Interesting research shows just how influential Facebook has become in our daily lives. Combined with several critical adjustments to how Facebook publishes “news” and intersects with other sites, the state of Facebook is mind-blowing. And that’s a big deal for your business.

Here are 11 vital reasons your business needs to be involved with Facebook:

1. 350 Million Global Users and Counting

Facebook announced recently that they had passed 350 million members, making Facebook the third-largest country in the world, if it was a country. (Perhaps that’s their end-game, joining the UN and raising an army?)

2. 100 Million U.S. Users

Sure, Facebook is strong around the world (Canada has the highest penetration rate), but nearly 1/3 of all Facebookers are here in the U.S. You may have heard of a TV show called American Idol. On a good night, it averages 20 million viewers. Facebook has 100 million American members. Hmmm.

3. Average Facebook User Spends 55 Minutes Per Day

Nearly 1 hour per day, per user. That’s a lot of Facebook time. How can your company grab a bit of consumer attention? This data is based on Facebook’s own published stats, covered by Inside Facebook.

4. Nearly 80,000 Sites Using Facebook Connect

Connect is the Facebook initiative that has the greatest long-range impact. By integrating Facebook closely, sites are making our personal social graphs truly portable. Instead of having to go to Facebook and other sites to visit our friends, they travel with us online (and in our pockets via mobile devices), always there to provide advice or commentary. Even Yahoo! and MySpace are rolling out deep Facebook integrations.

This of course makes Facebook the central hub of not just social media, but the web as well (which is why Google is scrambling to catch up after their competing Google Connect fell flat).

5. Facebook Fan Box Becoming Pervasive

Perhaps the least powerful, but most prevalent, flavor of Facebook Connect is Facebook Fan Box, a simple tool for enabling your website visitors, YouTube video watchers, or email newsletter recipients to become a fan of your brand—without even having to go to Facebook.

6. Average Facebook User Has 130 Friends

Will Facebook users continue to add more friends at a rapid pace? It depends upon how they view their Facebook connections. 130 friends almost bumps up against Dunbar’s Number of 150—the theoretical maximum number of actual friend relationships you can sustain, according to British scientist Robin Dunbar.

If Facebook continues to revolve around relationships that you actually possess in three dimensions—people you “actually” know—then the addition of bunches of new friends may slow considerably. But, if Facebook makes the leap to tie people together more casually (like Twitter), average friend counts could rise dramatically.

7. Average Facebook User “Fans” 2 Pages per Month

If you think tons of your customers should become fans of your company’s Facebook page, you might want to recalibrate your expectations. The average Facebook user “fans” only 2 new pages per month. That’s not a lot, considering how many brands, causes, and organizations we come into contact with on a regular basis.

If you’re going to make growth of your Facebook fan base a key part of your social media strategy, you must create a clear rationale for why consumers should participate with you.

You also might consider a robust, organized approach for promoting your Facebook fan page.  (This case study from Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes has some good advice.)

8. Only 4% of Pages Have 10,000 or More Fans

If your Facebook fan page is a bit of a ghost town, you’re not alone. A fantastic study by Sysomos of 600,000 Facebook fan pages shows that only 4% of pages have 10,000 or more fans—and only .76% have 100,000 or more.

That’s why it is so critical to focus your Facebook strategy on activating the fans you have, not just collecting fans like baseball cards.

9. Wall Posts Don’t Impact Popularity

The Sysomos study also found very little correlation between how frequently the Facebook page admin posted to the Wall and total number of fans. However—and this is important—there is a strong correlation between amount of other content (notes, links, photos, videos) and number of fans.

Thus, if you want to grow your Facebook fan base, it is imperative that you move beyond simple Wall posts and add photos, videos, links and other content.

10. Customized News Feed

Facebook’s recent move to an algorithm-driven news feed means that just because someone is your fan does not mean he will see your Wall posts or status updates (true for both individuals and brands). Instead, the default news feed is now comprised of content that Facebook thinks you’ll like, based on your interactions with content from that author in the past, and interactions by your friends with that content.

This puts a tremendous premium on posting engaging content that will get comments and likes and shares. If you’re not paying attention to your content engagement scores within your Facebook analytics, start doing so now, and testing content types to see what works best for your brand.

11. Real-time Search Changes the Game

Facebook is now making most content available publicly, unless you tell them not to via your privacy settings. Twitter opened their data stream to anyone (not just big developers). Google and Bing are incorporating this data into search results, in real time.

This has tremendous implications for search engine optimization and reputation management, because a negative status update about your brand might now show up on the first page of Google search results for your company name (at least temporarily). The shakeout is still happening, but someone in your company needs to be on top of real-time search. Today.

