What's the ROI of Facebook Marketing? Part 1

Have you heard this before?

"Only market in ways that can be measured.  Otherwise you won't know whether what you are doing is working or not. When it comes to marketing, if you can't measure it, you shouldn't be doing it."

I believe this is excellent advice and should be followed ............... sometimes.  The reason it should only be followed sometimes is that every great rule has it's exceptions and in this case the exception is social media in general and Facebook specifically.

First, let's quickly review ROI (Return on Investment).  Simply stated, it is the amount of money that is made on a business investment.

So if you invest $100 in advertising and the ad generated exactly $100 for that investment, your ROI is 0%, no loss and no gain.  If it generated $110, your ROI is 10%.  If it generated $90, your ROI is -10%.  So far so good?

Next, we all learned in Business 101, either in organized class or from the school of hard knocks, that you can't stay in business very long if you generate less money than you spend on the business.

Therefore, whoever came up with the quote above would say that, "it is important that you know the ROI of each dollar you spend in your business."
I'll come back to that, but first, here's a question:  What do these companies have in common? Apple, Google, BMW, Amazon, Toyota, Microsoft, Walmart, Mercedes Benz, Honda, Coca-Cola.  Answer: They are, in order, the Top 10 worldwide brands, as of 2012.

Next question: What else do they have in common?  Answer: They all, of course, have Facebook Fan Pages.

Last question:  Why?  They certainly don't need them.  They obviously already have websites.  Can anyone make a compelling case that even one of them achieved their position on this list because of their Fan Page? Of course not.

So why DO they have them?  Here’s why, because Facebook isn’t just another social network.  It has, for most intents, become the new internet.  It’s where everyone hangs out online.

It isn’t just for geeks anymore.  Non-techies hang out there. People with no email addresses hang out there.  Even people who don’t like social networking hang out there.

Forget “This company or that company is the fastest growing social network.”  The new members that are making the new companies numbers spike ALREADY HAVE Facebook accounts.  When you have a billion members,  a million new members each day doesn’t sound so impressive when expressed as a percentage.

The point is that everyone who is anyone really IS there.  The giant brands know that so they are there too, if for no other reason than to use their Fan Pages as a billboard to drive people to their websites.

Think of it this way, if you were selling balloons, would you sit in your home and wait for people to come to you or would you get a booth at a the World’s Fair?

Facebook is the World’s Fair and your Fan Page is your booth.  To succeed in business AND be perceived as current and relevant, I believe that just like the giant brands I mentioned earlier, you need a website AND a Fan Page.

In Part 2 of this post, I’ll finish the discussion of the ROI of your Fan Page, after all, according to Business 101, that’s something you have to know, right?  We’ll see....(the answer might surprise you.)