Most businesses rely heavily on Facebook for their social media marketing strategies, which can be an effective practice. Relying solely on Facebook social marketing, however, can also be a huge mistake. You should try to maintain an arsenal of several marketing strategies for your business that go beyond Facebook to fully reach your audience and avoid leaning on tools that may soon be obsolete. Facebook is wonderful but their are other outlets out there.

Sidebar Ads Alone Don’t Cut It

Businesses used to be able to purchase Facebook marketing through sidebar advertisements. As businesses pull sidebar ad contracts from Facebook, it has become apparent that many users simply ignore the sidebar ads altogether. Though they may be worth purchasing, depending upon your target demographic, they should certainly not be the be-all, end-all to your marketing strategy. Facebook should be one ingredient in your marketing mix.

Facebook Isn’t the Only Big Player in Town

Though more and more people are using Facebook, it’s not the favorite place to be as it once was. It has become more integrated with businesses, offering ads even in users’ news feeds  much to their great annoyance. Social media like Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr have rapidly become the new best loved sites and great alternative choices. Other platforms, such as Square and Eventbrite, are growing in popularity as well.

It’s Not Very Mobile-Friendly

Many of your customers probably cannot even view Facebook on their mobile devices which is becoming the most popular way to view content. Facebook website marketing won’t get you anywhere if the majority of people in your target market use their mobile phones to access information. That’s where social networks like Twitter, which only offer tiny pieces of digestible information at a time, come in quite handy.

Don’t believe us?

• http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-7-biggest-advertising-problems-according-gokul-rajaram-2012-9
  
• http://seekingalpha.com/article/826551-facebook-s-new-mobile-app-won-t-help-solve-its-problems

So-So Metrics

Or you could simply say no metrics. It can be very difficult to discern whether or not your Facebook website marketing is really getting through to your audience without decent metric measurements. You can’t customize your page or monitor as much as you would like, and while using “likes” and comments may be helpful for research, they ultimately do not provide you with answers regarding how engaged your customers are with your actual product.

PR Problems

From bad press over comments made to continuing privacy and photo sharing issues, Facebook users are continually losing faith in their old favorite social hub. Teens, one of the largest target market groups, are leaving the site as well. Even when news may be incorrect, the impression and distrust lasts with your customers. If you want to build trust with your customers, you may not want to align any, or at least all, of your business strategies with Facebook marketing.

Lack of Decision Making Ability

Since only Facebook investors own the company, you really have no say about what the site can do to your business page or ads in general. When you utilize Facebook marketing, you may be giving up the control you would normally own over marketing in other venues, particularly those you pay for. As Facebook constantly changes, from its layout to its policy, investing your time and money there could prove to be risky in the future of your business.

Facebook marketing can be a simple, cheap way to spread the word about your business. You don’t have to delete your Facebook page just because it’s not a perfect platform for your marketing strategies. Venturing out into other areas instead of placing all of your eggs in a single basket, however, is a wise idea.