How to Market Yourself on Facebook

    Did you know that Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world with more than 3.05 billion monthly active users? Facebook was created in 2004 and instantly transformed American society. While millions of people have been on Facebook for over a decade, younger generations haven’t been using it due to a rise in other platforms with competing features. While other networks have become more interesting to Gen Z, it is also likely that my generation doesn’t use Facebook as often because of when we were born.  For most people, it is easy to just stick to the platform that you are most comfortable with. However, it is also important to learn about how other social media platforms can help you and expand your reach to as many people as possible. 

    Before coming to college, the only platform I used regularly was Instagram. I always assumed that Facebook was for older people and was their version of Instagram because essentially, it was. I didn’t make a Facebook account because I didn’t see the purpose. I ended up making one last semester because I had a teacher that only communicated via Facebook and the more I use it the more I understand and learn about how it can be beneficial. Since facebook has an older demographic, I can share content or present my business to other people that may not know anything about it. Also with Facebook’s 3.5 billion users, I can gain many more followers or potential customers just from sharing content on the platform. 

    Facebook is the best place to share information about your business and this chapter talks about some of the key ways to make your business stand out and gain more followers. As a business owner, you need to make sure that you post content that hooks the audience and matches the age demographic on the platform. One thing I found really interesting in the chapter was the key components needed to make a Facebook post interesting for its audience. I didn’t know that each platform had specific things that made it more or less exciting and compatible for the audience. For example, on Facebook you should have no more than 140 characters on your post. It is also important to have a link that takes readers directly to your site if they are interested in your product. These are only two examples but by understanding what works for the audience on specific platforms, you can have the biggest chance for outreach and reduce the people that don’t read your post.  

    Overall I think that Facebook is one of, if not the best platform for professional marketing. While this is the case, I think that Facebook is also going to die out very soon. Anything past my generation will likely use instagram or other platforms to promote their products. Since Facebook was made a decade ago and many of my generation don’t use it very often I have a feeling like it won’t last past the next 40 or so years which is quite sad to think about. While I still don’t know a whole lot about Facebook I am excited to continue exploring and learning more about it. If businesses can understand the strategies they can use to promote their business based on the analytics of the platform, they could gain many more customers and overarching success.