Tag Archives: facebook content

Facebook Pages and Content Sharing Skyrocket

17 Feb

If you had any doubt Facebook is becoming a vital business tool, consider these figures reported by Inside Facebook.

  • Content sharing via Facebook is soaring. Facebook reported users shared 5 billion items (links, videos, photos, articles, etc.) a week earlier this month. That’s up from 3.5 billion in December, 2 billion shared a week in September, and 1 billion a week as of July.
  • Facebook Fan Pages are the new business must-have. There are now more than 3 million active Facebook Fan Pages, nearly double the 1.6 million Facebook reported in December.
  • Local businesses are catching the Facebook bug. More than half of the new Facebook Fan Pages created since December belong to local business. Local businesses on Facebook went from 700,000 active Pages to 1.5 million.
  • Facebook users like becoming fans. The average user becomes a fan of 4 pages every month, double the December average.

What Do These Facebook Statistics Mean for You?

Several things:

  • Understand your customers’ Facebook habits. Do your customers become “fans” of businesses on Facebook? Why? Are they looking for deals and incentives? Information about products and services? Entertainment? Here’s an idea: Ask them! Understanding what your customers want and need is a vital first step in creating a content/conversation plan.
  • “If you build it, they will come” = FALSE. If you create a Facebook Fan Page for your business, you need a marketing plan to drive traffic to it.
  • Have a content strategy. Facebook users like to share links, videos, photos, etc. Are you giving them content they want to share? Good content can be stuff you create or third-party content — what’s important is that it meets a need. And remember: Content isn’t just what you share on Facebook. Install “Share on Facebook” functions to content on your website or blog, too.

Did you miss out on my recent Facebook for Your Business and Twitter for Your Business classes (in conjunction with Your Community Connector)? We’re planning an encore run of the courses — let me know if you’re interested in attending.