As marketers, we are well aware of the impact social media has on brands. Yet, we’re always surprised by how many old school marketers (and yes, after 20 years in business – not to mention at other businesses beforehand – the Bs are proud to be old school ourselves) don’t embrace it.

C’mon people, get social already!

Of the numerous social media platforms available to users, Facebook still stands out. And while Facebook has had a fair share of controversy in the last few years between privacy issues and spreading misinformation (specifically tied to the 2016 presidential election), the shear power of its numbers cannot be ignored by marketers. To name a few…

• More than 2.9 billion active monthly users
• More than 1.9 billion active daily users
• Ranks 1^st as most active social media platform

Billions of users are a lot of people. Let’s put it into perspective; the 2.9 billion active monthly users equate to roughly 37% of the entire world’s population. Marketers need to be online to reach these people with effective Facebook ads.

Here are some things to keep in mind (and, if you’re a marketer, they should sound familiar):

• Set Goals
  Some examples? To improve brand awareness, increase sales or engage with your customer base in a personal, meaningful way.
• Define Your Audience
  Facebook Targeting makes it easy define your audience to a specific group of people such as men over 45 who golf.
• Target Your Ads by Device
  Some people access Facebook on their smartphone, others access it on their desktop. Make sure that your ads are compatible for both, or even better, make different versions for each platform and use them strategically.
• Use Employee Accounts
  An almost three-quarter majority of people reported feeling more connected with a brand when its employees share about it on social media, according to a Sprouts Brands survey. This could be as simple as asking your employees to hit “share” on the company page’s posts.
• Track Results
  This is a big one. To understand what is and what is not working, you’ll need to be able to analyze your results.

Have we convinced you? Facebook makes it easy to build and run ads with the help of online tools. They’ll walk you through the process from the initial objective, to placing and paying for the ad, to management of the ad’s results. Facebook boasts that they “offer advertising solutions for every level of expertise” and that “you don’t have to be an expert to start advertising on Facebook.”

If your marketing’s been antisocial to date, it’s time to take the plunge. Our job as marketers is to connect buyers and sellers in engaging ways. There are a lot — okay, there are billions — of potential buyers waiting.