Just this last week, the famous founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, headed to Washington D.C. to voluntarily sit in front of lawmakers and answer some questions about how his company treats its user’s data and also how the Facebook platform works. The questions from the congressional delegation made clear that many of these law makers, and by proxy, many Americans, had some serious misunderstandings about how Facebook, and social media platforms in general, operate. In this regard, it was a good thing for everyone to have some pointed questions asked of Mr. Zuckerberg and to hear some clear and specific answers.
In his testimony, Mark Zuckerberg worked hard to get a few key themes across to the assembly and to Americans in general. His first point was that Facebook has always been committed and continues to be committed to giving all users control over their own data. And Facebook continues to work to make these choices about data usage as easy to understand and as easy to opt-in and opt-out of as possible.
Another key theme of Mr. Zuckerberg’s was that Facebook absolutely does not sell user data to third parties. There are no exceptions. Facebook collects user data so that users can be presented with ads that are relevant to them. When a third-party advertiser seeks to advertise on the platform, Facebook does all the targeting itself and never passes along any information to these third parties.
And it was in his testimony about how targeted advertising on the Facebook platform works that Mr. Zuckerberg was able to expound upon the real value Facebook has provided and continues to provide for small and medium-sized businesses in America. In the past, these businesses were all but financially prevented from doing any kind of advertising at all. The old advertising model was to cast a huge net (at a premium price), and hope that you’d get lucky and catch the attention of a few people who might be interested in the product or service you offer. With Facebook, small businesses can now do extremely effective targeting and do it at a price they can afford. Facebook and other social media platforms have truly been a game-changer and evened the playing field for American small businesses.
At Milwaukee SEO Company, we’ve been working with the Facebook platform since the very beginning. We understand how to use it to your business’s advantage and how to target your potential clients and customers at a great price and with extreme effectiveness. If your social media campaigns need work, or if you simply aren’t engaging in social media advertising at all, give us a call today and put us to work for your great business!