Summary: Want more Facebook Fans, but not sure how to go about attracting them? This article explains why you should worry less about numbers – quality fans are more important than quantity of fans.
It’s great to be able to say you’ve jumped from 100 followers/friends to 1,000 in a day – and if you’re working for a company, I’m sure your boss would be very happy about it! But whilst short term increases look good for the stats, often they do nothing in terms of results. By the end of this article you will know the difference between quality followers and quantity of followers.
When quantity of fans becomes an issue – for example because you’ve been given a target – you need to take care. There’s a raging debate about the worth of a Facebook fan – and we’ll leave that debate for another day - but it’s clear that some fans are worth more than others. Factors affecting each fan’s ‘worth’ include their job, their connections and their influence. Keeping this in mind, you don’t want to drive away your quality fans by using general tactics that traditionally attract the masses. It’s a better approach to engage with relevant customers and your target audience.
Target the right fans
You want to obtain fans the right way, and you want fans to stick around and engage with you long term. Effectively you are trying to create and build an online community that your influencers and customers want to be part of, a place they share information with each other and with you. Make sure your goals and focuses are based on this strategy, and not just on acquiring as many new fans as possible.
Here are ten top tips for engaging with a view to keeping your fans:
1. Know what you are talking about. If you are going to work with social media, be involved in social media. Start your own Twitter account, Facebook page, read blogs and get engaged. That’s the best way to understand the culture, tone, best practices, and protocol.
2. Always be transparent. When you’re communicating in social media, say who you are and who you work for. Don’t try to be sneaky and plant comments, don’t hire people to go out and say nice things about you and stay away from ghost writing. Be genuine and be real.
3. Be yourself. Readers can see through marketing talk. Be passionate about what you do and let that show through your personality. Let people see you as a person, not a mouthpiece.
4. Post frequently. It’s a lot of work, but don’t post to your blog then leave it for two weeks. Readers won’t have a reason to follow you on Twitter or check your blog if they can’t expect new content regularly. 2-3 times a week is a minimum.
5. Add value. Share tips, tricks, and insights. Peoples’ time is precious and they need to get something out of the time they spend with you. Make listening to you worth their time.
6. Respond. Answer questions, thank people even if it’s just a few words. Make it a two way conversation.
7. Listen to what others have to say. Appreciate suggestions and feedback even if it’s difficult to swallow – it will make what you do even better.
8. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t be afraid to say you were wrong and be quick to make changes when you are.
9. Be external. You don’t have to be 100% internally focused. Link to other blogs, videos, and news articles. Re-tweet what others have to say – you’re likely to see it reciprocated.
10. Have fun. If you don’t like what you are doing, others will notice it and won’t enjoy interacting with you.
Avoid gimmicky giveaways and offers
An example of this kind of approach is if you have a giveaway or offer for a limited time to gain some Facebook fans quickly. Sure, this is proven to work and gain fans fast. However, there are downfalls to this kind of strategy. You don’t tend to reach the type of followers you’re after. In fact, in many cases, giveaways and offers can attract the opposite fans to the ones you really want. They’re just after the promotion and not interested in building up a relationship with you.
Influence does have power
Your influencers will depend largely on your business sector. Traditionally, influencers are well-known professionals in your sector, bloggers in your sector, twitter members who regularly tweet about your industry sector/products/services, and members of forums who discuss your industry sector.
Influencers could also be followers you already have as part of your Facebook and Twitter communities. These could be people who regularly give you feedback and engage with your and your other followers. These are the influencers you want to target.
Try launching a promotion targeted at influencers
Create an exclusive promotion to target influencers – maybe a free gift, or exclusive sample of your next product. You would need to do this by filter and make it only available to your influencers and not the general public, at least to start with. Get them testing and talking about it.
A way to do this maybe send direct messages with reward codes to your influencers on Facebook and Twitter. The code would enable them to access your free sample. Also, if you want them to forward the code on to their followers, give them an incentive to do so – maybe a percentage off their next order, or a free exclusive gift from you. A point to remember when thinking about how to engage with your influencers is that the easier and quicker you make it for them, the more likely they are to engage with you. Don’t make them jump through hoops!
Incentive ideas that would make people want to join your online community -
- Free knowledge
- Engaging discussions
- Hot topics
- Industry gurus/professionals (featured posts, interviews, quotes etc)
- Giveaways/offers
Summary
The aim of a Facebook fan page is to gain as many fans as possible without using up too many resources or a chunk of your marketing budget. If you add a focus of attracting the right kind of fans, you’re likely to see less quick drop offs and a higher level of engagement and traffic to your page.
Encourage engagement with influencers and get more coverage for your brand from it. Clearly the success of such a campaign is down to your own business niche, the key influencers you have access too along with the amount of time and effort you put into it.
Could you share you views, experiences and tips with us? Have you had success with Facebook? Have you created your own Facebook community?
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said at 1:16 pm on August 26th, 2010
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said at 1:53 pm on August 27th, 2010
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