In the last post (Social Networking vs. social networking), we talked a little about what social networking is but let’s take a look at what it isn’t.
It’s not:
- A Fad
- ‘JUST’ social
- Free
Let’s take the first point. At the time of writing:
- Facebook has over 500 million active users globally—half of whom log on daily for an average session time of 55 minutes.
- The average user has 135 friends so not only are you communicating with your friends but you are communicating with their friends too.
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest after India and China.
So it’s probably not “if” you are going to use it – but “how”.
Which brings us to the second point. It’s not just social. It WAS just social and yes there are 18 year olds on there talking about their weekends, as I am sure most of you know who have kids.
BUT
It is now a recognised tool for business. There are just over 28 million people in the UK actively using it.
The 18-24 year old age range makes up 7.6 million of that 28 million.
The 35-54 year old age ranges makes up 7.6 million of that 28 million.
What’s the fastest growing demographic? You guessed it, the 35-54 years olds. The second fastest growing demographic is over 60’s. I’m willing to bet that these 2 demographics make up a large part of your target audience.
These numbers are all very well, I hear you cry. But why should you care? This goes back to my earlier point in my first post (add link) that the 18 year old of today is your potential client and/or decision maker of tomorrow. In 10 years time, that 18 year old will be 28. They will have grown up on a social network and expect to do business on a social network.
So it really is a case of when you get on board, not if. But Facebook is free, why do I need you anyone else showing me what to do? From a financial point of view, Facebook is free. It’s free to set up an account and free to set up a business page. And half of 
marketers do say that it does reduce their overall marketing costs. BUT if you do it on a really big scale the costs transfer from media buying to labour. And for small businesses, it’s another thing to do along with emails, phone calls and running your business.
Anyone can set up a Facebook page but to use it effectively to generate business will require you to buy in the effort and expertise or dedicate time to doing it yourself.
For some great tips on using Facebook to build online relationships that result in business offline, you can visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheSocialSardine or visit our website: www.thesocialsardine.com
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