Should I Be Using Facebook For Marketing In 2021?

Facebook Marketing Nov 24, 2020

If you aren’t already using Facebook to market your business, you may be wondering whether it would be beneficial for you. Although new social media platforms are springing into the webspace regularly, catering for different demographics and content styles, Facebook is still the social media monster that serves a significant variety of content and social media users.

When deciding whether or not to include Facebook in your marketing strategy, the biggest questions to consider are:

Where is my audience?
Am I prepared to pay to play?

But you may also want to ask yourself:

What are my marketing strengths?
What type of content do I create?
Am I active on Instagram?
Do I want to protect my brand from fake accounts?
Will I consider using Facebook for my business in the future?

Here’s why…

Where is my audience?

Different social media platforms cater for different demographics. This will make some social media platforms more beneficial for you to be able to reach your target audience. If your current or target audience fits the demographics for Facebook, you should consider being where more of your audience is.

Distribution of Facebook users worldwide as of October 2020, by age and gender graph by statista.com

You can find out your current audience demographics for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by using a social media analytics tool such as Minter.io.

Audience demographics graph by Minter.io

According to pewresearch.org, ‘YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms, and its user base is most broadly representative of the population as a whole.’ It’s also worth noting that people interact differently with different platforms, so you may find more practical business success with one platform over another based on how your audience interacts with your content on that platform.

Percentage of U.S. adults who use various social media platforms graph by pewresearch.org

Am I prepared to pay to play?

Facebook has changed dramatically over the years, and Facebook pages have seen a significant decline in organic reach in recent years. The landscape for businesses on Facebook are now geared more towards paying businesses. This means you have to be prepared to boost posts and advertise them to not only new audience members, but users who have already liked your Facebook page. With this in mind, paying for eyeballs on Facebook content all comes down to whether it gives you a good return on investment. Advertising on social media is still considerably cheaper than many traditional advertising models, and the targeted advertising Facebook offers is pretty impressive. If your target audience is on Facebook, a little investment can go a long way towards growing long-lasting customers.

You may also want to think about how you market your products…

What are my marketing strengths?

Different marketing strengths lend themselves to different social media platforms. Are you good at collaborating with influencers? Are you experienced with creating sales funnels and running ads? Are you a whizz at SEO? Look at your areas of strengths and choose social media platforms that compliment these strengths.

What type of content do I create?

There are many ways to connect with an audience using content such as:

images
sound bites
videos
short-form written word
blog articles

The kind of content you create will dictate which platforms you can share your content on. Having said that, Facebook has long been considered the king of content because you can post images, videos, long and short-form written word, share links, create events, share offers, advertise jobs and so much more, all on the one platform. The extensive amount of features Facebook has to offer eclipses every other relevant social media giant.

There are some reasons you might want to consider having a business Facebook page, even if you don’t actively use it…

Am I active on Instagram?

If you are running ads on Instagram, you need to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook account. This is because Instagram is owned by Facebook and the advertising on Instagram is technically run through Facebook ads. Therefore, if you are active on Instagram and plan to run adverts on Instagram, you will need a Facebook business page to connect your Instagram account to.

When you boost a post or advertise on Instagram, your Instagram account will prompt you to log into your Facebook account.

Do I want to protect my brand from fake accounts?

If you want to protect your brand from fake accounts, securing your handle on as many social media platforms as you can is a good move. Once you have secured your handle on Facebook, no-one else can create a Facebook page with the same handle, making it easier for you to control the image of your brand and avoid fakers from pretending to be your brand.

Will I consider using Facebook for my business in the future?

As your brand grows, you may want to keep the possibility of using Facebook for marketing open in the future. It will generally be easier for potential customers to find your business if you use the same social media handles across all your social media platforms. By securing your handle on Facebook, even if you aren’t currently actively using it, you keep the door open for the possibility of using it at a later date.

If you are currently using Facebook as part of your social media marketing strategy, check out how Minter.io can help you keep track of your analytics and KPIs as well as exporting data for your company and client meetings.