Web Design in Oklahoma City

I have been engaged in the process of exploring Facebook over the past several weeks. My goal is to determine if Facebook can really offer any value to our company and, if so, how. I'll be sharing some of my discoveries and conclusions with you in this series on "Using Facebook for business." This is part one, which I have entitled "Why?" I want to discuss whether there are any good reasons to use Facebook for business.

Individual or Company?

It's important to determine whether you want to use Facebook as an individual or as a company, or both. An example of an individual use might be a sales rep who uses Facebook for their own business networking purposes. This is different from a company attempting to establish a presence on Facebook for their own brand.

Facebook only extends what you already do.

Facebook is not magic. In truth, it really doesn't offer anything new. It simply provides a new method to accomplish the things that you already accomplish for business, whether you are an individual or company.

Let's think about the sales reps mentioned above. They already engage in networking activities of all kinds. Facebook simply provides them with another channel through which to pursue these networking opportunities. The value of Facebook, therefore, should be evaluated just like you would evaluate the value of any networking activity by asking -- does it produce the desired results?

At the company level, the same is true. Facebook does provide the opportunity to create "pages" for a company or brand, essentially allowing you to establish a presence for your business or brand on Facebook. This might be equated to your company having a website presence, or an advertising presence, or a presence at a certain trade. Facebook is quite simply another place for your business to establish a presence.

Is it worth it?

So, then, the question becomes, "is it worth it?" To answer that question, you have to determine whether the people you are trying to reach are likely to have Facebook accounts now or in the near future. Without a Facebook account, a person won't be able to interact with your Facebook presence (though Facebook pages are accessible by anyone, there's not much interaction if a non-Facebook user views your page). In our case, we have many customers who use Facebook, so there is a compelling reason for us to establish a presence through our Facebook page. With 30 million users, Facebook is just now, in my opinion, getting the critical mass it needs to become compelling to our business and others. If it can keep up the momentum and continue to grow, I think our business will definitely benefit from having a presence.

That said, the benefit is not huge at this point and so I would not want to invest too much effort into maintaining a Facebook presence. So, in future posts, I'll be discussing how you can create a Facebook presence that leverages content you already create and therefore requires little specialized upkeep.