SmallBusinessNewz

I suspect that I may never fully understand Facebook. No big deal really. There are plenty of other ways to waste time in this world.

I just don’t get the flow of it. I see people doing a lot of ‘stuff’ on it but I don’t get the point most of the time. I wonder if I am anti-social or just thick in the head but then I come to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter in the end.

 So what does this mean for business? Good question. Just because I don’t get it (and I suspect I am not alone) that doesn’t mean that I don’t recommend it as a viable option. In fact, the pure numbers of people that are using Facebook are simply too big to ignore.

At over 200 million registered users it stands to reason that there are customers in there somewhere for just about anyone. Think about this as compared to the media darling Twitter. If we are being very generous (and why not?) there are currently about 15 million Twitter-ers out there. Not bad but still a long way from 200 million. The service will benefit from things like the Oprah effect, which some claim may have added over 1 million users in a weekend. Having that kind of a bump is unusual though and it would have to occur every week for about 3 years to even catch up to Facebook at this point.

So how does this impact business and their use of these social media options? Well, it depends. I hate to give that answer but it is simply true. There is no magic formula for who should use social media and what exact offerings should they concentrate on. There are so many variables that need to be considered for each individual company that until marketers actually understand this there will continue to be confusion and frustration regarding these tools for marketing success.

So what can you do? Use your head. You know your customers. If you have a conversational relationship with them just ask them what they use. Then ask them if it would be helpful if you were there. Not rocket science just common sense.

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