Even though Facebook is now a household name, It’s been difficult for some businesses to understand why they need to embrace Facebook and are at risk of being left behind. If you find yourself still ignoring Facebook for business or thinking that “Facebook is a waste of time.” or “It doesn’t seem like a professional social network.” or “My kids are on Facebook, why should I use Facebook for business?” Then, you may want to reconsider. Here’s some influential statistics that just might change your mind! Don’t be left behind: why Facebook is key for business. (Statistics courtesy of Zephoria.)
- 2.01 billion active monthly users on Facebook
- 1.15 billion mobile daily users
- Five new profiles are created every second
- Every 60 seconds 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded
Still not convinced? Then consider this game changer that Facebook recently introduced: Real-time search.
In October, Facebook added the ability to search within public posts, boosting the social network’s utility as a source of real-time information. Facebook Search will return anything you’re allowed to see from its 2 trillion posts. That includes public posts by all people and pages, not just your friends and “Pages you Like”, as before. The personalized results will be segmented to highlight posts from trusted news sources, followed by people in your network, lists of the most popular links or quotes about a topic, and then strangers (potential customers).
Don’t get left behind – Your Competitors are on Facebook. Every day that passes, the more your competition promotes across social media.
Not only could Real-time search make Facebook a place that people and business look for perspectives on the news, it could in turn inspire more people to post publicly about what’s happening in the world, since there will be more ways to discover that content than in the feed. Plus, this update gives Facebook a comprehensive internal search engine. Before, it was good for nostalgia, looking up funny things friends said or “cool photos” they posted. Now, it’s a discovery engine for real-time news that’s just slipped out of the future into the present.
So what does all this mean to a business owner?
This Facebook change has tremendous implications for search engine optimization and your business, since your content shared on Facebook about your brand might now show up on the first page of Google search results for your company name. It is a tremendous opportunity to get your brand or company in front of a 1.5 billion user social media platform and more access to this content will cause people to share more of it.
With facts like these why wouldn’t your business be on Facebook? It’s not to late to embrace and leverage Facebook for business. Every single day that passes the more your competition promotes across social media. This wave of social media marketing is here to stay… and if you don’t jump on now you are hampering your chances of longevity online – which is where business happens.
