five reasons small and niche marketers should like facebook

The numbers are impossible to ignore: More than 500 million people are active on Facebook, and those folks are prospective customers not only for big brands but for the small and niche brands that can — and should — engage in this space. It all depends on who you ask, but many of business owners and marketers whom I speak with still are unsure about why they should be spending time and money on Facebook (or any social media in the hard-core cases). The ones who “know they should be there” are unclear about how to get started, and the ones who are there seem to be hovering in moderator mode over infrequent wall posts and pictures.

Here is my top five list of “likes” — with a twist — for marketers taking a first or new look at Facebook and their media mix. If you “like” what you read, leave a comment and fire someone else up. If you have more ideas — particularly effective in convincing those nowhere near the fence much less on it — please “share.”

1 | Facebook Ads: Usually, you’ll find this at the bottom of the list as most see social media as a “freebie.” The low cost of entry, do-it-yourself and democratic nature of the medium enables promotion with a small price tag, but small business (typically local and regional) is missing a great opportunity to get in front of prospective customers. With the ability to micro-target, flexibility that ensures a nimble approach, and costs that won’t overtax a tight budget, what’s not to like about these hard-working ad units?

2 | Facebook Pages: “Create a Page for My Business” is how it typically happens. Business owners see the prompt, follow the links, and are up and waiting for the “likes” of friends and fans in no time. However, these pages are more than a wall for exchanging greetings or glad-handing; they are, some proclaim, overtaking websites and microsites to be the Web presence for many businesses. Applications for customization using FBML (Facebook Markup Language), analytics to collect and report on user behaviors, and locating in social media’s number one address make Pages so easy to like.

3 | Facebook URL: A page with 25 “likes” (as of this writing) is eligible for a username, the unique Web address that leverages the power of Facebook and announces that a brand is doing business there. Many small and niche businesses find the borrowed equity of these vanity URLs provides a recognizable and relevant credibility to their brand or promotion. Sure, some will tell you that their customers “aren’t on Facebook,” but one can’t ignore the benefit of this powerhouse support in reaching out to new (and existing) customers.

4 | Facebook Apps: More than 550,000 active applications can be found on Facebook, and they’re not all for growing virtual farm crops or blowing away zombies. Small and niche businesses are using these apps to deepen the experience on their pseudo-sites — enabling customers to share photos, videos, and links to ensure that prospects get the third-party information that they’re seeking. Survey apps aid R&D, contest apps create buzz., and off-site promotional apps let businesses sync their Facebook activity to their own websites, which means more than one way exists to like what you see.

5 | Facebook Places: Now that Facebook has turned on this geo-based app, small, local, and regional businesses can tap into this promo-friendly mobile app. Ideally, folks would check in and broadcast their whereabouts to friends, but businesses should consider the benefits of a real-time app like Places for point-of-sale promotions, exclusive offers, and loyalty program add-ons. Who doesn’t like a deal like that?