Facebook Drawing In Small Business

It is Sheryl Sandberg’s goal to do for Facebook what she did for Google. She wants to help the company attract small businesses to their advertising options.

“My dream is really simple,” said Sandberg, 42, seated near a framed graffiti rendering of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s headquarters here. “I think every small business should … be using Facebook. We’re not going to stop until all of them are using it to grow their business.”

Next week, Facebook will unveil a plan to get small businesses hooked. The company plans to offer free $50 advertising credits for up to 200,000 small businesses. When a person clicks on an ad, there’s a set rate predetermined for that click through — 5 cents or 25 cents, for example — the advertiser has to pay. Facebook will pick up the tab for the first $50 of such ads delivered under its offer.

With Facebook, businesses can target their paid advertising with a precision not found in most other forms of advertising.

A wedding photographer, for instance, could advertise just to women in a specific ZIP code who list on Facebook that they are engaged. A movie chain could talk just to film fans.

Sandberg says Facebook allows businesses to interact with customers and create viral marketing campaigns. “Facebook takes word-of-mouth marketing and makes it work at scale.”

Image