Is a Facebook Business Page Worth the Time and Money?

Facebook time money investmentAs the formerly free social media platform turns into a paid site, businesses should reevaluate their Facebook strategy and investment

When small businesses first discovered Facebook it seemed to be the answer to all their small business marketing challenges. They could reach customers and prospects directly through a Facebook business page without spending a dime.

Facebook was the perfect solution for small businesses on a tight budget. All businesses had to do was build up a valuable fan base and post interesting content to drive traffic to their website or local businesses. Or so they thought.

The Great Fan Fall-off

If you have been watching your Facebook business page stats closely (and you should) then you have no doubt noticed over the past year how the reach of your posts has been falling off the charts – and not in the right direction!

For many, the change seemingly happened overnight, but the reality is that it kicked in throughout 2013 as the Facebook “Edge Rank” algorithm began selectively showing your posts to fans based on their previous level of engagement (likes, comments, page visits). So businesses started to try to game the system with tactics such as “like-baiting” tempting people to like obvious likable posts (“Like this if you think puppies are cute” kind of stuff).

Now we are at a point where Facebook business pages with 1200 fans have posts seen by only 25 people – unless they boost it with paid advertising.

This new normal on Facebook has businesses a bit upset, and rightfully so. They spent money on Facebook campaigns to get fans (probably even with Facebook ads) and now fans will not even see your posts unless you pay again. I think that’s called double-dipping (or double taxation – pick your term!)

Facebook Business Pages – the Good, Bad and Ugly

Now many businesses are starting to say that Facebook is a necessary evil – mostly because of the change from a free to paid platform. I really think that if they started off as a paid platform many wouldn’t be turned off, but would as many businesses be on it if that were the case?

Chances are that if you are on Facebook and continue to post you do see some value in the platform for your business. And there is a lot of good:

  • Reach – you can reach more customers, prospects and “friends” of customers than nearly any other marketing channel
  • Cost – the cost per impression is incredibly low for a direct marketing or advertising channel. Where else can you reach 5,000 people for about $5?
  • Targeting – Facebook has grabbed an enormous amount of knowledge on users so the level of targeting by demographics and interests is unmatched

Facebook boost postThe bad and the ugly is that it just isn’t what we thought it was anymore. People don’t like change. But the reality is that it has changed. Facebook needs to make money and they know that they have a goldmine in the countless small businesses that now rely on it day in and day out.

Businesses just need to come to terms with the fact that Facebook is no longer free and they’ll need to invest a bit of money into it to make it work with paying to boost posts and sponsored ads. But businesses also need to keep an eye on metrics to make sure that it really is working for them… whether it is increase in website traffic, leads or sales.

The time you invest in daily management of Facebook should also be relative to the return you get from the site. If you are spending hours a week for a couple of likes and comments, but no website traffic or leads, then you need to decide if Facebook is really worth it.

As the marketing director for SureShade, I recently revived the SureShade Facebook page with a new strategy to invest in at least 1 sponsored post a week. I pick one post a week that really matters to us, or that I think will really resonate with our key targets. The other posts are just “filler” posts – shares from other pages or links to interesting news.

So far the strategy has been working nicely. For about $5-20 (depending on how much I decide to invest in a boosted post) we can see thousands or tens of thousands of views, hundreds of likes and a nice boost to website traffic.

But I am a strong believer that some businesses just don’t belong on Facebook. They may have a page because it was free and it’s just another way to get their name out there, but marketing directly to consumers is not the best channel. And I imagine that some businesses are going to decide they just won’t want to make a bigger time and money investment for the principle of what they think Facebook has become. They just don’t like it.

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Editorial Staff

This article was written by SBMarketingTools.com editorial staff.