Facebook’s stronghold in the digital space is no secret.
Its 1.3 billion users – 70 percent of whom return daily – create a vast database that companies, big and small, hope to tap into. And with 30 million small business Facebook pages and 1.5 million advertisers actively spending with the site, it has become a cheap and often effective marketing tool for small businesses.
That impact of social media marketing drew roughly 500 people to Facebook’s free small business workshop at the JW Marriott L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Company representatives, garbed in simple “Facebook” T-shirts, taught owners everything from how to set up an engaging company page to gauging metrics on when to effectively boost promotions.
One important lesson from the workshop dealt with ways to customize content for targeted customers. However, it left some wondering where to draw the line between maximizing social media marketing and protecting customer information.
Facebook introduced its Custom Audience feature in 2012, which let businesses easily target ads and promotions to existing customers by uploading contact information such as names, phone numbers and email addresses. A year later, Facebook rolled out Lookalike Audiences so businesses could pinpoint users who were similar to their existing customers – from online shopping habits to geographical locations – but weren’t necessarily in their direct network.
While these tools weren’t new, they were news to many small business owners.
For Robert Molina, Louie Baur and Jimmy Torres, who run Roxanne’s Cocktail Lounge and Latin Grill in Long Beach, it’s a privacy dilemma they struggle with as small business owners and Facebook users themselves.
Baur said he was hesitant at the idea of uploading the lounge’s customer list to the social media site.
“I don’t know if I like contributing to it, but I’m going to take advantage,” he said.
Torres added, “It can be creepy as a user … but as a small business, we wouldn’t have that kind of information with our marketing budget.”
Bess Yount of Facebook’s small and medium business team assured the audience that the tools available to small businesses wouldn’t jeopardize customer privacy. For example, businesses must require winners of online promotional contests to contact them privately through messaging or email.
“Everything we do is totally safe and secure because people aren’t going to come back to Facebook unless they feel it’s a safe place to spend time,” Yount said in an interview.
For the trio from Roxanne’s, they walked away with more than just new social media marketing skills. They won a raffle prize: $500 in ad buys, which they said made the trip to downtown Los Angeles “worth it.”
Staff reporter Melissah Yang can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MelissahYang for the latest in L.A. tech news.
