If I would have told you ten years ago that Facebook would become the third most visited site in the world and a major player in the world of marketing and eCommerce, you would have looked at me like I had three heads. But that’s exactly where we’re at in this ever-expanding digital age. More than 2 billion people use Facebook on a daily basis. That’s a little more than one fourth of Earth’s population. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, I have to ask; What are you thinking?!

Marketing, like all other trends, is cyclical. Fads come and go, focuses ebb and flow. It used to be you weren’t considered to be a successful business without a billboard. Next came radio and television commercials, followed by websites and now, Facebook and a slew of other social media platforms. I’m positive that everyone reading this researches businesses online before decided to do business with them. The days of finding someone in the Yellow Pages or by word of mouth are long gone. You need to have a social media presence if you want to have the most impact in your market.

Think about it this way; where do your customers spend more than an hour or more of their free time each day? It should come as no surprise that people, especially those under the age of 35, spend a lot of time absorbing information from social media. We’ve all seen it, people scrolling their feed while watching television, texting during a meal, or even (yikes!) posting to Instagram while barreling down the highway. Like it or not, social media has become ingrained in our culture and everyday lives, and we need to grow and adapt with it.

You need to have a Facebook Business Page. This is not a suggestion or a recommendation, it’s a fact. If you google any Fortune 500 company, one of the top (if not THE top) results that you’re going to get is their Facebook page. You need to be visible, and Facebook is the place to be seen for the foreseeable future. 18 million items were posted to Facebook Marketplace in May 2017. We at Data Age have experienced the power and reach of social media ourselves, and we believe in it so much, we’ve incorporated an integrated Facebook posting feature to PawnMaster. We want to provide our customers with the tools necessary to best reach their potential audience, new and returning customers alike.

Creating content for social media isn’t as daunting as you may think. People love to see what’s going on in your shop! Post a shot of your employees doing their daily duties. Shoot a video with your cellphone of your staff doing the most recent online “challenge” (there’s always a new one). Offer a discount on an item in exchange for a Facebook review. Ratings for your business on Facebook are just as import as those that are on Google and Yelp. There are tons of ideas on how you can engage with your audience, and don’t be afraid to have fun with it! Once you figure out what works for your shop, you’ll be well on your way to establishing a solid social media presence that will help cement you as a destination your customers will want to return to again and again.