I recently had the chance to spend time at the DMA 2011 Conference in Boston. While I don’t have any attendance numbers, I will say that there seemed to be a good buzz throughout the sessions and on the show floor.

While there were a lot of key points and trends floating around the conference, I will say that Facebook stands out among the top. It may sound a bit silly to label Facebook as a “trending topic” in the world of marketing. However,I still think there are plenty of B-to-B companies (and a lot of B-to-C companies, too) that have doubts as to how Facebook can help them.

There were a number of points made yesterday that should help companies decide whether they should be spending marketing resources on Facebook. Here are a few of them.

Reporting Enhancements

Facebook is launching a number ofenhancements to their Page Insights tool. For example, they will be including a new measurement labeled “People Talking About This”.

That measurement will includethe number of Likes, Facebook user comments around the brand, RSVPs, Places check-ins, “@mentions” and photo-tags. Along with providing that information to the owners of Pages, Facebook announced that regular users will be able to see them as well. That type of exposure should certainly cause all Page owners to find ways to increase awareness and engagement around our brand.

The Audience is Huge… and Growing

Yes, it is true that many of Facebook’s 800 million users primarily use that social network to stay in touch with friends and family. However, a decent percentage of the interactions and content postings on Facebook could absolutely include product recommendations, brand perception comments, links to specials/discounts/events, etc.

Thus, companies must realize that in order to capitalize and increase the word-of-mouth opportunities that are inherent in 800 million people talking all day in the same place, they must be there too! This includes listening for happy fans and unhappy customers. It includes posting and promoting content that people will want to share. It also includes treating the audience there as a special one with a lot of power.

Content and Sales Influence

Statistics can really only tell part of a story. But in the keynote address at DMA 2011,Grady Burnett of Facebook shared a number of them that should cause businesses to take notice. Here were a few:

• “30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month.
• “There is a 2x increase in engagement when users are shown [Facebook] sponsored stories”
• “68% more likely to remember an Ad when associated to a friend’s name”

There is no doubt that Facebook will continue to evolve as a social network. But it already has a tremendous and (willingly) captive audience.

Businesses need to be there to reach those folks.