Facebook Advertising – Great Article by Teresa Burns

Over the past few years Facebook has gone from a college social network for sharing pictures and friend requesting to a networking space for business promotion, advertising, and multimedia interaction. With over 175 million active users, “facebookers” spend about 3 billion plus hours a day logged onto the site. Not only are college students and teenagers fully engaged in the Facebook phenomenon, but adults and professionals also make up a large portion of Facebook users. Even though the site began five years ago as a social platform for college students, surprisingly the largest growing demographic is those 30 years and older. Recently businesses have caught on to the growing popularity creating over 100,000 business pages and using Facebook as a networking plug for their company or self-promotion. Facebook offers many ways to spread the word about a growing business and pulling people into the brand.

One option for companies is to buy Social Ads on the Facebook page. Once logged onto Facebook, you can view your personal profile and to the far right of the page is a strip of advertisements for all kinds of things including natural teeth whitening hints, weight loss tips, and contests offering cash rewards or free electronics. The problem I see with this method is that very few users actually click on the advertisements. In my own Facebook experience I have never looked into the ads on the side of the screen, no matter what kind of free things they offer. Though the highest growing demographic for Facebook is 30 years and over, a great portion of Facebook is still occupied by college students. When polling 20 college students I learned that only 4 out of 20 (20%) of them have ever clicked on an ad. I was part of the remaining 80% who never even bothered to look into the advertisements. One pier of mine found them “annoying” and another steers clear in fear that one of them might infect her computer with a virus. Of course this is only a small portion of Facebook users, but the outcome of my mini-trial proved advertisements on Facebook to be somewhat unsuccessful. On the other hand because the company or brand behind the advertisements can chose a target market through Facebook, this could draw in a desired demographic. For example, one student who responded positively to the ads informed me that one time she looked into an advertisement because it had to do with the sorority she is a part of at her university. In the end it could obviously go either way but from my own point of view I wouldn’t consider buying advertisement space on Facebook as a successful marketing technique.

On a more positive note, within the actual site, Facebook offers plenty of marketing opportunities–free of charge. One way is to simply create a profile page. With this option, businesses can promote and create a story around their brand taking advantage of the spaces available to explain the product name and purpose with Personal Info, Work Info, and Photos (to name a few). By requesting friends and generating a network you’ll drive a ton of traffic to your profile page.

Another option is to create an event on Facebook. This is a free application that enables anyone to endorse marketing events, host parties; product launches—anything. Upon creating an event, you can invite friends to join, they RSVP to the event allowing the creator to monitor responsiveness. When you create an event, it gets a fully-featured page, including a wall for discussion, photos, videos, and links. Facebook Events makes it easy to spread the word to hundreds of people, manage your guest list, and build a community around your upcoming event. A third potential for advertising is through the Facebook Marketplace. This is Facebook’s classified listing service where you can post for-sale ads and wanted ads in your networks for free. This service is not anonymous so anytime someone responds to a post; you can view their entire profile. The only downside of this feature is that it is not heavily used—but is still an option.

Facebook is a new and innovative source offering a variety of marketing opportunities. The evolution of Facebook from a social network to a creative advertising platform offers brand marketers entirely new ways for designing brand experiences. It is important to keep in mind that Facebook is fairly new. If we are already charmed by the features Facebook offers, imagine what it will be like years from now.

Over the past few years Facebook has gone from a college social network for sharing pictures and friend requesting to a networking space for business promotion, advertising, and multimedia interaction. With over 175 million active users, “facebookers” spend about 3 billion plus hours a day logged onto the site. Not only are college students and teenagers fully engaged in the Facebook phenomenon, but adults and professionals also make up a large portion of Facebook users. Even though the site began five years ago as a social platform for college students, surprisingly the largest growing demographic is those 30 years and older. Recently businesses have caught on to the growing popularity creating over 100,000 business pages and using Facebook as a networking plug for their company or self-promotion. Facebook offers many ways to spread the word about a growing business and pulling people into the brand.

One option for companies is to buy Social Ads on the Facebook page. Once logged onto Facebook, you can view your personal profile and to the far right of the page is a strip of advertisements for all kinds of things including natural teeth whitening hints, weight loss tips, and contests offering cash rewards or free electronics. The problem I see with this method is that very few users actually click on the advertisements. In my own Facebook experience I have never looked into the ads on the side of the screen, no matter what kind of free things they offer. Though the highest growing demographic for Facebook is 30 years and over, a great portion of Facebook is still occupied by college students. When polling 20 college students I learned that only 4 out of 20 (20%) of them have ever clicked on an ad. I was part of the remaining 80% who never even bothered to look into the advertisements. One pier of mine found them “annoying” and another steers clear in fear that one of them might infect her computer with a virus. Of course this is only a small portion of Facebook users, but the outcome of my mini-trial proved advertisements on Facebook to be somewhat unsuccessful. On the other hand because the company or brand behind the advertisements can chose a target market through Facebook, this could draw in a desired demographic. For example, one student who responded positively to the ads informed me that one time she looked into an advertisement because it had to do with the sorority she is a part of at her university. In the end it could obviously go either way but from my own point of view I wouldn’t consider buying advertisement space on Facebook as a successful marketing technique.

