Social media has now become a common way to connect with people and build meaningful interactions online. It helps you reconnect with old friends and truly serves as a good venue to catch up for the lost times. But, social networks are doing so much more than just connecting two nostalgic people from the opposite sides of the world. It also provides consumers with very convenient ways to connect with companies, businesses, brands, and media and vice versa. Many businesses are now seeing the undeniable power of social media. As a matter of fact, the majority of companies are now leaning towards using social networking marketing to build better presence on the Web and get their target customers to know about their brand.

It is almost impossible to discuss social networking without acknowledging the prominence of Facebook. With nearly 900 million members, Facebook is definitely one of the most popular social media sites in the world. According to surveys, Facebook now accounts for over 65 percent of all visits to both social networking and forums-classified websites. What is more, around 50 percent of all active users log on to Facebook in any given day, contributing to the 740 billion minutes spent on Facebook per month by global users. With all these data, it is not surprising that many people are leveraging Facebook as a social networking marketing tool in their business. But, is this an effective business strategy?

Just about any business or company can benefit from using Facebook as a social networking marketing tool. Aside from the benefit of word-of-mouth awareness that Facebook can create, an organized, well-established presence on this social media site can you help build a stronger connection with your customers. It can likewise help you target new markets and strengthen a brand message. You can also benefit from those features that invite customers to events (such as product launching), and gather valuable customer feedback. Additionally, Facebook allows you to market your business through several types of Facebook advertisements. These ads don’t come for free, but they’re really affordable.

There are basically two options when it comes to paying for advertisements on Facebook. First, you can purchase clicks, also known as “CPC advertising”, or you can purchase impressions, also known as “CPM advertising”. Most business marketers choose CPC because it means that the ad attracted the prospective customer enough that they actually clicked the ad. The problem with CPM is that you can never be sure if you’re ads are even noticed by your target customers.

One of the best things about advertising on Facebook is that the ads can be aimed to your desired consumer based on age, gender, location, and other parameters. Try logging in to your profile. You will notice that there are ads on the right hand side of the page. The chances are very good that those ads displayed on the page more or less relate to you.

Remember though that it takes more than creating a good profile and adding friends to effectively build your company’s credibility with Facebook. There are several other things that must be done to ensure that you’ll get hundreds of thousands of visitors who will trust your page. For one, you should try to encourage your friends to write good things on your wall. The more positive comments you receive on your page, the more credibility you gain. Next, always use a professional photo on your profile. A professional-looking profile picture can make more people trust your page. You can use casual photos but try to minimize them as much as possible. And finally, try to learn from others. See what makes your competitors successful in their social networking marketing. Of course, do not copy what you see. Outshine them by coming up with better ideas and better Facebook profile page.

If Facebook advertisements don’t give positive results for your business, it’s probably because you’re not targeting the correct people. You may have to undergo a bit of trial and error to obtain the results that you want, but when you find just the right ads for the right market audience, the results can be outstanding.