facebook | Jodie Davies Blog

The above video has astounding figures, but what is amazing about the numbers presented is they’re 2 years out of date. As the semester draws to an end I’d like to make one last attempt at converting those companies out there who don’t have a functioning online presence to pull it together and make one!

One. Without a relevant Facebook page you are passing up the opportunity to connect with 1 billion Facebook users worldwide. Specifically, there are 18.6 million users right here in Canada. Can your company really afford to pass up the opportunity to reach 18.6 million people with a single status update?

Two. 600 million people access Facebook via smart phones – that’s an increase of 535 million people since this video was created in 2010! If your company website isn’t mobile friendly, that’s a whole lot of customers you’re missing out on. Not only that, when customers visit your store or restaurant, the content they create and post online is invaluable and more influential over consumer opinions than company generated content.

Three. However.. without an active Twitter account, how will they tag you in their content? How will you listen to their needs and join the conversation? Twitter hosts over 500 million users and sees over 400 million Tweets per day. Twitter is by far the easiest social media account to create and set up and its real time capabilities keep companies in the know all day every day.

Four. A restaurant without Instagram is a recipe for disaster. How are customers supposed to share your delicious food offerings if you don’t provide them a platform to do so? Instagram boasts over 80 million registered users who share over 5 million photos per day!

Five. YouTube has over 800 million new visitors each month and users watch over 4 billion hours of videos. Video is a perfect way to increase customer brand awareness while keeping viewers engaged and interacting with the brand. Is it really too hard for your company to create a video and upload it to YouTube?

Below is an up to date social media video. The change in numbers since the 2010 video posted above is incredible. Companies avoiding the social media ‘craze’ are missing out on countless opportunities to listen and talk to their customers, to conduct priceless market research, to promote and generate buzz surrounding new product launches, to network with local companies and the list goes on. The opportunities are endless and it’s not too late to start now! Pick a single platform, monitor, listen and join the conversation. Master one platform and the transition into multiple platforms will get easier and easier. Good luck!

As a Facebook reliant generation, we’ve all experienced the “oops, I accidentally clicked that annoying ad on the side of the webpage” scenario. Which begs the question: How effective are Facebook advertisements? As a frequent user myself, I’ll admit I’ve never noticed the ads on Facebook, which leads me to Facebook’s first “no-no”.

1) From a Marketing perspective, Facebook’s advertisements are incredibly underwhelming, so much so, that they often slip under the radar of its users. Facebook’s ads are placed discreetly throughout the site however, with such a large amount of information provided on any given page, it is far too easy to ignore their dull coloured, non-attention grabbing ads. Companies paying Facebook per click on their ad are being scammed. Not once have I logged into Facebook to search through ads, these ads are only being clicked accidentally by users and are immediately exited from without a second glance, which leads me to my second point.

2) Facebook’s primary function is to connect people from across the world and allow them to share their life’s milestones with one another whether it is through status updates, photos albums or personal messages. Never has a Facebook user logged in to the site with the purpose of perusing the advertisements searching for something that appeals to them. Google is highly capable of achieving this goal with better accuracy, relevance and ease than Facebook ever can.

So why is it that companies are spending thousands of dollars each month to have their dull, boring advertisement accidentally clicked on and exited by Facebook users? The thought process of “our competitors think it’s profitable to advertise on Facebook, they must be right” is common. It seems like a case of the blind leading the blind. Sure, Facebook offers a convenient way to reach desired target markets using keywords, but does this make it any more likely that a Facebook user will click an advertisement when their primary reason for logging into the site was to share a few photos or message their best friend on the other side of the world? Unlikely.

Facebook has the potential to provide a positive source of advertisement from companies to their desired target market. However, Facebook is struggling to maintain a balance between pleasing users who would ideally seek an advertisement free Facebook and companies trying to justify the large amounts of money they are spending to receive a single click.