Should Facebook Marketers Focus on Likes, Shares, or Promoted Posts?

Facebook has become a social networking platform with a user base of over a billion. Many SMBs and marketers have had to keep up with Facebook's rapidly changing marketing platform as well as the inherent changes in the social media world. A Facebook handbook can help differentiate between effective Facebook marketing strategies and features that are arguably outdated.

What to Do With Likes, Likes, and More Likes

A few thousand likes on Facebook used to add credibility to a brand. These days, very few brands can effectively leverage the number of Facebook likes as a part of a more comprehensive social media marketing strategy. In most cases, if not all, businesses don't get paid every time a user clicks the like button and it's not unusual for Facebook users to find pages that have over ten thousand likes. However, a page with a measly 15 likes may reduce the credibility of a business.

Facebook has caught on to many businesses boasting thousands of likes while failing to post any content users find useful. The new Facebook algorithm gives preferential placement to posts that receive the most engagement. In other words, shares have been identified as a better metric to use when identifying user engagement.

Shares and the Essence of Social Media

The original concept behind social media has been the ability of a community with a common interest to share content, opinions, and ideas. Sharing engaging content from brand to user and user to user has proven to be a much more effective Facebook marketing strategy for large enterprises as well as SMBs.

It's also important to note that most local businesses have a cap on the number of meaningful likes they can obtain. A thriving local business in a small community can have a powerful presence on Facebook with a fraction of the number of relevant likes that a global enterprise can reasonably obtain. An audience based on the business' geographic location and target consumer would be ideal for any local business. Enterprises on the other hand can benefit from having a much larger audience, with no geographic limitations.

Guidance for Businesses

Promoted posts on Facebook are a great way for emerging brands to gain visibility on the platform and get in front of potential customers. A Facebook handbook can help marketers and small business owners fully understand how to form effective Facebook marketing strategies and keep up to date with todays social media trends

Takeaways for Facebook Marketing

Below are a few key takeaways for effective Facebook marketing strategies:

• Invest in promoted posts to gain initial visibility and increase engagement
• Focus on engagement as your primary goal.
• Don't get caught up in the number of likes on your Facebook page
• Focus your Facebook marketing campaigns on sharable content.