Where Businesses are Seeing Results with Facebook

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Over the past few days, this blog series has addressed some of the reasons why your business should be on Facebook, the demographics and numbers of Facebook users, and what and when to post on your Facebook wall. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the actual results businesses are seeing with Facebook.

There are two key points to keep in mind when measuring the success of your business’ Facebook page: 1) what sort of positive financial impact Facebook is having and 2) how Facebook is being used as a customer service tool to impact ROI.

As was mentioned in the Twitter results blog, a lot of the methods for tracking the return on investment for social media are still being developed. However, according to a 2010 study on different social media platforms being used by businesses, there are some quick statistics to keep in mind:

• There were 175 businesses that participated in the survey.
• Out of the 175, 35 (roughly 20%) did not use Facebook. Another 61 (34.9%) did not know or track how Facebook impacted their ROI.
• Of the remaining 79 businesses that used Facebook and tracked how it impacted their ROI, 26 businesses (roughly 15% of the total survey) saw a significant increase in their ROI.

This number may not seem large, but when taking into account the number of business that weren’t using Facebook and the businesses that didn’t track Facebook’s impact on their ROI, we see that 26 of 79 businesses saw a significantly increased ROI from using Facebook.

Of course, to be successful with Facebook, you need to have a specific marketing plan in place with specific objectives that you want to achieve. The most successful Facebook pages utilize creative content that sparks interaction and involvement with fans. Remember, your goal should not be to simply get more ‘likes’—how does that benefit you? Your goal should be to establish a community where consumers can engage with you and become loyal customers who promote your brand for you.

These are just some of the ways businesses have used Facebook to increase their success and improve their ROI. Up next: Some tips on how to manage your Facebook account.

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