Stunning New Research! Why Your Business Needs To Be Active On Facebook

Is your business easily found on Facebook?

Have you, or your business (product, service, brand) been looking for a good excuse to start using Facebook for your business?

If so, then I think you’ll find the information below VERY interesting and compelling.

Facebook is exploding in popularity

Facebook has recently surpassed the 800 million member mark, and its growth doesn’t seem ready to slow any time soon.  Along with the explosive member growth on Facebook comes the unimaginable number that reveals just how long each user, on average, spends on Facebook once they login.

According to a recent study by Nielson, total user time on site reached 53.5 billion minutes in the month of May 2011.  

Guess who (or what) the next closest site was in total user time on site?  Yahoo at 17.2 billion minutes, with Google coming in third with 12.5 billion minutes total time spent on site in May 2011.

If you are doing the math, this means Facebook is commanding nearly 4 times the amount of user’s attention on the web compared to the number two site.  This is a number that, in my humble opinion, cannot be ignored by any business – local, small, national, or global.  The amount of time and attention span given to Facebook far exceeds any other web property.

In fact, it’s not even close!

Here’s an image that represents the study, and the magnitude, of these numbers:

Why your business needs to be active on Facebook

I think it’s obvious looking at the image above that your business should absolutely have a presence on Facebook.  I would be willing to bet if a survey was conducted on your customers as to how many of them are actively using Facebook, the number of the users would be well over 80%, perhaps approaching 90% or more.  And it doesn’t really matter what the age group is of your customers.  From pre-teens to baby boomers, Facebook is booming with users, activity, and as the image shows above, total time on site.

One of the best ways for your business to start becoming active on Facebook is to start your own Facebook Fan Page.  And from your branded Facebook page, start producing valuable, interactive, and compelling content.

One of the strategies I’ve been using lately for myself, and for our clients here at Bipper Media, is the “Fill in the blank” strategy – here’s what it looks like:

(Fill in the blank)  My favorite flavor at Ben & Jerry’s is _____________?

I’ve been using this content strategy with amazing results because 1)  it encourages people to interact with your update, and 2)  as people interact with your update, the page the content resides on is syndicated deeper throughout other people’s news feeds on Facebook.

So are you business owner?  If so, can your business be found easily on Facebook?

If you are on Facebook, what are some of the strategies you’ve been using to build traffic, exposure, and to grow your fan base?