5 Things Business Owners Should Know about Facebook Users

Facebook has the largest number of users among all websites on the Internet. Billions of people are actively using the social networking giant every month. If utilized wisely, Facebook can help your business achieve its goals, such as reaching its target market, generating more revenues, and maintaining good relationship with customers.

However, before jumping into the social media marketing bandwagon, there are important things that you should know first about the netizens who are actively using Facebook. Here are 5 things that you should remember before promoting and advertising your brand in the world’s largest social network.

1. They are not usually using Facebook to do business.
Unless they are online entrepreneurs who promote their own business on Facebook or social media marketing practitioners who use the social media channel to boost their clients’ brand, they usually spend time on Facebook to escape from work-related activities.

People usually hang out on Facebook to keep in touch with their friends, find some entertainment, or just do nothing. Hence, don’t expect that most of them will be keen to discuss business with you. To get them into your business, you will need to build friendship and trusting relationship with them.

2. Many of them use false personal information.
Unlike LinkedIn which is a social network for professionals, Facebook is a social network for the masses. Facebook allows people as young as 13 years old to be a registered user. Some users are even younger than that. They can just fake their age to have a Facebook account.

In the Philippines, you can also see Facebook users with unrealistic work info, which includes works at “eh di sa puso mo” (English: in your heart), CEO at Evil Corporation, or President at the Krusty Krab. So if you’re targeting your audience, make sure that they have the right information so that your marketing campaign wouldn’t reach the wrong audience.

3. Most Facebook users are mobile users.
Of the 968 million daily active Facebook users, 844 million or 87% of them access the site thru mobile phones. If your Facebook marketing campaigns are not optimized for mobile users, you might be losing a lot of potential customers.

To ensure that your real marketing messages will be captured by your target customers who are using tablets and mobile phones, make your website mobile responsive and use images in your Facebook posts that are perfect for mobile access. Here’s a guide for all Facebook image dimensions and ad specs.

4. Many Facebook users in the Philippines are using free data.
Some Telcos and Internet service providers in the Philippines are giving free yet limited Internet data to their subscribers. Many Filipinos are then grabbing this freebie. It gives them Facebook access without extra charges. However, it also restricts them to access other sites, which may include your company’s website.

Because of this free data, many Facebook users in the country judge stories according only to the headlines they see on their news feed. They can’t read the whole story because they can’t access other websites aside from Facebook. If you like your Facebook marketing campaigns to become more effective, make your headlines more captivating and not misleading.

5. They can easily share their personal experiences on Facebook, and become trending.
Facebook is a place where many people share their rants and sentiments about their daily experiences. A negative post about your business can quickly spread and become viral on the social media. Thus, you have to take care of your customers and make sure that they will always have a great experience so they can tell the good things rather than the bad things about your business.

Final thoughts
We are already living in the social media era, and Facebook is the social media king right now. Most of your target customers are probably lurking on the social network at this moment. However, before unleashing your Facebook marketing campaign, don’t forget to listen, know and understand your target market first. Besides, social media marketing is about people and building good relationships.