Thoughts on the Pros & Cons of Facebook

Facebook is one of the most effective and efficient social media marketing tools. The number of Facebook fans for any consumer brand constitutes an important and meaningful metric. For brands, having an engaging presence on Facebook, is no longer a “nice to have” it’s now a “gotta have.”

Facebook has over 1.6 billion users, making it the biggest social network to advertise and promote your business on. As a modern marketer, you simply can’t ignore the benefits that Facebook has to offer.

However, with advantages comes pitfalls. In this post I will shed some light on the pros and cons of Facebook.

PROS

Fish where the fish are

Television and radio are no longer the mass mediums they once were. Networks are experiencing a contraction in audience, especially among Millennials. Facebook provides an easy to use marketing vehicle to form a communication network between customers and a brand. Engaging and consistent communication can improve brand loyalty, customer satisfaction and brand positioning.

Share information with customers in real time

In 2015 US social media users spent an average of 1.7 hours per day using social media. If you need to get something out quickly and effectively, a post on Facebook is sure to reach the end user faster than a television ad, email or even a radio ad.

Since Facebook fosters sharing, you can rest assured that your desired message will make its way to those interested parties even if they are not on Facebook at the particular time of your post.

Publicize your events to create greater hype

By creating events and pages, you can actually engage with and attract consumers and potential customers to attend your latest launches, exhibitions or any other promotional events that you have planned.

Makes your marketing and promotion creative and fun

By allowing you to make pages, groups, upload pictures, videos, create apps, games and even ask fans to create user-generated content, Facebook can help to make your marketing campaign special and all the more engaging.

CONS

Facebook does not allow you to give away your products

Facebook is a virtual network. It’s not a store front. For example, if you want to give away a new kind gum, you can’t simply drop a free pack into someone’s hand. To make a free giveaway work you will need to navigate through Facebook’s maze of rules and regulations.

Your brand can get lost

If you’re establishing a new product or service, it may be very hard to get above the content and posting noise that comes with Facebook. According to Gizmodo there are an average of 300 million photo uploads per day on Facebook. That could make it very hard for your brand to stand out in all that social noise.

Facebook ads are complex

Which one is right for you? Do you want website clicks, page likes, app installs, video views, the list goes on. If you are on a tight budget, you may blast through dollars quickly to find the right audience and engagement. Limited copy space requires you to have your call to action and message in a very lean format. Finally, it has become a pay-to-play network. To get your brand above others you have to do more than create engaging, education and fun content, you will need to pay to help promote it.

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