Facebook is one of the most recognizable social media platforms. Facebook blew up on the internet in late 2008, crushing its main competitor MySpace. Now, Facebook is considered the go-to platform for many businesses starting out on social media. But besides its famous name, what can Facebook offer your business?

Let’s start by looking at what Facebook allows you to post. In social media, there are four main types of media: photos, videos, articles, and text. Facebook is one of only two social media platforms that allow you to utilize all four of these types of content.

Facebook offers the highest potential reach of any social media platform, with over 1.3 billion active users. However, with a large audience comes steep competition. There are over 54 million Facebook pages which compete for your potential audience’s attention.

A large potential reach is great, but is your target audience a large enough portion of those 1.3 billion users for Facebook to be worth your time? Let’s break down some of the user demographics to help your answer that question. Of those 1.3 billion users, 75% are outside the United States, meaning only 325 million users are within the United States. However, that is still a large potential reach.

Facebook users are fairly evenly split between genders, with only slightly more male users. The age demographics are where the largest difference is. About half of those 1.3 billion Facebook users are over the age of 45. This is a vast difference from a few years ago, where the social site was riddled with teens and twenty-something’s. Now, less than 20% of users are under the age of 25. The younger generations (or early adopters, in marketing terms) aren’t interested in Facebook. However, Facebook isn’t dead, because the older demographic is becoming more and more active.

So if your demographic is on Facebook, great, but what can the site do for your company? In my last post I discussed some business objectives that social media can influence. Facebook offers a fair impact on SEO and site traffic; however, the site is strongest in brand exposure and customer engagement. With such a high user count, Facebook offers the most brand exposure possibility of any social media platform, but only if used correctly. Also, thanks to the business/organization page layout, customer engagement is highly visible.

If what I stated above fits your business and you choose to create a Facebook page, make sure your team possess the right skills. You need to create interesting content that utilizes all aspects that Facebook offers in order to leverage Facebook’s power.

In my next blog, I will tackle another major social media platform option for your business. Until then, if you need help with your social media, give us a call at 410-312-0081 or fill out the contact form.

— Rebecca Leonard, Marketing Associate