In this short blog, we are going to look at some of the mind-blowing statistics regarding the still dominant social media giant, Facebook and why you may wish to consider engaging with potential clients, introducing new products and ranges, and ultimately closing the deal and getting paid without leaving the platform. If done right, Facebook can be a game-changer for you and your business.
1: Facebook is Still Number One
Facebook’s ethos has always been about bringing the world closer together, since its launch on February 4, 2004, there can be no doubt that it has not achieved that, but impressively it continues to maintain its users and popularity.
Based on research by eMarketer, despite growing competition from the likes of Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and Snapchat, Facebook remains the number one social platform, reaching 59% of social media users.
For many, Facebook has become part of the daily life. How many of us, wake up, grab our phones, and click into the app to catch up with the latest news from friends, family and the organisations you follow.
2: How many people use Facebook?
Worldwide, there are over 2.8 billion monthly active Facebook users. There are 1.84 billion mobile daily active users, who on average spend over 19 hours a month on the platform. Simply put, Facebook is too big for businesses to ignore. With 5 new profiles created every second, this is a great platform to showcase your business and engage with potential customers.
3: Facebook is still popular with the Under 35s
Is Facebook still down with the kids? A report from statistics experts Statista, states that 65% of Facebook users are under the age of 35.
As of October 2021, it was found that 9.3 percent of total active Facebook users worldwide were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years, while male users between the ages of 25 and 34 years constituted the biggest demographic group making the social channel a key engagement tool for Millennials and Generation Z.
4: What is the average time people spend on Facebook?
The latest information from DataReportal in 2021, states that on average, people spend 19.5 hours per month on Facebook. That equates to nearly 3% of their entire time in a month, is spent scrolling through the news feed, engaging with friends, family, hobbies and interest. If you’re interested, Instagram is currently number 2, with average users spending 10.3 hours per month on the site. Where else could your business get this level of potentially engagement?
5: How many Small Businesses Use Facebook to promote themselves?
According to Facebook, in 2021 over 200 million small businesses were using their tools to build and publish their business pages to reach and build their audiences, highlight their product and services, and connect with people interested in what they had to offer.
Whether it is a simple information page with your contact information, latest case study or promoting a new service or blog, Facebook is undeniable a great resource for small businesses to engage with loyal and potential customers.
6: People use their mobile devices to access Facebook
Our mobile devices have become part and parcel of our daily lives, and whether on a train, bus or at home a massive 98.3% of Facebook users access the social media platform via their mobile devices (DataReportal, 2021). That means that only 1.7 percent of Facebook users log in exclusively on their desktops or laptops. Businesses should bear this in mind, when creating any e-commerce capabilities. Mobile first is critical for engagement. Mobile-first is a design philosophy that aims to create better user experiences by beginning the design process with mobile devices in mind first, often prioritizing the smallest of screens.
7: Take Payments on Facebook
Armed with all the facts and figures above, it seems like a no-brainer to have a Facebook business page, as they offer a free opportunity for your business to increase brand awareness and promote positive word-of-mouth.
Increasing sales and revenue:
Many organisations feel that Facebook is a great tool for brand awareness, customer support and to handle queries and questions but used correctly it can be a powerful sales tool. By offering quick, responsive, and helpful support, live chat via Facebook Messenger can generate more qualified leads and help to drive sales.
Gala Technology feel that this is often a missed opportunity for businesses. Why go to the time and expense to set up your Facebook business page to enhance your customer experience, only to have to send them elsewhere to complete the transaction or make payment? This gives the customer a window of opportunity to think about the purchase and potentially go elsewhere.
By using Pay By Link technology, such as the multi-award-winning SOTpay solution, the business can close the sale in real-time.
How do payments on Facebook work?
Company representatives can simply generate and send a secure and PCI DSS compliant payment link within the Facebook Messenger environment, or if preferred, send a text message to the cardholder enabling them to make an immediate payment in a few simple clicks either via their payment card or by digital bank transfer (Open Banking) on their mobile device.
The customer and the business can remain in constant contact throughout the entire payment process, and the agent has real-time visibility of when the customer has received the link and a status update of their progression to payment completed.
Using this technique, the customer remains in control of their sensitive card data – the employee does not get to see or hear it, nor does it enter the business environment, significantly reducing the scope for PCI DSS compliance. Gala Technology’s SOTpay solution, will also conduct additional fraud checks, to ensure that the transaction and cardholder are genuine, in line with the European mandate of PSD2 and Strong-Customer-Authentication (SCA), which protects the business from fraud and related chargebacks.
SOTpay can even support the latest Open Banking payment solutions, enabling customers to make a digital account2account (bank) transfer in a few simple clicks to further add customer choice and satisfaction.
What are the benefits of using Pay By Link on Facebook.
- Close the business in the customers preferred channel of engagement.
- No need to channel hop – giving the customer to chance to change their mind.
- Constant communication between customer and agent throughout the payment.
- Quick, easy and extremely cost effective to deploy.
- Secure, authenticated payments – negating the risk of fraudulent payments and related chargebacks.
- Process PCI DSS compliant payments, as contractual obligated with your merchant acquirer.
- Cloud based application. No expensive hardware or amendments to your existing infrastructure are required.
- Acquirer and Payment Gateway agnostic – can usually connect to your existing solutions
- SOTpay offers unlimited agent access, at no additional expense. Perfect for businesses of all shapes and sizes and contact centres.
