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Consumers are creating content and uploading it on a variety of online media platforms. These platforms are increasingly becoming the “places” where people get together and converse. All over the world they are communicating online on social networking sites like Facebook, microblogging services like Twitter, content sharing services like YouTube and Instagram, and LinkedIn, the business and employment-oriented networking site.

The wide range of facilities and features that these sites offer make it easy for users to expand their network and create and share content with friends. Social is highly conducive to viral marketing; it can fuel and propagate campaigns to generate considerable buzz and awareness for a brand.

From the consumer marketers’ perspective, since this is where their consumers are hanging out, it is where they should engage with them. Most networking sites provide the means for doing so.

This chapter covers Facebook, one of the most widely used social networks. And the chapters that follow cover Twitter, the microblogging site, Instagram and YouTube, the content sharing services and LinkedIn, the business and employment-oriented network. Together these five platforms capture much of the diversity in social media.

Focussing mainly on Facebook marketing, this chapter dwells on organic reach and the advertising options and formats on the network. Using case examples, the chapter provides guidance on how to market products on Facebook.

Facebook

Facebook is a networking site that allows people to communicate with each other. Here are some statistics, sourced from various sites, that reflect on the platform’s scale and diversity:

• Monthly Active Users (MAU): 2.93 billion as of 2022.
• Daily Active Users (DAU): 1.96 billion as of 2022.
• Gender: Male 56.5%, Female 43.4%.
• Internet users:
• Male, 25-34: 15.9%
• Male, 35-44: 17.7%
• Female, 35-44: 15.7%
• Female users, 45-54: 18%
• Facebook is the favourite social network for the 35-44 age group.
• It is declining amongst teenagers and young adults as Instagram takes the top spot for users under 25, and YouTube and Snapchat gain share of these users.
• Seniors are fastest growing group. (75+ born 1945 or earlier)
• Highest traffic occurs mid-week (Wednesday and Thursday) between 11am and 2 pm.
• Average time spent per Facebook visit (session) is 4.8 minutes. Total time spent per day is 33 minutes.
• Mobile represents 94% of Facebook’s ad revenue (2020).

Considering Facebook’s enormous reach, it is not surprising that the vast majority of firms use the network to market their businesses. Netflix for instance, has 73 million followers (Feb 2021) on its Facebook Page, and uses it effectively to market upcoming movies and serials. Programmes such as Netflix’s miniseries The Queens Gambit have their own Facebook pages that keep audiences engaged through video snippets such as the one shown in Exhibit 20.1.

To illustrate how the network is used to market products the following sections examine the Facebook pages of Vegemite and Singer Sewing Company.