Facebook: Astounding Growth and Reach Will Continue in the Years to Come

A recent Emarketer (www.eMarketer.com) study shows that Facebook’s growth will continue over the next three years driven by the addition of more and more boomers and seniors. With an expected 152million+ users by 2013, Facebook will continue being a marketing juggernaut and possibly one of the most effective ways to reach and engage consumers.

A report by Burson-Marsteller shows that Fortune 100 companies are using social media marketing in an ever increasing way. Here are some interesting facts learned about Facebook usage among Fortune 100 companies from the study:

Corporate use of Facebook grew from 54% to 61% globally over the last year. Among U.S. firms, 72% use Facebook for social media marketing purposes.
There was a 179% increase in the number of Facebook pages per U.S. Fortune 100 company over the last year (from 1.9 pages on average to 5.3).
The number of Facebook “likes” per U.S. corporate page grew 189% (115% globally).
In the last week before the study, 84% of the Fortune 100 companies surveyed posted Facebook updates.

That last statistic is an important one, because it illustrates the fact that companies like Wal-Mart, General Electric, IBM and AT&T see networking on Facebook as a central part of their marketing strategy.

(Source: Avenue Social, March 14, 2011)

About the Author: John Walker

John Walker, Co-founder of Talent Evolution and Chief Solutions Officer, has more than 20 years of online marketing expertise in social media, mobile, video and viral campaigns. He has a strong background in digital capabilities including Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC).