CALL US We have clients asking us all the time how they can get more fans on their Facebook page. Having worked with all kinds of clients and budgets on Facebook we are always cautious with clients spending a ton of money because in most cases the ROI just isn’t there. Statistics show that over 70% of people who like your page never come back again. They only see your updates in their news feed and most don’t interact to them. That means most of your “fans” aren’t real fans.
The Metric that Matters: Not ‘Likes’
Let’s talk about the 30%. If 70% aren’t ever really paying attention to you then there are 30% we should focus on in your Facebook news feed. These are the people you should be paying attention to. You can probably identify some of them already as they are the ones who like and sometimes comment on your posts now. These fans are your brand evangelists and I’d take 10 evangelists over 1,000 fans any day. Seth Godin often refers to them as “Sneezers” – the people who are likely to tell others about a great new idea/product/service, etc. In Unleashing the Ideavirus, he writes, “Sneezers are at the core of any ideavirus. Sneezers are the ones who when they tell ten or twenty or 100 people — people believe them.”
Engaging Your Evangelists
So what now? How do I engage my 30% effectively so I don’t waste too much time and money on my Facebook page? Stop thinking of Facebook as your social media end all, be all, and think of it as another extension of your web site. Use it to drive traffic to your site by providing links to content pages and other relevant content away from Facebook.
- Drive fans to your products, your blog, and anything else you want them to see.
- Post photos -photos on Facebook have a 200% higher interaction rate than plain links.
- Engage other relevant Facebook business pages that are complimentary and share a post from their page on yours.
Gotta Treat ‘Em Right
It’s also time to take a step back and think about why your brand evangelists love you so much, and how you can make them love you even more. Is it your customer service? Your product selection? Your image and attitude? Pinpoint exactly what gets people excited about your brand and do lots of it on your Facebook page. For instance, if you’re known as the company with the most technical, in-depth knowledge of your field, make sure you’re dishing out plenty of facts and figures that the people who love your brand the most are going to want.
Facebook can be a great medium but don’t get caught up in the hype all the “social media experts” insist you need to do. Their 15 minutes of fame was up a while ago now and at the end of the day, your web site and ultimately your product pages and contact form is where you want your users to go.
