With billions of users, Facebook has become a major social media network in countries all across the globe. Given its popularity, it’s not hard to imagine why businesses big and small have incorporated this platform into their marketing strategies. But, how big is Facebook really, and how can you maximize it to boost your business?
This infographic will present the latest data on Facebook, ways to leverage the platform to build brand awareness, and steps to create an effective Facebook marketing strategy.
Valuable Facebook Statistics to Drive Your Marketing Strategy
As of September 2021, Facebook has roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users, or 59% of the world’s social media population. On average, people spend two hours and 24 minutes on the platform daily, with 79.9% using their mobile phones.
When on Facebook, most users prefer to watch clips, so much so that at least four billion video views are recorded on it every day. Statistics also show that images are the most shared content on Facebook at 55.6%, compared to videos and links at 22.2% and 18.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, Facebook’s latest feature, Facebook Stories, has 500 million users daily.
As for the growing 10 million Facebook groups, more than 1.4 billion people actively engage in them every month.
4 Ways to Leverage Facebook for Your Business
Knowing how to use Facebook strategically can help increase brand awareness and build customer loyalty. Here’s how you can leverage Facebook to grow your business.
Optimize according to trends and statistics
Naturally, you would need to set up a Facebook business page first. Optimize it by considering the following hacks:
- List all the benefits customers can gain from your products or services by discussing them in the About section.
- Use keywords in strategic parts of your page, particularly in the About section, page title, and URL, to rank better in the search results.
- Create a custom URL to make it easier for people to remember your page. If possible, match the name of your page with your username. That way, your page can rank higher for that username.
- Add your address and local phone number, as this helps index your brand for local search results.
- Keep an eye on the latest Facebook features and implement them accordingly.
Share relevant content consistently
Aside from being a platform for communicating information about your business, your Facebook page can also be an effective medium for interacting with your customers through your content. When crafting posts, keep in mind that they should be relevant and valuable to your followers—they will stick around longer when you share content that resonates with them.
Generally, inspirational content generates interest and higher shares. Meanwhile, memes drive engagement by making people feel they’re part of an exclusive group. Plus, their power to grab attention through humor will make your brand appear fresh and authentic.
Consider creating a social media calendar to avoid long gaps between posts and stay on top of posting schedules. By consistently sharing content with your customers, you can continually keep them hooked.
Engage with your customers regularly
When possible, monitor your customers’ comments on your posts. Connect with them by acknowledging their positive or negative remarks and responding to their issues. You don’t need to reply to each, but interact when needed.
Furthermore, customers can send you private messages through the Messaging feature. Be sure to reply to their queries as timely as possible. Having automated replies ready in case you can’t immediately attend to their concerns is a great way to keep the conversation going, as well.
Run and promote an ad campaign
Running an ad campaign on Facebook can help you get more visibility for your posts. Depending on your marketing strategy, you can use an image, video, or carousel ad. Once launched, make sure to monitor your campaign to get insights into how your ads are performing. Specifically, it will help you understand:
- Who you are reaching
- Which ads generate the most conversions
- If your ads are relevant and engaging to your audience
6 Steps for An Effective Facebook Marketing Strategy
A well-planned Facebook campaign can help create a powerful marketing funnel, converting your visitors into loyal customers. Here’s a six-step guide to developing an effective Facebook marketing strategy.
Know your audience
A proper understanding of your target market will help you figure out what content to produce and publish. Audience Insights is a great starting point, as it gives you a general view of your Facebook demographics.
Study your page’s insights to know how people are responding to your posts. From there, tailor your content based on the data to enhance your customer engagement as you address their preferences accordingly.
Set goals
After looking at your demographics, identify what results you intend to achieve with your Facebook marketing strategy. Are you searching for new customers, increasing brand awareness, or generating leads? Set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that will allow you to track your progress more easily.
Address your goals through planning
Having a well-planned Facebook marketing strategy enables you to reach your target audience more efficiently. Part of the planning process is creating a marketing budget, which typically includes page-like ads and boosted posts.
Keep in mind that having a following can be beneficial to your business in the long run. It can help increase brand awareness and reputability, making your brand appear more trustworthy to prospects. In turn, this can cultivate leads, which translates to improved profitability.
Create engaging content
With your plan now set up, it’s time to create content. Make sure to draft and modify your posts according to your audience’s demographics and plot them at least a month in advance.
One way to make your content engaging is to diversify your topics and formats. Avoid putting out similar themes and messages in a row to prevent your newsfeed from sounding predictable and repetitive. You can also get your audience involved by ending your captions with a question. Doing so will create an opportunity for interaction between you and your followers, enhancing your customer engagement.
Check your Insights and adjust your plans
Data from Insights can vary throughout your campaign, and as such, you must track the changes so you can revise your strategies accordingly. Regularly checking Insights will help you determine your page’s current user interaction statistics, including the best time of the day to post and the type of content that is most popular.
Monitor regularly
Keep an eye on the metrics. After launching your campaign, make sure to check on your business page regularly. Respond to comments, even with just a “like,” to acknowledge the commenter. Users may feel discouraged to engage with your page if they see queries go unanswered, so make it a habit to answer every message you receive as promptly as you can.
Remember: Facebook tracks how quickly you respond to messages and shows your response rate on your page. It will look unappealing to potential customers if a low response rate is displayed on your account. In addition, an immediate response is part of customer satisfaction, while unreturned messages often cause customers to leave.
Leverage Facebook to Grow Your Business
Facebook can be an effective way to attract potential customers and engage with existing ones. With a well-thought-out Facebook marketing strategy in place, you can increase brand awareness and maximize business opportunities.
In leveraging Facebook to grow your business, working with a virtual assistant (VA) company can help you improve your market reach. Your VA can implement a marketing strategy specifically designed for your needs. They can also support your social media campaigns by researching, drafting content, and setting up ads.
The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant include enhanced customer service and reduced operating costs. In case you need a social media virtual assistant for your small business, check out Outsource Access and its pool of trained professionals who can set up and manage your business social media pages.
