Facebook continues to be a challenge for marketers. As marketers, you may suspect that your target audience spends its time elsewhere. Or you may worry about staying ahead of newer, possibly more important channels.
But as Facebook continues to integrate—competing with YouTube on video, promoting the Social Wallet and building a huge base with What’s App—marketers need to pay attention. In fact, 69 percent of B2C marketers plan on increasing their Facebook efforts.
What do you need to know to be competitive on Facebook?
3 Facts About Facebook
- Video: Facebook actively competes with YouTube. It was just last summer that Facebook’s video traffic surpassed YouTube’s. Native video views on the channel is more than 3 billion per day. Now Facebook’s new LIVE streaming video feature is poised to open up the channel to being the largest broadcaster in the world. Engagement and reach is higher because people are logged into their Facebook accounts and are not necessarily on YouTube.
What it means: Facebook can become your media platform of choice, not just your marketing platform. - The Primary Social Media Channel: Facebook is the most-used network—43 percent of social media users report it as their primary platform. Instagram is second behind it, at 18 percent.
What it means: Probably, your primary audiences are on Facebook. The good news is that marketers are headed to Instagram—42 percent said they planned to increase their use of it this year. - Keep being a good friend: Page Likes are more meaningful than ever, there’s more customer service happening on pages, and more and more, customers are searching for you there. So keep sharing content that makes sense for your audiences and don’t be afraid to try new things.
What it means: Sometimes you have to pay to play, but that doesn’t mean there’s no ROI. As consumers adapt to Facebook as a business platform, marketers will continue to have opportunities there.
