SA companies advised to capitalize on Facebook ads

Although South Africa has 2,6 million Facebook users, businesses are not seizing the opportunity to promote their brands on the popular social network, writes South African publication Business Day.

According to Facebook account executive Marc Cowan, who yesterday gave a speech in Johannesburg, South African organizations should take advantage of Facebook’s advertising platform. The social platform registered 350 million users by December 2009, offering a wide audience locally and worldwide, he said.

“People are still buying banner adverts in SA, but in social media where people are there to interact with their friends, we do not feel banner advertising is the right way to go. Effective advertising needs to target age and demographics and to make sure that the content is relevant to the audience and becomes part of the conversation online. I am talking about adverts as a shareable social currency”, he said.

Facebook’s statistics indicate that the new consumer is more likely to trust a friend’s opinion than advertising (78% compared to 17%).

Cowan used as examples various international companies such as Starbucks, Vodafone and Barclays, that have used Facebook to elicit product comments and suggestions, polling advertising or have set up pages to interact with users and even sell their products and services.

Cowan’s speech yesterday in Johannesburg, to about 400 representatives from advertising and business, is part of the group’s strategy to attract more advertising on the website from Africa and Middle East regions.