Will Facebook be your only marketing tool.

                                                                                                                               BY Rick Click

Often I run into business owners who are very smug about not having to pay for advertising, they just rely on Facebook to take care of it all. Proudly they proclaim “I never pay for advertising”. So from this statement I assume that they also don’t pay Facebook because why it’s all free right?

Neglecting to plan a proper advertising campaign, especially when starting up a new brand in town can soon lead to disaster. Totally relying on people stumbling upon your product or service when reading their posts is a chancy affair. And leaving all your advertising to just social media isn’t great either. Why do successful,massive brands like Apple still allocate some of their budget to newspapers, television, radio and billboards, if they do -shouldn’t you?

So back to Facebook what is its main purpose or mission? Answer; It’s a free social networking website that allows registered users to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues. So if your advert lives inside this free zone their algorithm will give you a very limited organic reach as a social network wouldn’t be popular if it were jammed up with adverts. Also consider that you will be competing with many others especially those that are also trying to hitch on the free gravy train.

Just because you post on a group that has thousands of followers don’t mistakenly think your message will go out to every one of them. In actuality at the moment, your reach will share to only 3% of these people and it’s shrinking every year. Why is the algorithm being increasingly tweaked to put the squeeze on free adverts? Simply because Facebook needs to make money, it isn’t a non-profit organization and it’s costs rise year on year with 97% of its revenue coming from paid ads.

You can live or die by Facebook and remember for every 6 good comments there will be 1 bad one and that will be the one everybody remembers. You should aim to put a positive slant on your business with proactive helpful partners rather than rely on just getting the message out there in a cheap,lazy way can easily backfire, especially when naysayers and pessimists jump on the chance to pull you down.

Facebook posts usually only enjoy a fleeting mention on a 24-hour feed that is constantly changing and not necessarily getting to target customers. Magazines for example – esp. Pattaya Trader, are kept and treasured not just for the whole month but often longer with Back issues available to view on the website pattayatrader.com for up to 2 years, with copies still being read and enjoyed in hotel lobbies and waiting rooms all around town.

By contrast the organic reach of Facebook is on a steady decline and whilst organic (free) reach isn’t dead yet, it has declined right into 2019 and is projected to continue in 2020.