481 million people globally are actively using Facebook. Clearly, for any business or organization to ignore, dismiss or misunderstand this global trend would be a catastrophic mistake. Hold on—I am not passing around the Facebook Kool-Aid. Certainly, for many businesses or organizations Facebook is not an appropriate communication tool… or is it? Let’s look at who is a Facebook user and what are they doing on Facebook. Decide for yourself, by taking my litmus test, whether it needs to be in your corporate communications mix.

Who Are These 481 Million Active Users¹?

A little more than a quarter, 126 million, are in the USA¹. More important, though, is to know the penetration rankings. The UK, with a penetration ranking of 43%, is higher than the United States¹. Iceland tops them all with the greatest penetration. Even though the numbers are impressive, this is global reach with some areas more saturated than others. You have to determine  whether these are people you need to be talking with.

Women predominate the conversation, but men are participating too. The ratio is closer in the UK than in the States¹?:

Age is a factor too¹. The early thirties, the highest demographic for TV, also happens to be the highest on Facebook. Don’t have the data to support me, but my guess is this is the impact of young children in the household. UK has a lower portion of older people online in general, with a higher portion of younger kids than the US.

To put this into context of other media, the UK has 46.5 million adults who tune in to radio each week³. 43 million watch TV each day⁵. The 26.5 million UK Facebook users¹ pale in comparison until you consider that the Facebook user is fully engaged, spending over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook⁴. The jaw dropper is when you consider the cost of entry for each media. Anyone can create a Facebook fan page within ten minutes. Accumulate 30 plus fans and you can have a custom URL.

What Are People Doing on Facebook?

Ubiquitous email has paved the way for people to want to loop their digital experience into their lives. Facebook gives them a place to congregate. At times it resembles a party, but more often it is the equivalent of sitting round the kitchen table with family and friends chatting, sharing anecdotes and photos. Folks are catching up on each other’s lives: the fun, stressful, joyful and yes, even sad moments. People share things they like or dislike. They play games and they rally for causes.

Again, here are some numbers to consider: 93% of U.S. online consumers subscribe to at least one permission-based email a day². 42% of U.S. online consumers use Facebook at least once a day and, of these, 69% are a fan of one or more companies².

Does It Fit In With Your Communication Efforts?

For some, such as those in the entertainment, news or game industries, Facebook is a natural fit. For others, utilizing social media tools requires examining core business practices to find how it all fits together. Applying creative thinking on how best to utilize this tool is going to produce some brilliant solutions.

You would definitely expect that Facebook would not be a good fit for a provider of affordable housing for low-income families. You would be wrong. I convinced the director of Rockville Housing Enterprises (RHE) for the City of Rockville to take the litmus test. She answered yes to four out of the seven questions.

In June 2009 we created a private group on Facebook for the residents of the RHE housing program. Instantly, it was adopted as a social online hub for the community. Quickly shattered was the misconception that low attendance at community meetings indicated that residents were apathetic. Instead of only hearing complaints, the director and staff are now hearing good things too. The residents demonstrated that they genuinely care about their community. These are busy people working two jobs, caring for family members or hampered with disabilities that prevented them from attending meetings. The added benefit was that the Facebook group facilitated people getting to know their neighbors better and strengthened community spirit.

Instrumental to the success was that by using Facebook, RHE went to where everybody was already congregating online. RHE did not spend resources to create yet another social hub with the additional burden to educate and motivate users to go there. Facebook’s private group feature answered privacy concerns. RHE used Facebook to educate each resident on the wise management of his or her digital presence. Also, since the residents were already on Facebook, it was a better solution when compared to those provided by Yahoo or Google groups. The City of Rockville demonstrated fiscal responsibility by utilizing Facebook to provide better resident communication during tough budget cuts.

Facebook B2B Litmus Test

Take the following test to determine if it makes sense for your business or organization to be on Facebook:

• 1. Is my product or service something someone (besides your mother) would chat about in a social or casual setting?
• 2. Is my product or service fun or entertaining?
• 3. Is my product information or news?
• 4. Is my product or service for a worthy social cause or for awareness?
• 5. Is my product or service associated with a hobby, sport or pastime?
• 6. Does my product or service have a devoted audience?
• 7. Is my product or service for people to use or share on Facebook?

If you can answer yes to any one of these questions then your business or organization belongs on Facebook.

RHE did not use Facebook as a corporate web site; instead it was used to supplement their resident newsletter. Your answers to the litmus test should be the springboard to defining your purpose and intent on Facebook. Without clear objectives you cannot determine your success. Obviously the number of “Fans” and “Likes” is not used to determine success for RHE. Once you have determined your purpose for being on Facebook, the next steps are defining your criteria for return on investment, your risk exposure and resources to be allocated. And yes, your time is a resource.

What Are Businesses Doing on Facebook?

The word of mouth factor of Facebook is powerful and alluring for any business or organization. What constitutes Facebook presence is not clear-cut, and to make matters worse it is an ever-changing situation since it is constantly evolving. The options range from merely linking your digital presence to Facebook to creating apps to interact with Facebook.

The simplest way to join the conversation is adding a “Like” to your products, services or events. This gives people an easy way to share with their entire network of friends. Going the next step is creating a Facebook presence by creating a group or fan page. Every time one of your fans or group members interacts (for good or bad) with your business on Facebook, it streams not just through your newsfeed but through his or hers as well as to all of their friends. Facebook ads are given the personal seal of approval by showing whom among a person’s friends “Like” it already. It can also show the number of all fans who “Like” it. Creating Facebook apps can be powerful means to extend a business into the social mix. Extremely important to note is Facebook users are looping their conversations through email, mobile and twitter applications. The newest innovation is linking geolocation with the influence of social recommendations.

Just as I noted before, it is not for every business. Maybe the best solutions for you are a stronger presence on LinkedIn, twitter and participating on industry forums. One thing is crystal clear: depending on a stand-alone web site for your digital presence is so 1994.

For those of you living in the Cambridge area I will be conducting a clinic on this at the O4RB Event on the 23rd July 2010. Click here for more details.

Your comments, thoughts and questions are appreciated.

¹ Facebaker.com July 12, 2010
² Exact Target Email X-Factors report June 2010
³ Rajar Data Release May 13, 2010
⁴ Facebook Data Sheet June 2010
⁵ Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board June 2010