Recently, Forrester Research ran a case study on four major brands (Best Buy, BlackBerry, Walmart and Coca-Cola) to find out how Facebook “Likes” translate in sales, attention or recommendations.
Here are two of their findings:
- Facebook fans are more likely to buy, discuss and recommend.
- The value of Facebook fans is in their eagerness to recommend.
And here are some suggestions from the Forrester study:
- Adapt the results to your brand.
All brands are different. For example, over 70% of online US adults have bought a Coca-Cola product in the last year, compared with 6% who have acquired a BlackBerry. Recommending a BlackBerry is different from recommending a Coke, just like turning a consumer into a lifetime customer is more important than a one-time purchase.
- Target your Facebook fans.
Your fans are some of your most important customers — they purchase more and recommend your brand. Target your customer retention marketing toward these important customers.
- Determine what drives your Facebook fans.
Find out what moves these people to push them through your sales funnel. For example, one of the main reasons people engage with brands on Facebook is to get discounts and promotions. Provide this to your target customers in a way that generates more sales.
Don’t Fall Into This Trap
Here’s a common misconception about Facebook: oftentimes, marketers assume that a “Like” actually means they have:
- Great content
- People agree with their posts
- They have nailed the market in social media
These are all false assumptions. A large fan base may indicate an increased brand popularity, but unless you can turn these numbers into profits, 100,000 fans on Facebook don’t mean a thing.
Here are three questions to determine the worth of your fan base:
1. How Did You Get Your Fan Base?
If you’re running campaigns that are giving away free stuff, chances are that part of your fan base doesn’t really care about your brand, they’re just in for the free stuff. So, the value of your community is lower than another company who built their community from satisfied repeat customers who are interested in their brand.
2. What Are You Selling?
If you sell clothes the monetary value of your Facebook community is probably higher than if you’re selling telecommunications services. Firstly, because no one loves telecommunications and also because people tend to buy clothes more often than they change their carrier.
Similarly, if you are a luxury brand with extremely expensive products – like Mercedes – you are probably not going to get too many sales through your Facebook page.
3. How Do You Leverage Your Facebook Community?
You can have a million fans, if you’re doing a poor job managing your community you aren’t going to reap the benefits at all. The value of your fan base depends on what can you do to leverage them.
Not only do you need advertising money to attract Facebook fans, but to genuinely engage with them you need some man hours and expertise. In order to fully leverage the value of your community, you need to run competitions, throw in special discounts, broadcast your posts effectively and respond quickly.
Determine The Worth Of Your Facebook Community
Facebook “Likes” mean very little, while comments are far more valuable. You cannot understand those who clicked “Like”, but you can get a better feel of those who left comments and engaged in the conversation. You shouldn’t rely on “Likes” as a measure for the quality of your work. The best indicators are critical comments made by users and the shares done on your posts.
Takeaway: if you are building your Facebook community the right way, your fan base is worth something. Your fans are more likely to recommend your products, increase brand awareness among their friends and buy from you over and over again.
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