Some Facebook users are giving up; but should you?

In the aftermath of Facebook’s recent credibility problems, many loyal users are caught between a hammer and an anvil. Should they continue using this social media platform or not? Should they market and advertise their products and services on Facebook or not? Should they disassociate their companies on Facebook or not?

Sorry, but it’s a hung jury. If people are really quitting Facebook, don’t panic. Stay the course. Investigate your options. Let Zuckerberg worry. Truthfully, Facebook offers benefits to users, entrepreneurs and small businesses depending on needs.

According to industry statistics, Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform. As of February 2019, 62% – not a paltry share – of 12-34 year olds in the U.S. log into Facebook, though truthfully that was a drop from the larger 79% in 2017, and represents about 11 million of the overall decrease. Facebook also boasts 1.37 billion daily active users – that’s a lot of exposure and potential customers.

The 35-54 age group has seen a 3% decline over the last two years, with 69% of people using Facebook now versus 72% in 2017. Incredibly, but fortunately for you if your business is targeting seniors, older persons on the platform are becoming more prevalent, with 53% of that demographic being active in 2019 versus 49% in 2017. While the U.S. population on Facebook shrinks, it is reporting overall growth globally.

From an advertising perspective, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, senior writer, Inc., wrote that in reply to a November survey, 32% CEOs and other high-ranking executives found deficiencies in the social media platform and said they are now getting less for their marketing dollars than they used to. Twenty-seven percent said they mistrust Facebook’s use of their business data. In follow-up interviews, Lagorio-Chafkin found, several of the survey takers said they have slowed their use of Facebook marketing and advertising. While a few of them have pulled the plug altogether.

Even though Facebook says it poured great efforts into targeting and educating small businesses about advertising, several of the executives from business-to-business companies that told Inc. they have stopped it over the past year, saying they often can find customers more reliably on LinkedIn or through other marketing channels. Jack Wight, the founder of an electronics reseller, among others, advertised aggressively to individuals on Facebook in 2018 but pulled the plug on the effort the following year.

“We weren’t making any money on those people by the time we paid for the advertising,” said Wight, the chief executive of Buyback Boss, which is based in Tempe, AZ. “The marketing cost was just higher than other channels.”

Other business segments and executives are not so dismissive of Facebook.

Interestingly, or perhaps strategically, the majority of the users leaving Facebook in 2019 are going to Instagram, which is a Facebook-owned entity. Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert, a Hall of Fame keynote speaker and emcee, host of the award-winning Social Pros podcast, even predicts that Instagram will surpass Facebook this year.

There are three reasons why users are turning their backs on Facebook.

Distrust of Facebook. The mainstream media has consistently covered Facebook’s role (or at least complicity) in the world of “fake news.” Consequently, you end up with an environment where the users of the platform may not fully trust the motives and judgment of those that operate the platform.

Given that Facebook has access to many of our most important personal data points, photos, and feelings, a drop in trust could create a drop in usage.

Increased Discord on Facebook. As a Facebook user, you’ve seen this in your News Feed: someone who says they are logging off of Facebook for good because of the rampant negativity present on the platform. In a climate of polarization, when you express an opinion on Facebook, you must defend that opinion from segments of your “friends” who are now “the opposition.” This squeezes the fun out of Facebook. I have seen friends unfriend friends and criticize friends for their comments.

Increased Disinterest in Facebook. Reduced trust in our Facebook overlords along with reduced willingness to argue among ourselves on Facebook contribute to this first-ever reduction in usage in America. Some suggest this drop represents a natural shifting of users to other parts of the Facebook ecosystem. While Facebook’s usage declines, Instagram’s usage continues to march upward, as does the number of people consistently using Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Based on Facebook’s distrustful behavior, entrepreneurs and small business owners should take to heart that violating trust in cyberspace will come back to haunt you.

On the other hand, Facebook advertising is considered useful because of its custom audience targeting features. Businesses pay not only for prioritization of their brand content, but for Facebook’s marketing tools, too. More than that, the platform offers a series of advertising tools that provide an opportune way to design a strong online presence.

But the extent of this usefulness varies upon your business’s needs. For example, Facebook could be an ideal marketing platform for a small business like a hardware store looking to DIYers who enjoy tinkering around the home with new tools, but possibly less fitting for a business telecommunications company targeting tech start-ups. Different types of businesses may find different social media more or less relevant to their business’s marketing strategies. This means that you should first do your homework before venturing out into cyberspace. Know your customers and where they congregate. Therefore, Facebook is particularly useful for B2C companies because they deal with people, but less so for B2B companies.

Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses. Here’s where it still shines. Small business owners have the opportunity to build and nurture captive audiences for their companies—their products and services. You can post photos and information for free about your business. Simply put, if people have an interest, it is part of Facebook. A user just has to enter a topic, such as “video games” or “new technology,” or your small business or its products into the search box and then hit the “search” button. Up to 1,000 profiles are displayed, 20 at a time, starting with people in the user’s network.

