Facebook has changed the way people connect on the Internet since it was launched on February 4, 2004. And Mark Zuckerberg is not slowing down. Today, the social media giant has over 1.86 billion active monthly users — making it a gold mine for advertisers, entrepreneurs, and businesses.
But is it worth it?
After the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is now rolling out changes that will limit what advertisers can do on the platform. As Mark Zuckerberg puts it:
Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.
To protect its users’ privacy, Facebook is sure to continue implementing various algorithms that will make it harder and more expensive to collect consumer data for marketing purposes. And the first victims will be small and medium businesses who don’t have enough resources to begin with.
Aside from that, here are 6 more reasons why investing a lot of time and resources on your company’s Facebook marketing may not be relevant, or worth it.
1. Your Target Market May Not Be On Facebook
Let’s say your products and services are business to business (B2B), do you think your target business’ Managers or Directors are on Facebook 24/7? Or let’s say your Buyer Persona is a male executive between the age of 45-60 and a CEO. Do you think he will have a lot of time to spend on Facebook liking photos and sharing memes?
Most likely not. These type of people are likely spending their free time reading books, reading online news, and networking in person and online, potentially LinkedIn.
2. You Are Not Committed To Maintaining Your Facebook Page
Maintaining a Facebook page goes way beyond uploading a profile picture and updating a cover photo. You can’t just spend an hour creating a page or a group and then leave it with the expectation that at the end of the quarter, it’s followers will grow significantly, have high engagement and be rapidly converting followers into customers or clients.
Organically growing a page from zero likes to a significant number of followers takes a lot of consistent high-quality posts and engagements (i.e., replying to comments, inboxes, creating polls, etc.) Check out our blog post about micro moments to help you understand the effort required to stay relevant to your target audience.
3. You Are Just Going to Use It for Sales
Have you heard of a marketing funnel? Below is an illustration of the common marketing funnel, courtesy of www.feedough.com.
Where does Facebook sit on the marketing funnel? Usually at the top.
Facebook is a platform used to increase awareness and generate leads. For the sake of our discussion here, think of a lead as the email address entered by a Facebook user in exchange for a free eBook.
During this point, this lead is either considered cold (not ready to buy) or warm (trying to solve a problem). The lead can be nurtured through email campaigns offering valuable content until it becomes hot (has the intent to buy) — and this is usually the part where the sales process steps in.
Marketers who know what they are doing never use Facebook to make sales. There’s just too much distraction on the platform (other ads, a cute dog meme, friend updates, etc.). Also, most people don’t go to Facebook to buy. It’s a social media platform — not a supermarket!
4. You Have No Marketing Strategy
This applies not just to Facebook. Committing to an advertising campaign without a clear and solid marketing strategy on hand is like sailing the Pacific with no navigational tools, and no map.
If you really want to invest in your business’ Facebook presence, make sure that it complements your marketing strategy. Don’t just rely on luck. Remember, marketing is more science than art.
5. You Have No Brand
Since its inception, Facebook has been a social media platform designed to connect people (and their personalities) all over the globe. You can’t talk about social media without talking about people.
If your brand has no personality, how will your target audience relate to it? If there’s no story, how will they support it? More importantly, if there is nothing in your company that humanises it, how will your customers trust it?
You need to grow your customers’ trust first before they are interested in committing to you. How will you do it without an identity? Get in touch with us if you need help developing your company’s brand.
6. You Have No or Little Marketing Budget
Make no mistake, Facebook’s biggest asset is its billions of users and they are working round the clock to protect their privacy, even at the expense of some advertising revenues. With new algorithms now rolling out to limit what advertisers can get from Facebook users, advertising on the platform will continue to become more expensive and tedious. If you want to reach more people, you will have no option but to spend more.
In conclusion, you shouldn’t necessary kick Facebook to the curb, as the title suggests. What you need you to explore and understand however, is whether Facebook is the right platform for your business.
There are still many ways to strengthen your brand’s online presence without relying on Facebook. Contact us to find out how this specifically applies to your business.