Facebook Inc. (FB) as a platform can be a very popular way to establish a brand for a business. With more than 900 million users (and growing by all accounts) – nearly three times the population of the United States! – the potential visibility of a business is huge. But does the company need to spend thousands, or millions, of dollars to Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) for advertising on the social site?
Actually, it seems that for many companies, just investing in a social media manager on the payroll just might do the trick even better than any colorful ad. As Facebook is a social network, that socialization – known as “engagement” in business parlance – seems to be more important. Active participation is better than passive display.
Word spread quickly when General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) pulled all of its display advertising from Facebook Inc. – did that mean Facebook was done, that the rest of its advertising revenue was going to disappear? Well, while not everyone has pulled their advertising – some companies have scaled back, though – General Motors still has a presence on Facebook by maintaining a Fan Page in order to interact with Facebook users.
Facebook Inc. has a couple of predominant demographics that are attractive to businesses – tweeners and 30- to 39-year-olds. These seems to be two fo the more dynamic consumer demographics, so even if companies don’t advertise as much on Facebook – one company, American Apparel, says it has scaled back because o smaller ad sizes – they still make sure to have a Fan Page that is actively managed by an employees to initiate or maintain active engagement with customers, potential customers or overall Facebook Inc. users.
And the strategy that seems to work is using sharable content – videos, photos and updates – over outbound links to a company’s web site. Keeping users on Facebook seems to increase visibility and satisfaction among users, and keeping users on Facebook longer is one of the goals of Facebook Inc. in general, besides increasing the number of users. Whether users “lingering” on Facebook Inc. longer can be translated into more revenue is still a challenge for the social site, but investors surely would want to see some return on the lingering – investors like hedge-fund manager George Soros of Soros Fund Management.