On a more positive note, within the actual site, Facebook offers plenty of marketing opportunities–free of charge. One way is to simply create a profile page. With this option, businesses can promote and create a story around their brand taking advantage of the spaces available to explain the product name and purpose with Personal Info, Work Info, and Photos (to name a few). By requesting friends and generating a network you’ll drive a ton of traffic to your profile page.

Another option is to create an event on Facebook. This is a free application that enables anyone to endorse marketing events, host parties; product launches—anything. Upon creating an event, you can invite friends to join, they RSVP to the event allowing the creator to monitor responsiveness. When you create an event, it gets a fully-featured page, including a wall for discussion, photos, videos, and links. Facebook Events makes it easy to spread the word to hundreds of people, manage your guest list, and build a community around your upcoming event. A third potential for advertising is through the Facebook Marketplace. This is Facebook’s classified listing service where you can post for-sale ads and wanted ads in your networks for free. This service is not anonymous so anytime someone responds to a post; you can view their entire profile. The only downside of this feature is that it is not heavily used—but is still an option.

Facebook is a new and innovative source offering a variety of marketing opportunities. The evolution of Facebook from a social network to a creative advertising platform offers brand marketers entirely new ways for designing brand experiences. It is important to keep in mind that Facebook is fairly new. If we are already charmed by the features Facebook offers, imagine what it will be like years from now.

Over the past few years Facebook has gone from a college social network for sharing pictures and friend requesting to a networking space for business promotion, advertising, and multimedia interaction. With over 175 million active users, “facebookers” spend about 3 billion plus hours a day logged onto the site. Not only are college students and teenagers fully engaged in the Facebook phenomenon, but adults and professionals also make up a large portion of Facebook users. Even though the site began five years ago as a social platform for college students, surprisingly the largest growing demographic is those 30 years and older. Recently businesses have caught on to the growing popularity creating over 100,000 business pages and using Facebook as a networking plug for their company or self-promotion. Facebook offers many ways to spread the word about a growing business and pulling people into the brand.

One option for companies is to buy Social Ads on the Facebook page. Once logged onto Facebook, you can view your personal profile and to the far right of the page is a strip of advertisements for all kinds of things including natural teeth whitening hints, weight loss tips, and contests offering cash rewards or free electronics. The problem I see with this method is that very few users actually click on the advertisements. In my own Facebook experience I have never looked into the ads on the side of the screen, no matter what kind of free things they offer. Though the highest growing demographic for Facebook is 30 years and over, a great portion of Facebook is still occupied by college students. When polling 20 college students I learned that only 4 out of 20 (20%) of them have ever clicked on an ad. I was part of the remaining 80% who never even bothered to look into the advertisements. One pier of mine found them “annoying” and another steers clear in fear that one of them might infect her computer with a virus. Of course this is only a small portion of Facebook users, but the outcome of my mini-trial proved advertisements on Facebook to be somewhat unsuccessful. On the other hand because the company or brand behind the advertisements can chose a target market through Facebook, this could draw in a desired demographic. For example, one student who responded positively to the ads informed me that one time she looked into an advertisement because it had to do with the sorority she is a part of at her university. In the end it could obviously go either way but from my own point of view I wouldn’t consider buying advertisement space on Facebook as a successful marketing technique.

On a more positive note, within the actual site, Facebook offers plenty of marketing opportunities–free of charge. One way is to simply create a profile page. With this option, businesses can promote and create a story around their brand taking advantage of the spaces available to explain the product name and purpose with Personal Info, Work Info, and Photos (to name a few). By requesting friends and generating a network you’ll drive a ton of traffic to your profile page.

Another option is to create an event on Facebook. This is a free application that enables anyone to endorse marketing events, host parties; product launches—anything. Upon creating an event, you can invite friends to join, they RSVP to the event allowing the creator to monitor responsiveness. When you create an event, it gets a fully-featured page, including a wall for discussion, photos, videos, and links. Facebook Events makes it easy to spread the word to hundreds of people, manage your guest list, and build a community around your upcoming event. A third potential for advertising is through the Facebook Marketplace. This is Facebook’s classified listing service where you can post for-sale ads and wanted ads in your networks for free. This service is not anonymous so anytime someone responds to a post; you can view their entire profile. The only downside of this feature is that it is not heavily used—but is still an option.

Facebook is a new and innovative source offering a variety of marketing opportunities. The evolution of Facebook from a social network to a creative advertising platform offers brand marketers entirely new ways for designing brand experiences. It is important to keep in mind that Facebook is fairly new. If we are already charmed by the features Facebook offers, imagine what it will be like years from now.