Facebook users who click through from the social media site to news and media websites are more loyal to these sites than those coming from Google News, it was revealed last week.

Stats collated by Hitwise showed that of the five most popular print media websites in the week ending March 6, more than three-quarters of Facebook users were returning visitors. This figure compares to two-thirds from Google news.

A Hitwise spokesperson is reported as saying: “Interestingly, visitors from Google are less likely to be returning visitors than average for either Google News or Facebook. This reinforces the long-term value to news and media organisations of working with the likes of Google News and Facebook.”

So many business are now keen to learn how to reach as many potential customers and clients via social network sites, such as Facebook.

Facebook is a great place for marketing and raising your brand awareness because a) there are tons of folk on Facebook, and b) it’s a nice, friendly place to do your networking.

One good example of how to expand your potential client base has been demonstrated recently by Microsoft in one of the company’s many marketing strategies for Bing called Farmville.

Farmville is a real-time farm simulation game that is available as an app on Facebook. It has become hugely popular and accounts for some 20% of all Facebook members (amounting to 1% of the world’s population according to Wiki).

Therefore, Bing is likely to be on-target with its claim more people use Farmville than Twitter. Many Farmville users also share a wealth of activities within the app.

Here’s how Bing did it: Users of Farmville were offered free “farm cash” if they became a fan of Bing on Facebook, which in turn encouraged continued user interaction with Bing.

The results were:
- 72% of users who clicked on the engagement became fans
- 59,000 people published the story to their news feed
- 70,000 clicks were received on secondary feeds
- In 24 hours, Bing had 400,000 new fans

Have you thought about starting a campaign through Farmville?