Facebook Your Way To Financial Success

Fifty percent of web sales will occur through social media by 2015.

That’s a pretty staggering statistic, but according to a new Gartner Research study, social commerce is just getting started as a major payments player.

Within the social commerce industry, there’s no bigger factor than Facebook: a company that raked in almost $4 billion in revenue from business ads in 2012 alone. What else does the study tell us about Facebook’s business potential? Here are the most interesting stats we pulled from Gartner’s report. 

Facebook As An Advertising Alterative

While one in seven people use social media for personal use, one in three small businesses use Facebook, making for a total of nearly $10 million SMBs. Agencies have caught on to Facebook’s immense advertising opportunity, as 89 percent use Facebook for their business clients. Fifty-eight percent of businesses see a drop in marketing costs when moving onto Facebook.

Facebook Fans: Most Valuable Customers

Facebook fans are 79 percent more likely to make purchases and 74 percent more likely to recommend a product or brand than are non-social media users. Facebook users who are non-fans are just 41 percent and 38 percent more likely to buy or recommend, respectively. The study says that for a company like Apple, a Facebook fan can be worth 90 percent more than a non-fan customer.

More Fun Facebook Facts

In 2011, $3.8 billion of Facebook’s $4.27 billion in revenue came from business advertising: that number is expected to jump to $6 billion 2012. Facebook drives 26 percent of referral traffic to business websites, and 36 percent of Facebook users post brand-related content on their walls.

To see more social media stats, view the Vocus infographic below.