I recently has someone tell me, “Oh, I heard Facebook is dead. I don’t want to be on there.” Not the case – not even a little bit.

There are several reasons you really do need a Facebook page, but first I want to share some stats:

People are spending two hours per day on social media, and a lot of that is Facebook. Facebook is currently the most used social media platform with more than 2 billion active monthly users in 2018. Social media is the ultimate deciding factor for 93 percent of consumers when they’re getting ready to make a purchase.

Beyond those stats, there are nine specific reasons you really need Facebook as part of your marketing plan.

1. Access to potential new customers

Facebook is still the top dog. It has the most users of any platform. It has the most brand pages. It has the most of everything. You have to go where the people are, and they’re on Facebook. So you really want to make sure you have a presence on Facebook to reach those potential customers.

2. Gather more leads

Not just leads, but more leads. Whether it’s a giveaway, a contest or ads that are driving your leads, Facebook is a great way to generate leads.

3. Get more bang for your buck

Facebook is very cost-effective. It’s one of the lower marketing costs. It costs $0 to start a Facebook page, and there are so many resources and types of training that are available to you at no charge. Even if you decide you’d rather pay someone to do it, that expense is a lot lower than most printed materials or other advertising options like TV and radio.

4. See insights and analytics

Facebook Insights tells you who your ideal end user is and gives you their demographics: the cities they live in, whether they’re male or female, how old they are, what time they get on Facebook to read your stuff. It gives you all the information you need to target your ideal customer avatar. And it’s built into your Facebook page. I had someone tell me, “I don’t need a page because I have a profile.” Don’t do that. You lose access to so many cool features if you don’t have an actual business page. Plus, you’ll wear your personal relationships out if you’re constantly promoting your business. That’s what your business page is for!

5. Reach a targeted audience

There are more than 2 billion people on Facebook – you don’t really want to deal with all of them. You want to make sure your target audience is based on your ideal customer avatar. You can target people based on specific criteria – location, family size, education, age – right in Facebook, that way you’re getting a much more qualified lead. Insights and analytics help you do exactly that.

6. Connect with community and build your brand

Facebook is huge on community this year. All of the edits and improvements they’ve made have been focused on growing community and engagement. That means you’re going to see a lot more suggestions to connect with people based on similarities versus people you know. There’s more commonality.

And of course Facebook helps build your brand. When people are getting ready to buy from you, they’ll look at all your stuff first. By the time they’ve called you, they’ve typically looked at your website, your Facebook, your Instagram, everything. And it looks terrible if you’ve had your Facebook page since 2017 and that’s when you last posted. It helps build that customer engagement and help keep you top of mind when you’re consistently posting, which is what you want to do when you build your brand.

7. Increase traffic and SEO

Facebook Ads is one of the best ways to direct traffic to your website. It’s amazing. Facebook Ads is cost-effective and so easy to use. You can select your target audience, then you can drive that lead right back to your website. If you’ve seen me talk about this ever, you know I say it’s the difference between renting and buying. You can have a million followers – which is great – but if you don’t have their email to push them back to your website, it’s just like renting. If Facebook closed up shop tomorrow, what would you have? You need their email, and Facebook Ads is a great tool to get them there. Having the right terminology and key words in your about section can also help potential customers find you when using the Facebook search bar.

8. Be mobile-ready

Surprisingly, there are still a lot of websites that look terrible on mobile version. That kind of blows my mind; forecasts predict that all Internet traffic will eventually be mobile. For me, it’s about 50/50, but my team doesn’t crack open the first laptop. They’re all either on iPads or their phones. Most people under 40 just use their phones for social media. So if I’m on my phone looking at your Facebook page and click to your website, it’s important that your site is mobile-ready. If the lines are off or the text runs off the page or it looks funny, I’m done. But until you are mobile-ready, Facebook is a good way to have a professional, polished online presence.

9. Keep tabs on competition

Facebook is a great way to keep up with people who are in your industry, see what they’re doing, and figure out how to incorporate that into your own business. Even if their market doesn’t totally match yours, chances are you can find some great information and ideas from just watching what competitors are doing online.