Facebook is Not Where People Come to Engage with Brands

Oh nooooo....Timeline for Brands! What shall we do?

I know I am talking to marketers vs people today. Sorry you aren't people. You are marketers. You want to help clients or your brand sell to the masses. You or your clients have a Brand page and a Twitter account. You are trying to connect directly to your customers.

We have a problem in Oz. Your customers view Facebook as a place to connect with Friends and Family and a handful of Brands they love. They might LIKE all the Brands they have a positive view of but they will engage with just 2-5 regularly.

Facebook with their upcoming IPO need site traffic. They want Brands to buy Facebook ads. They want Brands to think Facebook is about connecting with their users. Because even though Facebook ads are so much less effective than Digital Ads off Facebook there is this lure of 'People spend all their time here'.

So instead of some lengthy discussion with stats like I normally go way deep on:

People watch over 4 hrs of TV per day.

People spend almost the same amount of time online.

The average Facebook user spends just 20 minutes on the site.

Only 25% of the people who log into Facebook today will do more than read (meaning click or upload or like or share).

You can not reach 80% or even 90% of your customers using Facebook. The ones you can you have a slim shot today. That is it. This means have a Facebook page. But focus on your website traffic. On your product and service. On traditional marketing methods like TV, your store sign, location location location!, your customer service, etc. You need an integrated marketing effort. Because Facebook is really a communication platform for people to connect with people. It is not where people come to connect with brands.

Little fact: MTV now has 100mil total Fans. The main MTV Facebook page has 32mil. When they post they get from 1,000 to 7,500 comments + Likes. Which is 0.005% to 0.02% engagement for fans worldwide. Remember Facebook is global. MTV needs to reach probably 25mil people world wide each day and at least 10mil viewers worldwide each day. Are they succeeding in reaching their viewers via Facebook? No.