Facebook Teaches Businesses Online Advertising - WSET.com - ABC13

Lynchburg, VA - If you have a Facebook account, you know it's a pretty good place to try and advertise. The social media giant was in Lynchburg Thursday teaching business owners the ins and outs.

No, Mark Zuckerburg wasn't in town, but his staff was. It was an event hosted by the US and Lynchburg Regional Chambers of Commerce.

Business owners raved about it. Many already use Facebook to promote their business but admit they have not unlocked Facebook's full advertising potential.

Jonathan Melloul is opening a brand new beauty school. Sylvain Melloul International Hair Academy is in River Ridge Mall. The grand opening in one month is on his mind and so is how to advertise.

"We are focusing all our marketing dollars on Internet marketing primarily - that's really the new age," said Melloul.

Facebook employees say their site is the place to be for advertising. About 900 million people are on Facebook. In a single day, more than 2 billion things are liked and commented on.

The event called Facebook for Business is a class in online advertising. Here, Facebook staff teach business owners how to create a Facebook ad and get customers in the door.

"It's absolutely one of the best ways to advertise today. It's very cost effective, you only pay cost per click. And if you only have ten dollars to spend, you can see a lot of return from that and people in the door," said Katie Harbath, manager, public policy, Facebook.

Out of the gate, Melloul plans to advertise online modestly. He's budgeting $500 to $1,000 a month. But, Facebook's unique advertising style - targeting a specific demographic - has him excited about the potential.

"Through Facebook we can say - you know what, we want women primarily 18-50 interested in fashion, interested in beauty. And we can certainly do that through Facebook," said Melloul.

Melloul's beauty school opens October 6th. He's excited about using Facebook advertising. But he still believes word of mouth is the best advertising of all.