The beauty of Facebook--and Facebook marketing--is the social aspect of it all. A commercial like the post-apocalyptic Silverado ad GM ran during the 2012 Super Bowl has tremendous appeal…on television. However, a social network is a different medium entirely, and it takes a completely different strategy to conduct a successful marketing campaign.

Facebook is about word-of-mouth. The value of is the sharing between friends and family. One person tries a restaurant and likes it, and shares that experience with the rest of their social network. Someone finds a pair of shoes that are comfortable, and posts it online for everyone to see. That type of interaction is less likely for big-ticket items like cars, but it’s a gold mine for small businesses that can’t afford Super Bowl ads.

One of my PCWorld peers research study indicating that the “click-through” rate of Google ads beats Facebook ten to one. Based on that information alone, it would seem that any business would be better off marketing with Google ads instead of Facebook.

Facebook is nowhere near --its primary rival--when it comes to online advertising. But, it has the audience, and that audience spends more of its online time engaged on the social network than doing anything else, so the potential is there. As Facebook evolves and expands its marketing options, it will be fertile ground for online advertising--just maybe not for General Motors.

Larger companies like General Motors, or Coca Cola, or McDonald’s can still benefit from marketing on Facebook or other social networks, but it should probably be viewed from the context of brand penetration and recognition as opposed to trying to measure sales resulting directly from the ads. Smaller businesses, on the other hand, can hit the jackpot with the right Facebook marketing campaign, and word-of-mouth advertising of the social network.