You’re probably aware that building a strong online presence is essential for your small business – but what does that actually mean? Put simply, your online presence refers to the way you present yourself and your brand. And you know what kind of audience you need to build. A strong presence will help your business appear more professional, and may increase conversions and traffic as a result. As a small business owner, you will establish your thought leadership in your industry. Your discussions and engagements will promote you and your product or services up and down your supply chain and to your customers. You will become the go-to authority on issues pertaining to your industry and marketplace.

Your company’s website plays a central role in establishing that presence. Indeed, your social media participation, including Facebook, should be aligned with your website so that they feed and promote each other’s content and therefore your products and services. Businesses with well-designed and useful websites, which are the treasure chests of everything their executives have thought about and built, tend to appear more credible to users. Visitor trust has a significant influence on how many conversions you receive, and the internet is now the first place most people look to learn about a new company and its executive who are the thought leaders.

As I’ve written in the past, just having a website isn't enough. Businesses require all forms of media — new and old, digital and paper to succeed and grow. Fortunately, the wide world of social media is excellent way of getting attention and promoting trust. Creating and maintaining active profiles and updates is a must, along with conducting frequent customer conversations.

It is axiomatic that social media platforms make marketing your business easier. Put simply, social media is one of the best ways to reach your desired audience, to establish yourself as a thought leader and to promote your wares. In fact, recent research has shown that most people in every age group use at least one social media site, and 30% of young people say they engage with a brand on social media at least once a month.

Some tips about Facebook advertising. With the decrease in public perception of the Facebook brand, whether good times or bade times for Facebook, as an entrepreneur or small business owners, you should still consider it a viable marketing platform. But you should know what it can and can’t do for you. If you’re launching a new marketing campaign, here are some of the things you may need to consider:

Nearly 2 billion people actively use Facebook every month despite its trials and tribulations. It continues to be the biggest social media platform by far. But that’s not necessarily good for everyone. If your business operates in a niche and you require access to a smaller segment of the market that’s more passionate about your offering, Facebook might not be the best call. Facebook is still a great platform for certain businesses, but not all. You still have to solicit friends and allow them to enter your circle.

Facebook is meant to be fun and personal, both of which are not ideal for B2B businesses. Selling to other businesses is a lot more appropriate on formal platforms like LinkedIn, considered as the adult version of Facebook. Most B2B marketers say they prefer Twitter or LinkedIn over Facebook for marketing results. Some prefer YouTube for visual content and self-promotional videos. However, Facebook is better for consumer brands that need to get their content out to a more casual audience. Because you allow access to “friends,” you are free to establish a rapport with them.

Facebook is still the king of social media based on the absolute number of users. However, your business marketing strategy needs to go beyond simply catching momentary attention. Facebook’s grasp on the public is slowly slipping and younger users are growing up with newer, more diverse platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. To create an audience and drive engagement, your business needs a targeted marketing strategy deployed on niche social platforms.

According to Kentico, 39% of Facebook users, your customers, say that they follow Facebook Business Pages because they want to receive special offers. Consider this when launching such a page. There was a time when the print media proposed special offers but not anymore.

While having a high number of likes on your Page is important, the Facebook users who like your Page won’t do the work for you. You, as the thought leader—the executive, need to produce engaging posts about your industry and knowledge, no matter how many likes you have. Don’t sell. Leave that to the sales department. The more you understand about generating engagement, creating conversations and spreading knowledge through your posts, the better.

Other points to keep in mind. It is noteworthy that 47% of Facebook users only access the site through the mobile app. That means that almost half of all Facebook users see your ads and posts on their phones. Additionally, mobile app fans are arguably more frequent users, as they have Facebook right in their pockets 24/7 rather than just when they can access a laptop or desktop computer and they can join the conversation or click to buy whenever they want to.

That also means that your content needs to be mobile-optimized. In addition to making sure any landing pages your ads point to are mobile-ready, consider posting more vertical photo and video content, and keep long-form posts easy to read, limiting the use of the “read more” button.

If you’re posting video, it has about three seconds to capture viewer attention. That sounds like nothing, but your video has a ton of opportunities to grab potential customers in that small amount of time.

Similar to post titles, ensure the first three seconds of your video are informative and instill in the viewer a genuine fear of missing out—FOMO. A bit of suspense, or the idea that your video isn’t revealing everything right away will give your viewers incentive to keep watching.

Finally, shorter posts get about 23% more interaction than longer Facebook posts. Keep it short and sweet. Again, your audience is likely consuming on the go, so you need to get their attention quickly – and trust that your subsequent landing page will hold their interest beyond that.

The long and the short of Facebook is if you have accumulated thousands of followers, you must be doing something right despite others users’ dissatisfaction with the platform. You have a solid audience, a marketplace that seems to be interested in your thought leadership, products and services. Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s not costing you much.