Conflicted about advertising on Facebook? You're not alone

Small business owners interested in increasing their reach are beginning to look to social media sites such as Facebook to advertise business promotions.

Conflicting reports in the past few months have clouded business owners' judgement over whether to advertise their business on Facebook. One report recently released by Reuters found that 80 percent of people said their comments and advertisements on Facebook did not make them want to make a purchase while a comScore report, which was co-sponsored by Facebook, said ads ran on the popular social site did help purchases.

BusinessNewsDaily recently spoke with several experts about how business owners should approach marketing their business. Tom Demers, co-founder and managing partner at Measured SEM, told the news source a search engine marketing firm, said advertising on Facebook isn't a black and white issue.

"It really depends: they definitely can be for some, but frequently aren’t for others," Demers said. "One of the strongest uses for Facebook ads is to get people in a very specific demographic to like your Facebook page so that you can then message to them over time. For instance, if you’re a small local restaurant you can get people in the area to like your page, and then when you do things like offer coupons or promote events, you can incentivize them to share those promotions so that their friends see it, which provides a unique viral effect you can’t get with many forms of advertising."

Small business owners are being encouraged to sign up for accounts on social media websites in order to expand their reach and customer base. Sharing information related to what the business does can be helpful and attract more customers to the market.