Small Business Meets Facebook

In an article written by Jennifer Saba at Business Insider, she hi-lights that the majority of Facebook's 2 million active advertisers are small businesses. Facebook cites that they have over 2 million active advertisers,  with the vast majority of that comprised of small and medium business owners. What is even more impressive is that over 30 million small business owners have Facebook pages. In today's world where shopping on Amazon is more common than going to your local mall, I am not surprised that so many small businesses have an online presence. To be honest, if a company in 2015 doesn't have a website, Facebook page and Twitter account I would be concerned about their long term prospects. However, a point that was raised during Patrick Ambron's lecture was that having online presence alone is not good enough. Failure to have it properly updated and relavent can result in a negative brand impression.

Getting more and more advertisers is mutually beneficial for both small business owners as well as Facebook. Facebook is making an active push to increase its presence in this space to take aim at Google's #1 position.

Google is the worldwide leader in digital advertising market share, at 31.1 percent, according to estimates from research firm eMarketer. But Google's slice has shrunk slightly, down from 33.6 percent in 2013. Getting more advertisers onto its platform is critical for Facebook as it tries to increase global share. Facebook's fourth-quarter revenue grew 49 percent to $3.85 billion from the same period a year ago, with mobile accounting for 69 percent of advertising revenue. Facebook, on the other hand, increased its share to 7.8 percent in 2014 from 5.8 percent in 2013, according to eMarketer.

The question really hinges on whether small business owners have any type of return on their investment and hope best to leverage and target Facebook users and convert their ad dollars into actual sales.