Every month, 248,370 adults in Fayetteville, North Carolina use social media, according to Nielsen. Seventy-six percent of these consumers use Facebook, far more than other sites like Instagram (also owned by Facebook), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

As a stand-alone medium, Facebook is used by more people in Fayetteville than watch local TV stations. Only Fayetteville radio and local cable reach more consumers.

The large audience commanded by social media has attracted a significant amount of advertising dollars from local advertisers. According to Borrell Associates, a company that measures advertising expenditures across the county, Fayetteville area businesses are expected to spend $21 million on social media advertising, a 25.5% increase over 2022. The overwhelming majority of these dollars are being spent with Facebook.

Yesterday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was changing its name to "Meta".  This change, though, only affects the name of the parent company. There will be no change to the company's brands like Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

How will this name change affect Fayetteville businesses that advertise on Facebook?

The first radio station in Fayetteville went on-the-air in 1939.  Sixty-five years later, Facebook inaugurated the social media era.  Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and hundreds of other sites quickly followed.

As social media matured from a novelty to part of consumers' daily rituals, some Fayetteville business owners began to experiment with advertising.

By every key advertising metric, though, Fayetteville radio remains the best choice for a small business to market their goods and services. Here's why.