Why You Should Be Using Facebook

When it comes to social media, Facebook is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla.

How many people are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other major social networks?

Here is a chart from April 2016 showing Facebook with 1.59 billion users. (Source)

And as of August 2016, Facebook had grown to over 1.72 billion users.  That is an increase of 130 million in just 4 months.

And how many businesses are using Facebook? At the end of 2015, there were over 50 million businesses using Facebook, up from 40 million in April 2015, or roughly an increase of 1.2 million businesses per month. (Source)

Now that we have some idea of the sheer numbers of Facebook users, how does making Facebook part of your efforts benefit your organization?

• To build a sense of community among users/customers of their product or service. If you provide a product or service that your customers like, and they can connect with you on Facebook, they can be your best salespeople, as they are satisfied and happy users of what you provide.
• If your Facebook page has followers, they will automatically be notified of upcoming activities, whether that is a product, a service, or an upcoming event.
• It makes it very easy for users to recommend you by simply posting one of your Facebook postings to their timeline to share with their friends, an implicit recommendation.

The average time spent on Facebook, per day, is over 50 minutes. (Source) That is an amazing amount of time for individuals to invest each and every day. To put that in perspective, the average person sleeps 8.8 hours per day and works 7.6 hours at work. (Source)

• 2.8 hours per day watching TV or movies
• 1.07 hours eating and drinking
• 57 minutes on Facebook (up from 40 minutes in 2014)
• 19 minutes reading
• 17 minutes exercise
• 4 minutes social events

If we round the Facebook number up 3 minutes, to 1 hour, we find the average person spends a total of 365 hours, or over 2 solid weeks – more than many vacations – on Facebook.

What makes people spend this amount of time on social media?

Stories.

People seldom remember facts alone, but weave those facts into a story, and they remember. We are wired to remember stories, especially when there is an emotional connection.

Think of all the stories you heard read to you as a young child. You probably remember many of them still, even though you may not have read them in decades. Why? Because they created an emotional connection.

Much of what is shared on Facebook is shared because there is an explicit or implicit story. Perhaps the easiest way to illustrate this is with a comic strip. By very definition, it is short, and, by its nature, it has to convey a story.

Think of some of the great comic strips, such as Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes. They would convey emotion in a story of just a few panels.

Creatively using Facebook, illustrating and telling stories of what your product or service can do for users, can play a significant role in bringing new customers and users to your site.