in to What Your Following Wants

What’s in a Number?  Quite a Bit Apparently

Okay guys, can we go ahead and agree that Social Media is good for business?  At least in an empirical data kind of way?    Well, you might be surprised at how many skeptics are left out there.  Everybody knows “that guy” who will never be seen on Facebook and thinks that Twitter should never have been invented in the first place.  The funny thing is, “that guy” all too often happens to be a marketing manager or marketing influencer for their respective company.  For the good of everyone, new and concrete statistics are now available to add to your pro-social media arsenal.  When “that guy” says you are wasting time creating a Facebook Fan Page, you can remind him that 60% of people surveyed were more likely to refer a brand to a friend if they are a fan of that brand.  And for Twitter? Try 80% more likely.  “That guy” might waive this off as crazy talk.  If he does, forward him the rest of this article – We found some pretty compelling arguments and stats that are hard to dismiss.

Social Media Fans Much More Likely to Buy

Recent findings by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate have given some reassurance to social media marketers looking to substantiate the time and money they put in developing a fandom on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.  Take a look at the graph below where US internet users were polled on their Facebook fan habits:

We can see from this graph that Facebook fans are much more likely to not only buy your brand, but to recommend it to their peers.  Most of us could probably have guessed as much – when people are engaged with a product or service through channels such as Facebook and Twitter, brand visibility is heightened and they have a better chance of staying on the customer’s radar.  The trick for brands is to understand why people become fans / followers and then to capitalize on this built-in communication channel by making sure they are telling them what they want to hear. 

Why Your Fans are Fans and Why Your Followers Follow You

So what do your fans want to hear?  Why did they become your fan in the first place?  More data from the study referenced above sheds some light on these questions.  In the graph below, we can see that 61% of “Max Connectors,” or users having 500+ social media connections became fans or followers of a brand to learn about new products, services and features.  This group was also driven to fan or follow a brand to learn more about the company culture, worker’s policies and other corporate information.  For the rest of the users (<500 SM connections), 65% engaged with the brand in order to stay abreast of sales and new deals, while 61% were looking to learn about new products, features and services.  Not to be forgotten, many fans also cited entertainment as a factor in their decision to follow a brand.  Here is the chart:

And what about Twitter?  Do you know why your followers are following you?  If not, you may not be telling them what they want to hear.  The chart below shows strong evidence that supports the notion that many users follow brands on Twitter in order to receive exclusive deals and offers.  Being a customer of the brand and looking for interesting or entertaining content came in neck and neck as the second and third primary reasons users follow a brand on Twitter.

Dig Deeper, But This is a Good Place to Start

Any company with a product or service should keep these easy to remember stats in mind when developing their social media strategy.  While there are countless other ways brands can optimize their social media efforts, the basic concepts laid out above are a great place to start.  Knowing why people follow your brand on social media channels and comprehending what they want to hear is powerful stuff.

• Facebook’s US audience grew by 8.6% in September to 88.3 million uniques
• Largest growth sector Females 18-25, Second largest growth Females 45+
• 50% of Facebook users in the US today are over 35

The growth of Facebook is staggering, a force in the market that businesses can’t ignore. If you have a product for women you’re a fool not to build a Facebook fan page. How many women do you know that are checking out their Facebook pages at lunch? Answer, more than you think!

Go to the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Follow the step-by step instructions. When it asks for the fan page name give this some thought. The name you give your page is permanent, so make sure it’s the one your fans and customers will recognize. It only takes a few minutes, and the set-up has about five questions.

Take note of your page address. It looks something like this:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unilyzer/147971667594
In this link ‘Unilyzer’ is the name of my fan page and the link number is the ID.

What are Facebook Fans?
Facebook fans are like your friends on your personal account. They will receive notices when you add new wall posts, photos, and videos. I recommend becoming a fan of your own page, and inviting your existing Facebook friends to ‘Fan’ your page. Make a wall post with a link to your new fan page. Using your existing network to build your fan page is a great place to start.

Need More Documentation?
Download Facebook’s Guide to Fan Pages. This is a great ten page guide, published by Facebook, for setting up a fan page and getting started.

For more tips on marketing with Facebook and other social media channels become our fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

…