Facebook 2013 Will Business Marketing Still be Effective ? Grid ...

Once upon a time, a tech-savvy young man by the name of Mark Zuckerberg, along with some of his comrades, launched a social networking hub called Facemash at a humble little institution known as Harvard University. This brainchild soon infiltrated major Ivy League schools like Yale and Stanford.

As it was growing exponentially, the creators moved their base of operations to the kingdom of California. This allowed the social hub to grow bigger, eventually convincing Zuckerberg and Co. to launch Facebook-as it is named now-publicly in September 2006.

The rest, as they say, is history? or is it?

On 18th of May 2012, the company had its initial public offering, forever marking this day a historical one. Not only was this IPO the biggest in technology, but it was also the biggest in the Internet industry with over $104 billion as market capitalisation.

But, despite high expectations from its founder whose unwillingness to take the company public lasted for years, this bid was met with inevitable issues and problems. Investors and stakeholders were racked with headaches, poring over millions of dollars wrongly placed, over-bidding of shares, over pricing, and so on.

Essentially, it was an IPO disaster.

So, now, we face the question: is Facebook still significant for business marketing?

Let?s try to answer that by analysing some elements?

Facebook, if you don?t already know, has managed to sink its claws into our community in just a few years. Don?t believe me? These numbers should convince you.

• It accounts for over 50% of active Internet usage globally, while Google+ is in 2nd place with almost 26%, and YouTube and Twitter follow with almost 23%.
• It attracts more than 618 million active users each day, amounting to 28% average increase each year.
• It records more than 500+million Likes each day, 85.8% click-through shopping sessions, and 2.6% purchases made through FB pages.

But that?s not all?

Wall Vs Timeline

Aside from transitioning TheFacebook to only Facebook, one of the observable changes is the profile page. Two or three years ago, if you already had an account back then, you?ll remember that the page merely resembled a curriculum vitae, with your picture on the top left corner and your name and other info directly below it. You also had a Wall where friends and groups can post, adding to your own status updates.

But now, you have the Timeline, where your entire profile features a cover photo, a profile picture, your Info, and a chronological order of ALL updates from yourself, friends, groups, events, social games and apps, and so on.

Custom Page Tabs

This isn?t exactly a new thing, but the apps that support these are now accommodating more designs and flexibility in terms of usage. For instance, Facebook Markup Language is assisting programmers in making custom tabs for customers. This allows them to create customised subscription methods for mailing lists, easier information sharing about a company, or better techniques for online promos and giveaways.

Video + Voice

The company recently announced a new update to its mobile application. FB mobile users can now record and send videos directly from their smartphones. While this may seem like a defence mechanism against SnapChat, it actually gives businesspersons and Pay on Results marketers a lot of
leverage for mobile marketing.

Even if it?s not feasible for companies to send out videos or audio recordings of promotional materials, they can nevertheless use it to hold contests or receive feedback from their target market.

Apps Vs Adds

FB advertising has become easier and more advanced through the years, giving marketers more options in terms of reaching their audiences. For instance, Open Graph gives access to users? browsing habits and interests, allowing entrepreneurs to gauge what their clients want and don?t want.

This essentially results to better and more targeted forms of marketing, one that will suit all kinds of customers for any business niche.

Now let?s go back to the question?

Is Facebook still significant for business marketing? Absolutely. Judging by the numbers that it?s continuing to reap, it will continue to be in the next few years!

About the Author:
Jonny Lis is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Smart Traffic, a private company based in Bristol offering SEO services in Australia, UK, and other countries. Jonny oversees SEO strategies for Smart Traffic?s 300+ campaigns.

Source: http://gridconcepts.com.au/2013/03/facebook-2013-will-business-marketing-still-be-effective/

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