Published Wednesday, September 5th, 2012, by Karen Condi.
Many people ask, “Aren’t Facebook and social media for our personal lives and kids?” Not anymore … more than 30% of users are now over 35 years old and this segment is growing rapidly. Furthermore, it has become one of the most influential tools to impact behavior of those who are in our networks. Regardless of where the stock price is now, there is a reason for so much buzz around the social networking giant. Facebook for the serviced office space community is a perfect outlet as it allows for local communication and networking versus global B2B companies who have less to gain from the local and community aspect of Facebook. So, Facebook is here to stay and you must make sure you understand it and use it to your advantage.
The Stats:
1. Facebook currently has over 900 million active users.
2. If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd most populous on earth.
3. The United States has 162,455,860 users or 67.91% of the population in the US.
4. Facebook accounts for 1 out of every 5 pageviews on the internet worldwide.
5. Facebook users share over 100 billion connections collectively.
6. Over 50% of the population in North American uses Facebook.
7. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook daily.
8. There are 2.7 billion likes every single day on Facebook.
9. 57% of Facebook users are female (43% male).
10. The social media giant has 425 million mobile users.
11. The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on the site per visit.
12. With over 500 million users, Facebook is now used by 1 in every 10 people on earth, with over 450 million of them (over 50%) who log in every day.
13. 48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up, with 28% doing so before even getting out of bed. The 35+ demographic is growing rapidly, now with over 30% of the entire Facebook user base. Almost 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook, while 70% of the entire user base is located outside of the US.
14. Over 700 Billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook, 20 million applications are installed per day and over 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis, across 2 million websites. Over 200 million people access Facebook via their mobile phone. 48% of young people said they now get their news through Facebook. Meanwhile, in just 20 minutes on Facebook over 1 million links are shared, 2 million friend requests are accepted and almost 3 million messages are sent.
The Facts:
• It’s popular. It is the most popular social network platform with over 900 million monthly active users, 526 million who visit the site daily.
• It’s viral. Clients no longer want to see ‘what’s going on with your business’ they want to connect and feel part of the community. We’ve seen the community aspect of what we deliver become more and more important as the new generation of workers enter our workspaces.
• It builds loyalty. It will build customer loyalty and foster the community, a very important consideration as the next generation of workers enters our workspace (the feel of community is one of this generations top ‘needs’.)
• It’s flexible. It allows you to communicate directly with your audience/fans; everything from a networking event you are hosting, center upgrades, move-in specials or simply holiday hours.
Example: My sons youth football league ONLY communicates with all the parents in the league via Facebook; things like rain outs, practice times, fund raisers, etc.
• It’s a referral engine. It’s a great way to showcase word of mouth referrals for your business center.
Example: A client comes in to use your meeting room and is blown away by the customer service. He posts on your Facebook page how great the service was (because you’ve asked him upon exiting) and this message is now exposed to his 250 friends via the news feed on his wall. That’s potentially 250 people that you can get in front of with virtually no marketing dollars spent.
• It creates awareness. How many of us have struggled with creating awareness for our Industry, our company, our brand?
Example: In the scenario above, what if just 5 of the 250 ‘friends’ commented or ‘liked’ the post and each of them have an average of 250 friends, now the exposure of this great meeting room experience is up to 1500 total…still no marketing dollars spent.
• It can drive traffic to your website. Utilize your page to demonstrate your value, post images, links, case studies, product comparison (traditional space vs. Office Suite vs. virtual), etc.
• It’s a research tool. You can gather valuable demographic and marketing information via analytics and digital tracking tools.
• It’s a communications tool. It allows you to tailor your product offerings to better suit your clients to:
o Ask questions
o Solicit Feedback
o Post Surveys
The bottom line is that Facebook is not only here to stay, it’s growing in leaps and bounds. With that growth, the notion of Facebook as a toy for teenagers has been replaced before our eyes as a thriving, influential communications tool and community builder. Facebook is now used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide as an extremely valuable marketing tool that engages its audience with two-way communication.
The amazing thing is that Facebook has always been and remains…free! It’s also very easy to set up, get going and can usually be accomplished right at your front desk. The key is to keep it going, you MUST manage you page efficiently and keep fresh content coming or you will appear to not care about your business just as with your website.
Remember if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd most populous on earth. That’s a country in which you just might want to make sure you have a presence!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Condi has over 14 years’ experience in the Business Center industry and has been a key player in Alliance Office Strategies rapid expansion; she possesses extensive knowledge and expertise in the areas of sales, marketing, operations, planning and development. Specializing in turnkey, takeover, start up and crisis management projects, Ms. Condi has dramatically increased ROI for many clients across the country. Prior to working with Alliance, Ms. Condi served on the leadership team for a national Office Suite provider, where she opened, acquired, developed and managed over 30 locations throughout the United States. Ms. Condi brings unparalleled development, management and operations experience with a complete understanding of best practices to maximize ROI, revenues and profits. She is currently the Executive Director and Principal of ALLIANCE Office Strategies. The AOS team is currently engaged in over a dozen consulting, development and management engagements with business centers around the world.
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