Facebook Wants You
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In years past, Facebook was it. If you wanted your business to succeed, you created a Facebook page and went after likes and fans. But according to Kate Moffat, times have changed. She writes about it in an article on The Next Web.
“It’s (Facebook’s) advertisement algorithm continues to adapt as Facebook of what users get to see in their news feeds. As a result, many brands have seen the organic reach of their pages decline rapidly,” says Moffat.
As a result, many brands have seen the organic reach of their pages decline. Organic refers to the unique number of people that search for your company or find it naturally, without any paid interference. Moffat cites a study by ad agency Ogilvy that found that the average reach for page content has fallen from around 16 percent in 2012 to around 6 percent in February 2014. Could this be why Facebook is reevaluating its business strategy?
It’s been said that Facebook is now trying to appeal to the small businesses of the world, from plumbers to pizza parlors. The social media giant believes these businesses, many mom and pop-like shops, can be convinced to actively invest in Facebook ads. Big national brands like Coca-Cola and General Electric are already large and in charge and advertising on Facebook. Facebook knows that getting America’s 25 million small businesses to also invest would be a big coup.
“Facebook wants to increase its advertising and get more clicks on all kinds of ads. It believes tapping into the lucrative small business market will help it achieve those goals,” says Joyce M. Rosenberg in an Associated Press article.
Rosenberg cites COO Sheryl Sandberg who says Facebook wants to “friend” small businesses.
“However, this plan could backfire if Facebook doesn’t do one thing first: Teach small businesses how to define and develop their brand,” says Ryan Wallerstein in an .
Branding Comes First
We’ve talked about branding for businesses before, and it’s extremely important for both large and small businesses to engage in
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online branding and build a digital footprint. As we talked about in a previous blog post, a digital footprint is the trail of data that users leave behind on digital services. It helps customers find you easily and can include your social media and website. As defined by the Entrepreneur encyclopedia, branding is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.”
We’ve also discussed on the SyCara Local blog how all businesses need online marketing. As Wallerstein says, branding can be either a risk or opportunity for Facebook. Advertising and branding need to go hand in hand, but branding needs to be taught and put in place first.
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“Branding must come first, before advertising, or businesses will flail on Facebook, potentially sending disjointed messages that could confuse or repel the customers they’re trying to attract,” Wallerstein explains.
Wallerstein says before even starting with Facebook advertising, small businesses need to ask themselves a couple questions like, “What does our business stand for?” and “What’s the emotional connection we want our customers to associate with our brand?” Small businesses can also study world-class big brand success stories and what they do to identify and develop their own brand DNA. For example, big brands like Ralph Lauren and even Facebook itself first went through the branding process. For example, CEO Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook’s catchy and memorable brand name and a unique product that caught the world by storm, all without marketing and advertising.
“By doing the brand work first, word of mouth grows organically, allowing for smaller and more targeted advertising investments, while brand awareness proliferates and value solidifies,” Wallerstein explains. “Advertising may eventually become part of the strategic brand strategy, but is never the driving force.”
Where Facebook Comes In
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The challenge is that branding is complex work, and many small businesses simply don’t have the budget and expertise needed, Wallerstein says. Before a small business can do any marketing or branding, they need money. Here is where Facebook could come in. If Facebook executives truly want to help small businesses, Wallerstein suggest they hire a chief small business branding officer that would be solely responsible for helping small business owners. The officer would lead a team of brand experts that would facilitate educational programs and provide resources like workshops, courses and events. This team would be “dedicated to helping small businesses prepare their brands for Facebook advertising success.” Rosenberg quotes Sandberg in her article who says that the Facebook Fit campaign will put on workshops in five cities this summer “to show small business owners the nuts and bolts of using Facebook as a marketing tool.”
“If Facebook embraces the branding prerogative, small businesses will be in a position to implement truly effective Facebook advertising campaigns — driving more revenue for Facebook over the long haul. If they choose to ignore it, in favor of simply getting small businesses buying ads as quickly as possible, the likelihood of significant, lasting ROI from Facebook ads is minimal, and many small businesses will simply drop Facebook ads from their budgets out of frustration and cynicism,” Wallerstein says.
So why is Facebook doing all this? Many agree that Facebook needs to provide small brands with education and not just get them to sign on as paying ad customers. Facebook can form more lasting relationships with education and also potentially steal away small business advertising money from competitors like Google. The small business market has always been difficult to crack, says analyst Greg Sterling in Rosenberg’s article, and many companies are simply unwilling to advertise on Facebook. But, the social media giant and Sandberg believe that updates in Facebook technology and making the experience easier will entice users. In addition, Facebook is creating small business advertising products that will be affordable like spending $10 to promote a post on other Facebook pages, something that business owners were unable to do before.
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“The difference from a few years ago is nowadays, it’s pretty much a given that to reach people on Facebook, you need to supplement your page activity with paid advertising,” says Moffat.
For more information, check out Facebook’s . If you have ever boosted a post on Facebook, you probably already have an advertising page set up. If you’re new to advertising, activate your account .
What do you think about Facebook’s attempts to woo small business owners? Do you advertise on Facebook or do any kind of digital marketing? Let us know by commenting below or interacting with us on social media!