As Facebook users breached the 900 million mark this March of 2012, the value of Facebook marketing has significantly increased again. Such a large user base means that Facebook is a leading source of user-generated content in the web, and that in itself makes the social network very valuable for business through:
Ratings and Reviews
A simple 'Like' might not be an explicit recommendation, but for people who have a friend on Facebook that 'Likes' something, they can easily see and feel the positive reinforcement it brings to whatever item or content was 'liked.' And then, of course, there are actual comments. This facet of Facebook that provides multiple ways to rate or review items, Fan pages, or content is quite invaluable to businesses.
Ratings and Reviews
A simple 'Like' might not be an explicit recommendation, but for people who have a friend on Facebook that 'Likes' something, they can easily see and feel the positive reinforcement it brings to whatever item or content was 'liked.' And then, of course, there are actual comments. This facet of Facebook that provides multiple ways to rate or review items, Fan pages, or content is quite invaluable to businesses.
Conversations and Word-of-Mouth
Consumer engagement can potentially increase conversion by a whopping 177% - add to that the value of word-of-mouth marketing and voila: instant social advertising success via Facebook marketing. Better still is that word of mouth spreads tenfold as fast in social networks than in the real world. Conversations also help businesses monitor how much they influence their niche in the online social graph. Facebook offers a simplified tracking metric in the form of an index that announces: 'X people are talking about this.' There are, of course, more reliable and exact methods of knowing.
Increased Time Spent and Return Visits
Ever have Fans who like your page then never look back? The effort is lost because of superficial appreciation - the direct opposite of what you want to instil within your Fan base: customer loyalty. In fact, your fans are not customers yet; they might not even be viable leads.
This is what a longer time spent and return visits can change: they can turn Fans into actual leads and leads into actual customers. With great social content and effective campaigns, you can increase the time people spend on your social outlets and likewise increase return visits.
Improved Conversion and Customer Trust
We already mentioned the significant 177% conversion rate increase when consumes engage with social content. Along with more conversions, however, come better customer trust. Establishing customer trust and brand loyalty is a very lengthy and in-depth process of branding. Luckily, this process can be bolstered by a sale - a conversion.
Trust and loyalty increases repeat business or sales, and repeat sales make up majority of business revenue for B2C companies. Evidently, the improved conversion and trust that Facebook marketing can potentially bring is quite substantial for your branding effort.
User-Generated Content and Authenticity
User-generated content in the form of customer reviews or comments and recommendations are important because they influence purchase decisions of their peer circles more than other media of marketing such as sales assistants, online and offline newspapers and magazines, and even direct advertising efforts. Directly related to this is the significance of authenticity: the positive impact of user-generated content is derived from how consumers trust what they read. Genuine and authentic content from actual users are very powerful, and as such are invaluable in Facebook marketing.
Article Source: Robert Craythorne
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