With SME marketers hungry to learn as much as they can about social media, and how to best use social media as part of their lead generation strategy - thankfully there are social media studies being done on a regular basis so you don't have look too deep to find a free ebook on the latest research. The latest ebook I stumpled upon is 47 Handy Facebook Stats by HubSpot.

As I was reading through this ebook, I was wondering do SME's understand how important this information is, and does it compel them to make the necessary changes to their marketing to improve their lead generation and ROI? Which in turn compelled me to write a blog article not only about the results revealed in the ebook, but how SMEs and marketers should use this information to tweak their marketing tactics to improve results.

Here are the 15 Facebook stats

1. 950 million people are on Facebook, worldwide.
2. 500 million users log into Facebook each day  (48% increase from 2010-2011).
3. 29.7 mil users are 25-34years, 23.7 mil users are 35-44 years, and 21.3 mil users are 45-54.
4. Average time spent on Facebook is 20 minutes per visit.
5. 300 million photos are uploaded each day.
6. Every minute 510,000 comments are posted, and 293,000 statuses are updated.
7. 43% of B2B (business to business) companies acquired a customer on Facebook.
8. 77% of B2C (business to consumer) companies acquired a customer on Facebook.
9. The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical or important to their business has increased by 75% from 2009 to 2012.
10. Auto-posting to Facebook decreases likes and comments by 70%.
11. Social media has a 100% higher lead to close rate than outbound marketing.
12. 70% of Facebook consumers follow links posted by family and friends.
13. 90% of marketers plan on using Facebook ads in the future.
14. 56% of marketers have increased their Facebook ad budget for 2012.
15. 68% of marketers say that Facebook ads are effective in fan and customer acquisition.

What do these stats tell SMEs and marketers?

• Your target audience is on Facebook - with 950 million users, there's a pretty good chance you'll find them there. You need a company Facebook Timelime.
• Chances are, they log into Facebook daily, or on a regular basis and spend a decent amount of time posting photos, commenting or updating their status. Give them something to share.
• You can acquire a customer from FB - if other B2C and B2B companies can, so can you. Publish a conversion call to action CTA.
• Don't use auto-posting software if you can avoid it. Give your Facebook Timeline a real voice and presence.
• Social media is a cheaper lead generation source than traditional marketing. Create exclusive offers just for your Facebook fans.
• Other marketers, your competition, are using Facebook, seeing results and increasing their spend on Facebook. Claim your piece of the pie - don't give it all to your competitors.
• Facebook ads work for fan and customer acquisition. Learn how to use FB ads correctly.

And now for your action plan

• Set up your company Timeline, if you haven't ready. Even if you are B2B.
• Write down your 12 month goals for Facebook. How many fans, leads and customers, do you want to acquire? Be realistic!
• Understand the demographics of your audience, and what's important to them.
• Create a creative ideas team to brainstorm fun ways to build your fans, and convert them into leads and customers.
• Create a content calendar for publishing valuable content to your Facebook Timeline. 
• Schedule time every day to engage with your fans on Facebook.

And why?

If you don't, your competitors will! Social media takes time to build. Build trust, momentum and results - the sooner you get started, the greater your lead on the competition.

Remember...

With traditional advertising you pay upfront for the advertisment and if it is a successful ad the phone will ring, the results are instant. But as soon as you stop advertising - the phone stops too. Social media is different in that you're building an online footprint that stays forever, even if you stop publishing content to your Facebook Timeline you still have a presence and prospects can still find you. The longer you've been doing Facebook the more content you'll have, the larger fan base you'll have and the more successfull you will be. So even if you don't see immediate results from Facebook advertising and/or marketing be patient, keep building.

Below are related articles and resources to help you with your Facebook Marketing

5 Steps To Help Small Business Switch To Facebooks Timeline

Simple and Effective Facebook Marketing For Small Business

A Marketers' Intro to Understanding Your Facebook Timline

Download Content Marketing Calendar For Blogging