How Can Facebook Benefit My Business?

Facebook has become a household name, and just about everyone seems to have a Facebook account or at least some interest in logging on. If you’ve hesitated to use Facebook for business, now is a great time to jump in. There are many benefits to creating a Facebook page for your business. Here’s just a few of the benefits the website has to offer:

Exposure

Facebook boasts hundreds of millions of users from varied walks of life, countries, ages and income levels. No matter what the size of your business, you can’t afford to miss your chance to get your piece of this social media pie. With so many using Facebook on a regular basis, chances are some of your customers and prospects are there. And since they are there, you should be as well.

If access to your current customers and prospects isn’t enough for you, consider the fact that you’ll also be visible to your fans’ friends. Here’s how this works. You create a message for your fans and it appears in their news feeds. Of course, your fans see it but so do many of their friends. Some of your fans may have dozens of friends and others may have hundreds or even thousands, but either way, each message translates into great potential for more exposure and more business.

Engagement

Besides exposure, Facebook offers you the opportunity to engage. Instead of merely talking at your customers and prospects, you can talk with them, starting conversations, posting questions, reviewing comments and responding to inquiries, concerns and even pats on the back. This sort of two-way communication helps your fans feel connected to your business and humanizes your company. It also gives you access to instant feedback from your audience. Learn what your customers really think, what they like, what they want, and how you can better serve them–all without spending a fortune on market research.

SEO Benefits

Facebook is currently among the most popular websites around. This translates into significant search engine juice. When you post content on Facebook, it is indexed by the search engines. People interested in your business or the types of products and services you provide can easily find you via a Facebook or search engine search. Optimizing your Facebook page can bring more interested visitors to your page, and relevant links can drive traffic to your website.

Easy, Instant Updates

Sometimes news spreads awfully slowly, but that’s not the case on Facebook. You can inform your fans of events, specials, news, and changes in an instant, spurring excitement without the typical delays. Running a contest? Offering a coupon? Adding a product or service? Just post your update on Facebook, and your fans will not only get the word right away, but also share your hot deals with others.

Do you have a Facebook page for your business? What do you see as the primary benefit of Facebook for businesses?

If you’d like to learn how to set up and manage your own Facebook page, register for our online class, taught by a live instructor, starting next week!