Many feel that Facebook is the best thing since sliced bread in the social media world at the moment and perhaps the whole social media buzz is becoming a little cliche in both the consumer and business world. However, there are also many companies who have yet to embrace Facebook as a mean to grow their business and connect with consumers on an individual basis as well as en masse.
What they have yet to realise, is if they can find a place for Facebook within their goals, any business potential for consumer interaction and brand awareness could develop on a whole new level.
With people choosing to 'like' and engage with business's and brands on Facebook groups, rather than search for sites online, the opportunity to build customer relationships is becoming faster, more effective and much cheaper than many of the traditional alternatives. But what makes 'Facebooking' so beneficial for business?
As the top social networking sites with 500 million active users, the platform allows brands and organisations to communicate quickly, it brings the relationship between business and consumer onto a level playing field, there is no hierarchy of interaction. For example, Facebook allows corporations to share ideas and viewpoints with multiple individuals at the same time, whilst also updating news and information to provide 'fans' with exclusive data and opportunities centred around their products and services, not immediately available through other means of communication. In turn, Facebook allows the corporation themselves to listen to their customers in order to understand how their brand is being received online.
The social media giant, in this sense has almost become a streaming platform in which Facebook marketing has a viral effect and ultimately has become the middleman for consumer exploration. Furthermore, as there is already a thriving social community on Facebook, companies can simply implement their own business brand into that community, ready for consumers to find them.
On Facebook consumers are now friends and a massive community of them too. These consumer friends (we'll call them friensumers) are using Facebook as their first port of call to access news and entertainment and in doing so they are bypassing the traditional outlets or sources for this data. And it is here where the brands can jump in and share their own relevant content, often with links either directing the friensumers to their engaging corporate Facebook page or their website.
photo credit: Marc_Smith
As well as engaging with offers and keeping up to date with the latest industry news, friensumers are provided with the chance to become part of a community that is dedicated around a particular brand. Brand communities provide a unique and rewarding marketing opportunity for businesses in that they can interact on a one to one basis with their customers in a way that is more immediate than the likes of email and has a multiplicity that far surpasses the linearity of a phone call.
