Facebook as a Global Social Media Platform for Companies

Facebook as a global social media platform for Company
With Increase in digital research and purchasing trend, companies develop direct opt-in channels that will increase their ability to deliver information to consumers.
The rise of social sites such as Facebook suggests both the popularity and effectiveness of social networking. By allowing members to express their interests and expertise to one another, these sites enable employees to assemble into communities and thus improve their productivity and effectiveness.
In late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages which allowed companies to promote themselves and attract customers. These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned.Pages began rolling out for businesses in May 2009.
On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international adverts on the social networking site.
Facebook has lot of advantages to company as below:
Track posts' performance
Spy on the competitior
Pictures are better than text
Post about trending topics
Add and track links
Tag other pages in posts
Facebook may not be rewarding marketers with organic reach, but it does promise to give you exactly the kind of audience you want to reach if you're willing to pay for it. This is especially useful for small- and medium-sized businesses that can't afford to spend much on advertising. They can use Facebook to target highly specific groups of people for a fraction of a national media buy.
The platform recently added even more audience targeting capabilities, which allow advertisers to tailor specific messages to Facebook users on the basis of their location, demographics interests, and online browsing activity. In addition to showing different messages to different groups of people, Facebook also allows advertisers to include five different calls to action in their messaging, currently limited to “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” “Sign Up,” “Book Now” or “Download.” In October, Facebook streamlined its advertising buying platform by first asking marketers to identify their objectives, and then guiding them through the process of tailoring ads for that specific campaign. This includes actions such as driving clicks to a website, downloading app installs, and promoting in-store offers and discounts.
State Bicycle Company is a good example of a small business that ran a successful targeted campaign on Facebook with quantifiable result
Twitter ,Linkeldn,Tumblr, and Instagram are social Marketing tools used by companies to promote their Business.