Facebook may not be the ideal environment for every social media initiative, but its huge size forces you to at least consider participating—regardless of what type of business you run.

It’s not just fast-food chains like Souplantation that are promoting their businesses on Facebook. Everyone from the ultra-small business to the Fortune 500 corporation are placing bets on Facebook.

However, some brands are putting an awful lot of eggs in the Facebook basket, which is perhaps justifiable based on the facts above. However, I’m not so keen on building the centerpiece of a social media strategy on what amounts to rented land. What say you?

Is your business taking advantage of Facebook? How important is it to your social media efforts? What advice do you have for creating content and managing Facebook fan pages? Please comment below.

When setting up the event as an organizer, I highly recommend you leave all the default settings the way they are – that is, allow guests to invite others, upload photos, write on the wall, etc. The reason is that every one of these activities creates news items that go out into the feeds of those individuals and their friends. This is great viral visibility for you and for them. Here is an example of all options you want to check:

And, as an attendee of any event on Facebook, you can easily help create buzz and visibility for both yourself and the event organizer. Win:win!

I do recommend being strategic and mindful about the events you RSVP for. (I’m sure, like me, you get your fair share of non-relevant event invitations!)

Also, when setting up your own events, be sure to choose a really catchy title, subtitle and photo. These three fields are the only ones seen in “Requests” when you invite your friends (and they invite their friends). The small greeting you can include goes out in the email notification, so that’s important too.

Here are my top nine tips for creating buzz as a Facebook Event attendee and/or host.

1.  Always RSVP

If you are attending an event, make sure to RSVP and write a message in the box on the “Request” page.  Here is an example of a personal invite to an event.  The invitee could then write a reply in the box below. If you want to punch it up a bit, you can even record a short video from your computer, letting your friend know you are excited to attend their event.  And then all you need to do is click on the video icon and upload it!

2. Get Noticed

If you RSVP to an event, make sure to write a note on the event wall – whether your RSVP is a yes, no or maybe.  This is great visibility for you!

Also, if it is your event, continue to generate buzz by periodically commenting on your own event wall. When people RSVP and write on your event wall, go write on their wall to thank them personally. Comment on any added photos/videos/links. Each of these activities goes into your mini feed and your friends’ news feeds. I call this strategy “RSV” – radical, strategic visibility.

3. Upload Photos

Make sure to choose an engaging photo for your main event description and add multiple photos related to the event to pique interest.  An engaging photo should be eye-catching, warm, friendly, and inviting. Typically a person’s face is better than logos/images/graphics. You MUST include a photo or your event will have that nasty question mark. And who wants to attend a “?” event?

4. Upload Videos and Links

As mentioned in tip #1, you can record a video and upload it to any of your RSVPs.  If it is your event, you can make a short video explaining what your event is about and upload it to the invite. And just like photos and videos, links are a great way to offer more value as well.  You will want to make sure you include a link for your participants to register if you have an opt-in strategy.  Make this very clear to your participants.

5. Write a Personal Message

This makes your event more personable.  Most people have their email notifications turned on and they’ll get an email with your event title, date, time and your personal message. I also recommend including the time zone in the personal message, because Facebook defaults to your own time zone.

6. Send Out Invites

Click on “Invite People to Come” and invite your friends. This invitation will go into your friends’ “Event Requests.”

7. Spread the Word

Click the “Share” button and “Post to your Profile” and your invite will go on your wall for all to see.

Or use the “Share” button to send an invite to specific friends or lists.

This is my rule (you may want to test your own parameters): I only promote about one event of my own on Facebook every month, so I don’t have any qualms about inviting all friends because my events are virtual (conference calls).  (In this case, I would use tip #6 above and “Invite People to Come” and “Select All” to invite everyone.) For location-specific events, you may want to be more selective.

8.  Tweet About Your Event

Send out tweets with a link to the Facebook event. Preferably not just, “Check out my event! [insert link].” Rather, offer something enticing like, “Learn How to Create a BUZZ With Facebook Events [insert link—use a short URL].”  (Link to either the Facebook Event page or your registration page.)

Also include the link in your Facebook status updates periodically and mention your event on Plurk, LinkedIn, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Ping.fm – whichever platforms you’re active on and have followers/friends! Your friends and followers will happily pass the snipped link on for you.

9.  Experiment With Social Ads

Promote your event with Social Ads and every time someone RSVPs, their name and photo may appear alongside your ad. Experiment with a weekly/monthly budget and see what happens.

10. Send Out Reminders

As the event date approaches, be sure to gently remind people who have not yet registered that there’s still time.

Wow, that was a lot to cover!  I hope you find value in these tips!

What do you think? Did you learn something new about Facebook Events? What has your experience been so far with Facebook Events? Share your thoughts in the Comments box below.