Ok hands up, Facebook was never entirely free, it’s always taken time to generate content and maintain your presence on Facebook. And time = money.

One of the most appealing things about Facebook is that most of the Internet using population is on it and if you could folks to click that ‘like’ button, well, you had ‘em.

Things have changed, a lot.

Over the last couple of years, many changes have occurred to business pages (sorry, timelines) – moving to the timeline design, losing the tab format, losing the obvious landing page to name but a few. And don’t forget there are just simply hundreds of millions more users on there than 2 years, you’ve got more noise to compete against.

But the biggest change? Visibility – thanks to Facebook’s algorithm, Edgerank, which dictates what percentage of the people who like your page actually see what your post.

2 years ago – you could expect 80-90% of your followers to see your posts.

Now - for small businesses you’re looking at 30-40% visibility, for larger businesses that percentage goes down to a paltry 15%. Eek….

Unsurprisingly, many businesses aren’t happy about this. Some now employ the tactics of the ‘share this post if/like this post if’ quick engagement post (although I understand it, it’s lazy marketing in my book) to try to boost their Edgerank. Others have just wondered why their engagement rate has dropped through the floor.

And the rest?

They pay. Using the Facebook advertising model, they hand over cash on a regular basis to Facebook to promote either their page or individual posts. Those ads show up as an advert or a sponsored story – you’ll have seen them filtering through your stream by now I’m sure.

And there’s a problem with those sponsored adverts. I’m starting to see the same brands advertising on Facebook in the same way, all the time. And it’s annoying, to the point where the brand is potentially devaluing itself to it’s target audience.

(Image courtesy of Darren Dean)

Oops. Handing over cash and not helping their brand in the long-term (even though they get some short-term hits). Sainsbury’s and Aviva are both guilty of this recently for me.

Should all businesses be spending money on Facebook Advertising?

Yes, if:

➢ Your business is suited to Facebook (most B2B business aren’t, in my view)
➢ You want to boost your engagement and visibility of your posts.
➢ Your content is good/engaging/creative etc…

If you’re not using Facebook advertising but Facebook is a major part of your social media marketing, it’s time for a rethink.

You need a balance of consistent, compelling, creative content and then use advertising for certain posts where you want your reach to increase towards 75% of your followers (and others). Where you use advertising, don’t run campaigns for too long otherwise the same users may see the same adverts time and time again, and that may well not do you any favours when they just want to see what their mates are up to!

What do you think: are you running a Facebook page that’s producing a return, has high engagement and reach without advertising? I’d love to know!

Are you considering starting using Facebook advertising this year? There’s a good article here with some tips.

Jan

The post Facebook: No longer a free social media tool for business? appeared first on The Net Advantage.

The aim of these workshops is to provide advice and hands on training to allow businesses and organisation make sure they are maximising their return from Social Media, or get going with how to use it effectively, while applying a healthy dose of reality in terms of what is achievable in our busy lives.

Each session stands by itself (but obviously we’d recommend you come to as many as you can to get the most benefit for your business!). All the details for each workshop is available on the Shropshire Chamber via the links below:

Jan 25th 2012 – Auditing your Online presence for enhanced return

Feb 1st 2012 – Using LinkedIn proactively to develop quality business leads – SOLD OUT

Feb 7th 2012 – Using LinkedIn proactively to develop quality business leads

Feb 22nd 2012 – Setting up a Facebook Business Page

Feb 29th 2012 – Advanced Twitter: Using Twitter to find & engage with your target market

Mar 7th 2012 – Advanced Facebook: Using Facebook to build your Online presence

Mar 13th 2012 – Blogging: How to optimise your Blog content for better engagement

Mar 21st 2012 – Latest Social Media developments & top tips for Online Marketing success

Please note that session 1 and session 8 are interactive workshops, sessions 2 to 7 require a laptop to get the most out of the session, if you do not have one or cannot borrow one please let Shropshire Chamber know at the time of booking and we will do our best to ensure you have one.

If there are other workshops you would like to see us do, please let us know in the comments below and we’ll see what we can do.

Hope to see you at the workshops soon….

Jan

The post Social Media Training for Shropshire Chamber appeared first on The Net Advantage.