Ever since Facebook’s IPO, the social media giant has been under a magnifying lens as investors watch every move the web brand makes. In fact, questions have arisen about Facebook’s sustainability in the long run as their stock has taken a bit of a hit. Contrary to reports and claims ringing the death knell for Facebook, the social marketing site’s engagement is actually increasing compared to other top web brands. With that in mind, what makes Facebook a viable social media marketing platform for your brand?

Engagement and Fan Acquisition

Developing a fully branded profile on Facebook is the main foundation of any social media strategy. With over 900 million unique visitors on a monthly basis, Facebook has become the leader in social networking. An inviting company profile can help brands leverage the site’s virality to engage fans with original content, generate brand exposure in news feeds, and increase the reach of their message by advertising content to friends of fans.

Display Advertising

Even though you can create a profile for free, Facebook’s main intention as a public company now is to please investors by making a lot of money. This presents brands with an opportunity to use targeted display advertising, which is becoming more prevalent as Facebook’s targeting options become more robust. In fact, Facebook is rolling out a new targeting option by device, allowing brands to segment desktop and mobile users and create unique campaigns for each. 

Sponsored Stores

In addition to traditional display ads, Facebook now also provides Sponsored Stories as a way of improving the overall user experience. Sponsored Stories are extremely effective because this type of ad targets friends of fans. Brands can leverage this function to target specific users and use a “your friend likes our brand – you should too!” method to pull in users through the social media marketing platform.

Promoted Posts

Promoted Posts is a new feature that allow brands to push content to the forefront of cluttered news feeds. Immediate reaction to this development has been overwhelmingly negative; in fact, Facebook sensation George Takei lambasted the social media site for making content visible to only a select number of fans.

In a response to the popular Takei, a Facebook representative mentioned that 15-20% of “post visibility” is normal and that nothing has changed except for the new promoted posts advertising feature. Despite the backlash, brands now can make sure their fans see posts relating to offers and contests but pushing it to the top.

Future of Facebook

Facebook’s reign as the king of social media won’t last forever, but for the foreseeable future there is no alternative social media platform that can match its targeting abilities, reach, and unique format for brand interaction. While Facebook’s road to a public company has been a bit rocky and may deter other social media giants from going public in the foreseeable future (*cough* Twitter *cough*), it will continue to be one of the most dominant web brands around…..second to Google, of course.