Using Facebook as a powerful, cost-effective marketing tool

Google and Facebook are arch enemies. Google became the king of the search engines because they recognized early on the tremendous value that they could offer to the world by providing the most relevant results for somebody's search. Google also knew all along that social media would overtake them and that is why they started acquiring companies such as YouTube. What they didn't quite understand was just how much of an effect social media would have on their business and they are doing everything they can to overcome those effects.

Google now also uses Facebook in a powerful way that effects your Web site. More on that in a moment.

Facebook is the current king of daily viewership for most people who go online. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average viewer spends around seven hours per month on Facebook. Facebook is now very familiar to people. They understand it. They know what happens when they click on a link. They have become less and less afraid to see where someone will take them.

It has also provided a level of trust for people regarding businesses and proposals. At first you may scoff at that remark because many, many people distrust Facebook and what they do with their personal privacy, but the reality is having a Facebook fanpage lends a certain degree of legitimacy to that page. Whether it's a scam or not, some level of trust or legitimacy exists and this is good news for any business. Plus, you can reach more new customers very inexpensively within its system (if done correctly).

But Facebook actually has a problem. It went public with a major IPO considered to be the 12th largest in the world and all the investors have one huge question that has not been answered by the management of Facebook. Almost every business will expend some money to get people to "Like" their page. Once someone has "liked" their page, from here on out and forever they are on the company's list of people that they can contact. That business can now send a message to all the people that "liked" them, at zero expense. Facebook is trying to fix that, but they don't know how to do it. Doing so will destroy the whole foundation and meaning of Facebook.

Google currently earns about $33 per year per account. Facebook only earns about $4.80 per person and makes only $1 of that in profit. This rather large discrepancy is a great cause of concern for those investors. Investors have to make money. Facebook needs to find a way to make more money to meet the needs of the investors and they are going to screw things up.

What I'm getting to is this: if I was a business owner I would currently do everything I could to gain as large a following on Facebook as possible. It is so inexpensive right now. It is so dramatically powerful right now. And then I would make sure to do everything possible to get those new friends from Facebook signed up on my own Web site. In other words, use Facebook to drive traffic to your Web site and thus build your business with Facebook, but not exclusively on Facebook.

Let's go through some numbers real quick. Suppose it cost you $10,000 to get 5,000 friends on Facebook. That equates to approximately $2 apiece. (This ratio may be high or low according to your business, but it doesn't matter, I'm trying to make a point here).

What other form of advertising could you spend $2 each to get a customer? The average direct mail piece costs at least a dollar when you include printing and postage. A 1 percent return on a direct mail piece is considered good. In order to get 5,000 customers, you need to spend $500,000 at a 1 percent rate! That is around $100 each! (Of course these numbers are not accurate, but I hope you get the point).

Once they become your customer they are probably in your email system (at least they should be). How many people actually read their e-mail? Isn't it the goal of most people to see how many emails they can delete at one time? Most email is rarely read and it has become a very poor way to communicate unless done under very strict circumstances and following very pertinent rules and methods that make them want to open it.

Facebook is another matter. If you send a personal message to every one of those 5,000 followers, almost all of them will read it. And here's the real beauty: you can send them another message at no cost. This can go on and on until they delete you as a friend. That original cost of $2 each quickly plummets with every subsequent message.

We have barely scratched the surface of the power of Facebook when it relates to helping your Web site increase its rankings on Google. Yes, you read that correctly: Google uses Facebook to evaluate and rank your website in its search! There is a very powerful method that Google uses to accomplish this and once this is implemented, it affects your online presence in a very powerful way.

In review:

1: Get a Facebook page properly setup for your business.

2: Spend the time and money to acquire the number of "Likes" you want.

3: Have a properly set up website for your business that Converts visitors to Customers.

4: Use the Facebook Messaging system to communicate with your customers

in a powerful and personal way.

5: Set up your Facebook page along with other Social Media sites to increase your Web sites rankings on Google.

Kelly Smith is president of The WebSmith Group in Sparks. Contact him at 722-4949 or through www.TheWebSmithGroup.com.