understand that.

Step one, is to get you brand out there. You have to create an ad campaign that attracts new likes. In other words, you need to create an ad that is compelling to make people say. "Hmmm, I have never of heard of this company, but they sound interesting. I like what I see. I will click 'like'." People typically do this for future reference because they want to see more from you. Do not forget. They are a cold prospect at this point and really do not know you yet.

In these series of forth coming articles, we will touch on all the bits that we as social media experts know in an attempt to make you one as well. That being said, the first area of concern is the most obvious. Is your audience on Facebook?

The answer is, probably. In the words of social media expert Neil Patel:

The most recent data by Pew Research Center shows that every age demographic uses at least one social network platform, with younger users with higher percentages. Plus, both men and women use social media in about equal numbers.

And when it comes to which network people use, Facebook dominates the list. In January 2018, 68% of Americans used Facebook, with Instagram in distant second place with 35%.

(YouTube was included for the first time in 2018 with 73% of Americans using it, but was any type of user, not just members.)

In other words, no matter what age group you’re targeting, there will be more than enough of those users on Facebook.

But the problem for you is time and knowledge, right? You are busy running your business day to day. You are ordering inventory. You are maintaining payroll. You are building reports. You have a lot to do. You don't have t he time to now undertake a new endeavor like learning and becoming a social media expert.

Do not fear, this is just the first in an installment of articles to help you navigate the waters of marketing, audiences, pixels and other Facebook jargon. As you immerse yourself, you will find it is not as difficult as you first thought. You will get the number of followers of your business page to increase. You will be able to create audiences for your ads. And then you will be able to run those ads and campaigns with confidence.

However, if you really just do not have the time you can hire and outsource this kind of work. More to come on that one.

We hope that you enjoyed this introductory article and look forward to future installments. Next up is "Market With Facebook Pages".