What Facebook Can and Cannot Do

Let’s face it – Facebook is literally in our faces every day!  The site has grown from a clique of friends to a world-wide social media site in a relatively short period of time.  There are about 250 million people on Facebook, with the numbers growing each day.  If you are running a business, can you see the potential in that number?  Of course you can.  It’s no secret that a lot of business are now using Facebook as part of their social marketing strategy.  And why shouldn’t they?  People are always hungry for good deals.

But there are things that Facebook can and cannot do for you.  In planning to use this social service in your marketing strategy, it’s important to know this in order to get the most benefit out of the site.

The biggest thing that Facebook can do for you is in branding.  Getting your brand known to a network of people is a big step in growing your business.  It also involves building trust and a business reputation.  If your business supports a worthy cause, post it on your Fan Page or as a status.  Facebook is great for raising community consciousness on causes.  While you are at it, you can slip in a product that relates to the cause.  For example, donate a certain percentage of sale proceeds to the cause the mentioned.  This is a win-win situation for your business.  Not only do you move your products with a bit of profit, but you also benefit the cause you posted about.

What Facebook does not do all that well is allow for direct sales.  And quite frankly, you shouldn’t even bother trying it there.  It’s ok to describe your products, but the closer should be on your web site, and not on your Facebook network.  Don’t add a “buy here now” button that takes people away from Facebook.  Instead (in the case of a worthy cause) add a link to your site that shows the amount of current profit that goes to the cause with an option to shop more if you have other products.