Facebook — Preview
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, the most widely used social platform. The chapters that follow cover other leading social sites —Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Focussing mainly on the use of Facebook for digital marketing, this chapter dwells on organic and paid advertising on the network, and the advertising options and formats.
Facebook, the most widely used social platform, is a networking site that allows people to communicate with each other. Here are some statistics, sourced from various sites including Zephoria and Hootsuite, that reflect on the platform’s scale and diversity:
- Over 2.38 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of March 2019.
- 1.56 billion, on average, log onto Facebook daily (DAU), March 2019.
- 4.75 billion news feeds/messages shared daily, May 2013 (+94% over August 2012).
- Gender split: 56% male, 44% female.
- Key demographics: Men 18 to 34 years represent 35% of global active users (GAU), and women 18 to 34 years an additional 24%.
- Declining amongst teenagers. Only 7% of GAU aged between 13 and 17, as teens increasingly embrace YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.
- Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm.
- Average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes.
- Facebook Inc. earned USD 56B in advertising in 2018. (Facebook USD 34B, Instagram USD 14B).
- Mobile represents over 90% of Facebook’s ad revenue.
