Facebook recently hit a million active advertisers. What this means is that more and more small and medium businesses are (SMBs) are now using the social network as an effective marketing tool. Andy Hwang, general manager for SMB, Asia-Pacific, Facebook, tells Abhik Sen in an interview why Facebook is becoming a popular marketing tool for SMBs.
What does Facebook bring to the table for SMBs?
We really feel SMBs can benefit immensely from using Facebook.While some of these businesses are large, some of them are actually quite small. For example, in Bangalore, there's a company called Pigtails and Ponys... It's actually a hair accessories business started by two design students. They've got 24,000 fans on their page... and soon after they launched, they started getting orders from across the country. And now, every time they launch a new collection, they get 30 new customers... and their turnover is around Rs 15,000 a month. This is one story of many small businesses having a success story on our platform.
Globally, too, we see the same thing... we have a lot of momentum working with small businesses.
How different is the market in India from other parts of the world? What are the unique challenges that you've come across?
Having visited different countries, I've seen that many of the needs of small businesses are actually similar. I've visited online fashion brands in India. I've visited businesses in Tokyo, small shops in Singapore... For SMBs, the most important thing is their budget. And for them, we've tried to build a platform that is very cost-efficient.
So, they can spend a few minutes in creating a page — something similar to someone creating a personal profile on Facebook — and from there they can invite their friends. And if they're interested in some of our paid products, they can use them to expand their reach.
One thing we've noticed particularly in India is that there are a lot of mobile phones, and some people use feature phones as well. For businesses that use Facebook, they get access to its built-in mobile strategy. Facebook is one of the most accessed apps on mobile phones. So as a business, when you create a page and then you post to that page, that post will show up in the news feed of people who use Facebook regardless of whether they are accessing the website from a desktop computer, a tablet device, a smartphone or a feature phone.
How do you cope with the challenge of displaying pages across different kinds of screens?
I'll take that question in two parts — first I'll talk about it from the user perspective and then I'll talk about it from the business perspective.
From the user perspective, we really try to develop products that reach users from however they're accessing Facebook. We have specific native applications for the Android and iOS platforms.
From the business side, we think about this as well. For example, when your business is trying to promote to users on a desktop device, those advertisements may show up on the right side of the page. But when you're an user accessing Facebook on a mobile device — with limited screen real estate — the advertisements might show up in the user's Newsfeed. The core message for us is that we're really interested in working with small businesses and enterprises, which look great on our platform . These are businesses from different verticals interested in reaching lots of people in India.
Today, in India, we have 78 million people who access our service on a local basis. So, as we're continuing to build our business here, we are talking with small businesses who want to reach these 78 million users. They could be businesses with small ad budgets — like the one started by the design students in Bangalore.
A key part of our Facebook ad proposition is targeting. Whether we're talking about small pastry shops or skin products, we really think all businesses in India and globally are having a lot of success on our platform. And we're here to support that.
Say, I run a small business and want to leverage Facebook to reach my clients. How do I start?
Businesses on our platform find products and tools as quite easy to use. The first thing they do is create a Facebook page where you put in some basic information about your business such as the address and the type of business you're engaged in. Then you can start inviting your Facebook friends to to your business's page so that you have an audience from the start. From then on, you start posting your business. It's really easy to get started. It takes a few minutes to create a page and for as little as $5, you can start using our page products to bring even more attention to your page and your business.
For businesses that would require a little bit of help on Facebook, we have something called the start-to-success programme wherein qualified businesses get support of 28 days where we help them create a page, understand different ad formats, help them set up a campaign and even give them some credits so that they may experience the platform before they invest their hard-earned money.
Does that mean Facebook can actually give a tailor-made strategy to small businesses?
The way we've built our products, including pages, they're really meant to be used by SMBs and enterprises in all verticals and what it really comes back to is business objectives. Each business does have different business objectives — some want to generate more awareness for their brand, some want to bring more products to their website, some want to generate incremental sales. We do have specific advertising products to adjust and adapt. So, on the one hand, our products are for all advertisers to use, at the same time, we also tailor around our products for the specific business objective they have.
How is it working with SMBs? Do they make impossible demands?
In general we've been successful in working with small businesses. Our numbers prove that out. We've seen very fast growth. Globally, 15 million pages have been created. Businesses continue to come back to Facebook and use our platform again and again. We've seen SMBs starting out with as little as $5-10 a day and then seeing a lot of success on our platform.
One example of this is a company called Yepme, an online fashion brand based in Gurgaon. They built their business almost entirely on Facebook. They built their Facebook page to increase brand awareness and find new customers and on their specific page, they posted about specific products that were recently launched, special deals and discounts and coupons. And they have seen a 12.5x return on their investment on Facebook.
You've worked with most of the world's biggest online brands. What motivated you to join Facebook?
Because I wanted to make a difference -- make the world open and connected and bring everybody on Facebook so that they're able to share more. For me, small businesses are interesting. While working at Facebook in my current role, I've got the ability to try and inspire these small businesses to promote themselves, to make them more successful, and that is a fantastic experience.
How has social media evolved as an important marketing tool?
Facebook is a social media platform, but it's one that is built around people. As a business we'd like to position Facebook as your word-of-mouth megaphone. For example, if you're a business you have the option of a TV commercial or a gang of friends talking about an ultimate experience on Facebook, you'll find the latter more powerful as that recommendation is coming from your friends.
What I'm getting at is that the idea of Facebook and word of mouth marketing is really nothing new. Small businesses have in the past relied on word of mouth. All that's changed is that Facebook has taken this experience and the relationship online. A recent survey done on social media marketing trends in India has found that about 90 per cent of all organisations use Facebook as the platform for engagement. Media-savvy organisations in India use social media to build communities and connect with their customers. Along with Twitter and YouTube, Facebook is the most important tool in social media marketing.
Why should SMBs choose Facebook over other social media firms?
Firstly, there is a value proposition in the services and resources we can offer to reach out to 78 million users. Secondly, it’s reaching your target audience. Our product allows businesses to target their potential audience by age, gender, interest and location. And finally, our products are simple to use.
