A business today with no social media presence is, frankly, an anomaly. Continuously, surveys show that the use of social media as a marketing tool is increasingly the norm.

As an example, Facebook, say that over one billion people use their site each month, and it would be crazy not to use the social platform to promote your business.

Facebook works with SMEs, or as they call them, SMBs (small, medium businesses), using their platform Facebook for Business, to push their content to the targeted audience of the business.

‘Success stories’ from the region range from new startups, such as Lebanon’s ecommerce site Lebelik and women’s magazine Sayidaty, to longer established firms like preserves manufacturer Halwani Brothers.

One of the ways in which Facebook is helping SMBs with their growth is in making the most out of the fast-growing number of smartphone users (currently at around 106 million) in the Middle East and North Africa.

At Step 2016 in Dubai,Wamda spoke to Ciaran Quilty, Facebook’s SMB regional director for EMEA global marketing solutions, about how ‘Facebook for business’ lets SMBs boost business.

In the video below Quilty talks about the “powerful” tool that is video. Quilty said businesses need to see Facebook as a tool akin to the printed press, TV and radio, when it comes to selling their brand.

 

According to research from BIA/Kelsey, a US-based media consultancy, the use of networks like Linkedin and Facebook by SMBs is high, but in different ways. Traditionally SMBs working B2B would go for Linkedin, while SMBs looking to reach end users directly, would opt for Facebook.

So it is not too surprising perhaps that last week Microsoft paid a whopping $26.2 billion for Linkedin.

A move that they hope will bring together the “professional cloud and professional network” the marriage of the two will allow Microsoft direct access to its core market, as well as its copious amounts of data. More than anything though, the sale highlighted the way in which businesses in particular sectors, such as recruitment, use Linkedin.

As more and more people conduct more of their work communication on the mobile phone it will be interesting to see how the two approaches to marketing of products, through the various social networks, pans out.