Do you have a small business? If so, do you think having a Facebook page is a waste of time?
Recently, HJMT Public Relations Inc. surveyed more than 150 people on their attitudes on Facebook like pages.
Of the 100+ people surveyed, we found that the majority of people like between 1 and 10 business pages. We asked them what type of business pages they liked? 63.4% like local shops and restaurants. 44% like local or national media (this includes newspapers, magazines and TV news networks); 34% like Corporate or Brand pages; 37% like professional or industry organizations and only 27% liked personalities or celebrities. More than 20% said they “like” non-profit organizations that they believe in.
The majority of the people who like Facebook business pages suggested that they do it to support local businesses. 44% said they like to be aware of sales and promotions. Only 16% said that they like the page due to the fact that they were part of a contest or giveaway.
However, most of the people (37.3%) who liked business pages said that their favorite post was one that offered promotion codes or sales alerts.
One interesting question we posed to participants was, if they like a business facebook page, does that encourage them to frequent the brick and mortar location? This was split. 50.6% said it doesn’t encourage them to visit the brick and mortar location, but 49.3% said it does.
We flipped this around and asked participants if a post on Facebook encourages them to shop online. The majority, 59% said it would. This is telling because it says that online stores seem to do better with Facebook like pages than their offline counterparts.
The other interesting thing about the survey was about links. We asked if links on Facebook were clicked. 60% said they did click on the link provided.
Forget about asking friends to suggest Facebook business pages to other friends. An overwhelming majority (nearly 70%) said if a friend suggested a page, they would not like the page.
Our final question asked if digital content shared by a business or brand influences a decision to use a product or service offered by the company. This was split 49% yes to 51% no.
Who answered the survey? The majority of the people who answered the survey were over the age of 45, with 56% of the participants. 61% were female. The participants represented a good cross section of the country from New England to the Pacific coast.
After evaluating the results, it seems to suggest that small businesses will get the biggest bang for the buck on Facebook. If they use promotions or sales alerts, customers will frequent their shop more. The other big retailer includes online stores. There is a definite correlation between these stores and their Facebook promotions.
So if you think you don’t need a Facebook business page, you’re wrong. There is a connection between purchasing and Facebook, especially for Small Businesses.
