Last year, $711 million in marketing was spent online to reach SWFL area consumers, according to projections based on the 2021 IAB Internal Advertising Report.  This is 35% more than was spent during the prior year.

There is a correlation between the massive amount of money being spent to reach Fort Myers area consumers online and the extraordinary amount of time that these consumers are connecting to the internet via websites and apps.

According to Nielsen, 46.8% of Fort Myers adults are spending 10-plus hours during an average week online. Furthermore, The Pew Research Center, a public opinion research company, reports that one-in-three consumers say they are online constantly. A 50% increase from 2015.  In all, 85% of consumers say they connect at least once daily.

To successfully market and advertise a Fort Myers area business on the internet requires a full-scale understanding of precisely what online marketing is.  Spoiler alert, having a website or having a social media site is not enough.

According to Nielsen, 802,781 adult consumers in Southwest Florida use social media every month, an audience that continues to expand. As a result of this growth, social media has become a crucial part of local advertising campaigns.

Social media allows Fort Myers-Naples-Cape Coral area business owners to continually be in front of their target customers and to stay top-of-mind. It allows businesses to communicate daily and be the first company on call when needed. Social media has become essential for marketing local goods and services.

The best part is that social media is free to use for both SWFL consumers and business owners.

There is no subscription service for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram which, according to Nielsen, are used by 75.1% of Fort Myers consumers each month. There are no monthly payments or premium memberships required to unlock more services.

There are 30,689 small businesses in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Metro Area, according to the US Census Bureau. Based on projections from the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (NFIB), nearly half of these companies have job openings they cannot fill.

As a result of the acute labor shortage, says the NFIB, 29% of small business owners rank the quality of labor as the most important problem they face. A year ago, only 21% said finding workers was their biggest issue.

The labor crunch in Southwest Flordia is being driven, in big part, by a record-high number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs. Just last month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.5 million employees across the country left their current place of employment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, those who are not currently working say they are in no hurry to return to the workforce. The lack of urgency stems from five primary reasons:

• 29% say they don't need to work right now because their spouse is employed
• 28% say they cannot return to work because of care responsibilities at home
• 25% say they don't need to return to work because they have a financial cushion
• 20% say they are fearful of returning to work because of COVID-19
• 5% say they do not need to return because of current unemployment benefits

There seems to be little chance that these resigned workers can be lured back into the labor force. Therefore, to fill open jobs, local business owners will need to focus their efforts towards recruiting among Fort Myers's "passive" job candidates.

Every month, 802,000 adults in Southwest Floria use social media, according to Nielsen. Eighty-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 the Fort Myers area than watch local TV stations. Only Fort Myers radio reaches 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, Fort Myers area businesses are expected to spend $112 million on social media advertising, a 27.9% 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 Fort Myers area businesses that advertise on Facebook?

More than 97% of Fort Myers-Naples area adults have access to the internet.  Ubiquitous technology such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and connected TVs allow Southwest Florida consumers to go online whenever they choose, which, for some adults, is always.

The Pew Research Center, a public opinion research company, reports that one-in-three consumers say they are online constantly. A 50% increase from 2015.  In total, 85% of consumers say they connect at least one time every day.

So, how are Fort Myers-Naples consumers spending all this time connected to the internet?

According to Nielsen, streaming audio and video content, social networking, checking the weather, and banking are the top online activities for Fort Myers consumers each month.

According to Nielsen, 937,000 adults in the Southwest Florida area have access to the internet, equivalent to 97.1% of the population. On average, local consumers are spending 10.68 hours per week online.

SWFL millennials, the first generation that grew up in a digital world, spend considerably more time online. Nielsen reports that, on average, SWFL's 25-39-year-old consumers are clocking 13.35 hours connected to the internet.

So, how are SWFL consumers spending their time online?

According to Nielsen, streaming audio and video content, social networking, checking the weather, and banking are the top online activities for SWFL consumers each month.

The number of job openings in the Fort Myers area has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Businesses of all sizes are adding employees in a big way, according to the ADP Research Institute, but still, large numbers of positions remain unfilled.

With the Flordia unemployment rate still at 4.7%, Fort Myers area business owners wonder why they are having difficulty attracting applicants for open positions.

According to a recent article posted in The Economist, there are two major reasons why many sidelined workers aren't anxious to come to work. The first is fear.

Southwest Florida business owners are expected to invest $265-million during 2021 to advertise to consumers connected to the internet. This forecast was produced by Borrell Associates, a company that tracks business advertising expenditures across the country.

These online marketing dollars will be spent on banner advertising, search engine marketing, email, as well as audio and video advertising. This is all to capture the attention of shoppers and buyers as they go about their connected days.

According to Nielsen, 96.3% of adult consumers in the Fort Myers-Naples area have access to the internet. They connect, primarily, with desktop and laptop computers; smartphones; or tablets.

Ninety-six percent of SWFL adults spend at least one hour per week online, with most spending at least 10 hours connected.

Over 96% of Fort Myers-Naples area adults have access to the internet, according to Nielsen. Almost 63% of these consumers spend more than five hours a week connected.

Nielsen reports that Southwest Florida consumers go online to stay connected to friends and family; research products and services; learn the latest news, and obtain directions to where they are going and know what the weather will be when they get there.  

Here are some of the many reasons why Fort Myers internet users go online each month

• Social Media: 77%
• Weather: 52%
• Online Banking: 50%
• Maps/Directions: 48%
• Product Reviews: 39%
• Current Events: 37%
• Restaurant Reviews: 31%
• Sports Scores/News: 29%
• Real Estate: 14%
• Job Search: 14%

And, of course, there is shopping.  Over the past six months, according to Nielsen, 73.9% of Fort Myers consumers shopped online for every imaginable product and service including, cars, golf clubs, office supplies, wedding rings, mattresses, tires, medicine, shoes, socks, and eyeglasses.

To reach local consumers while they are online, Fort Myers businesses will spend $260 million for digital advertising in 2020, according to Borrell Associates.  Here is how the money is being spent:

Following the lead of many national marketers, some Fort Myers-Naples area small business owners are considering canceling or, at minimum, pausing their advertising schedules with social media network Facebook and its co-owned photo-sharing platform, Instagram.

According to the New York Times, "more than 400 companies, from Coca-Cola and Adidas to Ford and Lego, have vowed to halt advertising on the social network, in a growing protest over how it handles hate speech and other harmful content".

With the pandemic figured in, Southwest Florida small business owners were expected to spend $48 million on Facebook and Instagram advertising in 2020. This is according to Borrell Associates, a firm that specializes in the collection and analysis of local marketing expenditures in every city across the United States. But these expenditures could shrink if the protests become louder.

Every type of SWFL business imaginable, including clothing stores, plumbers, HVAC repair, funeral homes, restaurants, dentists, and nonprofits, has come to realize how powerfully social media can contribute to their bottom lines.

Part of what makes Facebook and Instagram attractive to small business owners is the enormous reach these platforms have among consumers. Locally, the audience size for these two social media sites now rival Fort Myers radio, TV, cable, and newspaper outlets.

For small business owners considering a hiatus from social media advertising, there is a viable way to redirect these dollars into a different medium without losing the marketing equity or momentum built-up on Facebook.