The most popular platform for social media marketing across the globe is Facebook.
Setting up a Facebook account is common to most people of all ages, all over the world. You can create a social network starting with friends, immediate family and work colleagues relatively quickly. Motivations behind this are a combination of curiousity, social interaction and fear of exclusion. It seems now that most people have a Facebook account whether they like it or not.
One of the attractions is that it is free to create an account and start making “Friends”. Then by the phenomenon of association (Kevin Bacon Handshakes, not Godwin’s Law) this network of friends can grow not quite exponentially but dramatically if you actively seek out connections past and present, and connections of those connections. Facebook platform dictates how the online social networking functions and allows some scope for customisation within its boundaries.
When it comes to business, it is very common now for small to medium-sized business (SMBs) to start with a Facebook Page before developing their own company website. The popularity of Facebook pages is measured in “Likes” as opposed to “Friends” and again an initial advantage is that the Facebook page can be set up with minimal cost to the business. All that is required is a personal Facebook account to administer the page.
Facebook pages are also seen as being more accessible and easy to update with images and news, and there is a familiar mechanism for visitors to vote for your business page by “Liking” it, and also, if permitted, add their own comments and images to news posts or information that the business adds.
When developing a business’ online web presence, the process and concept of web development should include consideration for managing social marketing tools. Most business owners and employees already have enough work to do, so harvesting the benefits of quality traffic and engagement with social media has to incorporate how regular, relevant and meaningful updates will be maintained as part of the business marketing strategy.