Should I Use Facebook for My Attraction?
Many businesses have been struggling to keep up with the constantly changing algorithm of Facebook and many small businesses and entrepreneurs are struggling with the idea of even having a Facebook in the first place. If you have a Facebook for your business or know someone that has a Facebook, then you know how true this is! It’s difficult to manage, has a lot of upkeep involved, and can ultimately backfire if the business posts an unintentionally controversial post. In fact, if you aren’t constantly posting and interacting with your Facebook as an attraction owner, then you might as well not have one. So, as someone who focuses on tourist and attraction business, you have to ask yourself, “should I use Facebook for my Attraction?”
Well the short answer: yes, as long as you’re willing to put in the work. With Facebook’s current algorithm, businesses are struggling to get any customer interaction at all but that just means that the game has changed. So here’s a rundown on how Facebook can help your business from our social media marketing experts here at iWerx.
Why Use Facebook?
Okay, so obviously you know what Facebook is unless you’ve been living off the grid for the past 15 or so years. That’s because Facebook is quite literally the most popular social networking platform in the entire world. It’s hard to even imagine a world without Facebook considering how deep it has imbedded itself into our culture. Priit Kallas from Dream Grow reports that Facebook is the most popular social media site with over 2.23 billion monthly active users followed by YouTube with 1.9 billion and Instagram with 1 billion. So in terms of pure size and exposure, Facebook is still leading with a fairly large margin. Billions of people are creating and looking at posts every single month which means many of them are potential customers that you are missing out on.
From a marketing stand point, what makes Facebook incredibly unique is the fact that the age demographic forFacebook is fairly consistent throughout despite the fact that social media is generally skewed towards the younger demographic. The Pew Research Center states that “With the exception of those 65 and older, Facebook is used by a majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups.”
Many other social media platforms have a specific demographic, but the way that Facebook is set up makes it easy to use and appealing to all age groups. Sites like Instagram or Tumblr consist of a comparatively younger demographic so brands and businesses are often directing their marketing strategies towards them. However, when you have a broader, general audience base like on Facebook, any attraction or tourist destination can utilize it because any and every marketable group exists on Facebook!
But that doesn’t mean that you’ll be marketing to the entire Facebook audience. A broader audience base means that you can really hone in on a specific demographic that pertains to your business. Your business and your aesthetic can’t appeal to every person out there because that simply isn’t realistic, but it will certainly appeal to some. That’s the group that your Facebook page wants to capture and market for. So why do businesses use Facebook? It’s not so that they can market towards every person out there. It’s because it allows any attraction to find the demographic that they best appeal to whether it’s eating, shooting, or touring around the city!
Advantages of Facebook
There are a multitude of different advantages to Facebook! There’s so much it can do for a attractions; a lot more than people realize. Those who capitalize on Facebook have found their business grow exponentially! In fact, some business operations can be based entirely around Facebook to grow. But besides marketing and advertising, what can it do that most other forms of advertising can’t do?
Well first, and most importantly, it can humanize your brand and company. There are so many different things that you can do on Facebook to give your brand a personality and make it come to life. According to the balance, “Facebook gives you an opportunity to attach a face, name, and personality to your brand. While your Facebook page may represent your company, it also allows you to show the human side of your business through one-on-one conversations, personal tidbits, and non business interaction.” Throughout the years, we’ve seen many clients do just this! The humanizing effect helps create an appropriate audience group for your brand and helps retain that same audience group if they like what they see. So let’s break this down.
When you make posts and create content for your page, they don’t think that it’s you (the person) making the posts. Unless it’s a close personal friend or a family member, the person interacting with your page will generally think of the brand as the one saying what it’s saying. You can post about accomplishments, things that you’re doing, the lives of your co-workers even, and it will still reflect your brand.
Second, it’s great for SEO(Search Engine Optimization)! in the digital marketing world, everything can be connected one way or another. You can write posts and include links to your website and even your other forms of social media. Your social media can redirect traffic towards your website and build an even larger audience base for you to market to. The more content you create, the better!
Third, Facebook reviews, like any other review platform, can help direct people to your attraction and, if they like what they see, they will provide a positive review for you! Learn more about this from our previous blog post on reputations and reviews!
Disadvantages of Facebook
Now Facebook isn’t all fine and dandy. After working with Facebook for as long as we have, it’s quite obvious that Facebook has changed drastically over the years. Does this mean that you should just give up on having a Facebook page? No! It means that sustaining your Facebook’s business page may be more difficult, but Facebook can still pay off in the end. However, there are some potential disadvantages or hurdles for your attraction’s Facebook page.
First, like I said, Facebook reviews can help you but they can also damage your reputation. If you start encountering problems with negative reviews, again visit our previous blog post for tips on how to react to these reviews.
Second, organic reach is down. Like I’ve said earlier, reach is down and attraction owners are upset. The Facebook algorithm has changed so that they prioritize content from friends’ and family instead of businesses. As a result, attraction owners are understandably upset that the way they’ve been managing their Facebook no longer works. Learn from some of the companies that have best adjusted to this change at the Business Insider.
Third, make the wrong post, and you will endanger your reputation. Whether you accidentally post something offensive or bring up something controversial, it could still become a catastrophe. This has become increasingly apparent with huge social media scandals and mishaps. These range from videos “exposing” the brands, bad social media ad campaigns, incorrect wording, exclusive language, and everything in between.
Using Facebook for Your Attraction
At this point, if your attraction doesn’t have a Facebook then it’s missing out. Whether it’s a restaurant, a shop, or a hotel, a Facebook is absolutely necessary. If your business doesn’t have a Facebook at this point, then it’s not growing enough. Use Facebook to your advantage, it’s absolutely free for anyone to us! Just know that maintaining it is difficult, and you have to put in the effort to really make it flourish!
Otherwise, your Facebook may as well not exist at all! After working with numerous clients over the years, we know that Facebook isn’t just something that you can brush aside. It creates a relationship between your brand and your client! Whether it’s a good or bad one is up to you! And if you don’t have the time to put in all this effort then just contact iWerx to let us handle it for you!