Facebook has been swimming in hot water these last two weeks thanks to Inside Facebook reporting a decline of over seven million Facebook users in the United States, England, and Canada for May 2011. Facebook fired back with research from other companies that noted an increase, but not before the damage was done. Now, everyone is wondering the same things. Is Facebook fatigue starting to kick in? If so, how much energy should I put toward Facebook advertising?
The answers are in the numbers. More than half of American Internet users are on Facebook. Even if Facebook fatigue is happening, it simply cannot happen overnight. This means that 
regardless of what people say—Facebook is going to be around for a long time.
As a business person determining how you should spend your marketing time, it is crucial for you to put aside your concerns and realize that Facebook, the largest social media site, is still growing.
How to Use Facebook
There are lots of detractors who say that branding and promoting on Facebook does not work, but that’s because these businesses do not know how to create engaging content. An All Facebook report released two days ago shows that, on average, fan pages are only seen by 3 to 7.5 percent. Simply put, most businesses do not engage their fans. What does it matter if you create a page, get millions of fans, and then never interact with them? Unfortunately, this is the position most businesses find themselves in.
To benefit from your Facebook page you must continually create engaging content. Give visitors posts to read, videos to like, and photos to browse. Even better, come up with contests and events that people can compete in and interact with. The more likes and comments you receive, the more visible your page will become.
Now is the perfect time to jump in and build an interactive, engaging space on Facebook for current and potential customers. Just remember that on Facebook it’s all about constant quality.
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Sweet post, Mary! Taking on the big boys.
Nice post, Mary!
After reading this post, I looked at the fan pages that I have liked on Facebook. I have liked A LOT of fan pages; yet, I really only visit a few. The pages that I do visit, are either offering contests all the time (yay for free iPads, c’mon big money!) or offer really strong content that I find engaging.
Great way to sum up the well-known marketing rule: Content is King. It really is, and (IMO) always will be.
I think that’s the best part about Facebook, the way to optimize your fan page is something inherent to human relationships, it’s just tricky getting businesses to see that. Thanks for the comment Lori!
Wow this is some good stuff! I didn’t know Facebook was in the decline, well I’m not so surprised because every BIG RISE has a FALL sometimes, but Facebook will still be around for a long time till the next big thing comes along.
Thanks Sule, it’s definitely true. Facebook’s not going away anytime soon.
Facebook just isn’t ‘awesome’ enough – its social tools are nowhere near as richly featured as dedicated, discrete applications like Flickr or Skype, and users are becoming disillusioned with Facebook dictating to them precisely how they interact within its walled garden.
http://www.pauliewoll.com/2011/06/facebooks-walled-garden.html
Great way to sum this up Mary. I would add that we are just starting (Facebook users and Fan Page owners) to understand how to use these new tools. Facebook has a huge built in community and if we can tie the social graph in Facebook to search and discovery of businesses (with great content and contests) we will start to make some really cool connections happen.