4 Truths About Facebook
Things You Need To Know About Facebook
December is Social Media month at NowClicks but I’m starting just a few days earlier. One of my recent posts showed Facebook to be the king of social media world, and I do mean world, with it dominating in every continent. I wanted to spend some time to dig deeper into the social media aspects of Facebook versus just looking at the advertising side.
My findings across the web from reputable sources:
1) Facebook fans are 60 times more likely to hide your post (that means clicking on the ‘x’ of your posts) than to actually unlike/unfriend your business. What this means is that they’re still a fan of your business but they want to be on Facebook to see pictures of other people’s kids, share personal stories and just review all of the clutter that gets blasted onto Facebook. Source: PageLever / Digiday
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. True, it limits your ability to interact and for posts to go viral. But, they are still fans. And fans count for votes. Having fans encourages other Facebook users to become fans.
How to avoid this – don’t bombard your fans with posts. If all they keep seeing is post after post about your business you’re going to lose fans. Instead, aim to engage every other day and offer something of value or something to interact with. For example, offer discounts and ask fans to share with their friends.
2) Speaking of Coupons…according to Lab42, a company that specializes in market research, one of the best ways to get interaction from your fans on Facebook is to offer discounts and coupons. These are called ‘Fan Coupons’. These discounts are only available to those who are a fan of your page. If you are not a fan, no discount for you!
This can be leveraged to get new fans though. If you offer a discount worth sharing it is highly likely that your fans will tell others, which in turn will cause them to become fans in order to get the discount. If they are satisfied with the discount they are more likely to remain fans in the hopes of future discounts and thus you’ve just improved your brand in the world of Facebook.
3) Wildfire – According to MindJumpers 56% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand after liking a brand on Facebook. This is huge. If your Facebook marketing strategy attracts new fans online, this is going to benefit you offline and you should also see a spike in ‘direct’ traffic visits to your website. For example, Berto’s Restaurant offers discounts on Friday nights for Facebook fans. Likes add up. Fans then recommend the restaurant to others even if they aren’t connected on Facebook. Word of mouth ensues.
4) Sunday Funday – Also found by MindJumpers, Sundays are the best day to interact with your audience. Truthfully, it couldn’t have been a better day. Most people are off. Most people enjoy shopping on the weekends and after church. Advertise early in the morning, around 9am – 10am. The average effective lifetime of a Post is 3 to 5 hours. This gives you anywhere from noon to 2pm to gauge the effectiveness of the Post. Most users will log into Facebook in the morning on a day off to see what is going on. You want to engage them before they’ve made plans for the day and while they still feel like they have plenty of time to visit your shop or buy online. Engaging with them in the afternoons or evenings gives them too little time to do what you want them to do when they have to get the kids ready for school, get ready for work the next day and they want to relax before bed. If your post is unsucessful you can submit another one in the afternoon, around 2:30pm – 3:30pm and still have time for interactions. Please note, posting in the mornings is only ideal for the weekends, when the majority of people are off from work. Doing this on a weekday is a wasted post.
Facebook is complex, and it isn’t for everyone. But, if your business is a B2C business then you need to have a Facebook page. You have to go were the market is, and the market is online on Facebook.