10 Reasons To Use Facebook for Business

Social networking sites, especially Facebook, have significant implications for business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs around the world. To keep your business current, you should at least be familiar with the latest social media marketing techniques and viral technologies, including Facebook and its array of powerful features.

Facebook recently crossed the 100 MILLION member mark. That’s no small number for sure. Yet, millions more will join this incredible platform in the coming months and years. And the vast majority will be seeking to use Facebook primarily for business purposes.

For many people new to Facebook, on first pass, the site can seem frivolous, time consuming, confusing and difficult to measure real *tangible* results. (I mean, who wants to have a sheep thrown at them, a vampire bite, cupcake or to be “sold” to other friends?! It’s a personal choice, but the ignore all button will quickly become your BFF!)

FastCompany.com dubbed me the “Pied Piper of Facebook.” So, to get you started, here’s my list of ten reasons you need to be active on Facebook!

[And, if you’re already successfully participating on Facebook, feel free to forward this post to your friends and clients who are not yet convinced WHY they should be using Facebook for business reasons.]

1. Meet your peers.Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more affluent and more educated white collar users.
2. Find business contacts.With more than 100 million active users, and predicted to be 500 million by 2011, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers, your JV partners… and, of course, your competitors. You need to be on too.
3. Instant gate opener.Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a dialog with highly successful—even famous—people who were previously otherwise unreachable.
4. Build relationships.By engaging in conversations with your prospects and customers, you can better adapt your marketing and business services to meet their needs.
5. Raise visibility.By consistently and congruently showing up, posting relevant information, and being a thought leader, you can increase visibility and credibility as the expert in your area.
6. Develop your personal brand.The lines between business and personal have become blurred. You can reveal as much or as little about yourself as you wish, allowing you to personalize your brand.
7. Target your niche.Users volunteer vast amounts of information about themselves that you can readily access. These kinds of demographics, psychographics, and technographics would previously have cost fortunes to access. Author, John Battelle, calls Facebook a “database of intentions.”
8. Get rapid top Google placement.Create a Page for your business and share information with your fans. Pages (for business) and Profiles (for personal) are indexed for optimal search engine positioning. Facebook has a page rank of #5 according to Alexa.
9. Place targeted ads.With Facebook Social Ads, you can test out extremely targeted advertising for minimal cost.
10. No cost marketing.Aside from paid ads, Facebook is totally free to use and with regular activity you’ll end up with more traffic, more subscribers, and more paying clients.

I trust you’ll be turned into a Facebook convert before long! Just be sure to create and implement a specific, integrated social marketing strategy… or you might suffer from Social Networking Overwhelm. 😉 If you need support with your strategy, I’d be happy to help.

Do you agree with these top ten? Are there any business reasons missing? What would you add? What are your biggest reasons for using Facebook?

Mari Smith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. Mari is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate social media strategist, dynamic live webcast host, and popular brand ambassador. She is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

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