We all know Facebook is the hot place to connect with current friends and meet and interact with new folks from all parts of the world. In this blog post I’d like to cover several tactics I see used by marketers which are in my opinion destroying the relationships they are attempting to build, and an example of what I consider a much better approach.
I believe that using social media as a platform to connect with, listen and respond to, and provide value for your followers is an effective way to create loyalty in your fan base.
For example, by using Facebook events people are able to send mass notifications to reach anyone on their friends list. This powerful feature is often misused though to invite everyone on a given persons friend list to an event.
Have you ever received an notification from someone you barely know for an event clear across the country? There is probably a .000000001% chance you will attend due to the geographical distance, but why were you invited?
I’m assuming the idea is simply “more exposure = good” but that is not always the case. My feed and notifications are not something I want cluttered and I am quick to remove folks who send me excessive notifications or excessive promotional posts.
The funny thing is, when creating an event on Facebook there is an option to filter the invitees by city. By using this tool the event creator can target folks who are in the area which the event is occurring. That, in my opinion is a much more effective way to use the events notification.
Web spam is nothing new, it has existed in news groups, email, forums and message boards for the better part of a quarter century.
But using social media to blindly pitch your product or service to an untargeted market is highly unlikely to be the best use of your marketing time and money.
Why?
Because there aren’t enough people looking to “buy stuff” on Facebook! In other words, the vast majority people on Facebook aren’t actively looking to purchase anything… They’re just hanging out.
Let’s take a look at Facebook “deals” which had a pilot launch 4 months ago in an attempt to integrate a groupon-type functionality into the platform.
“After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” Facebook told Reuters
With all the integration, geo-targeting and behavioral data Facebook has on it’s users, the fact that they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) make the “buy this now and save” angle appealing to it’s users is a clear indication that there are better ways to approach customer acquisition on Facebook.
“We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” said Facebook.
I think that’s a great statement, “how to best serve local business”. It speaks volumes about studying what folks really want online.
For example, If I really like a singer I may want any sliver of music I can find. A well placed youtube video of a jam session can yield viral results way beyond the 1-2% optin-rate a given splash page does (but always split test your offers). User expectation and experience are two areas to take into consideration.
Let’s look at an example of someone killing it on Facebook. Someone who attracts new customers like magnets and keeps them engaged.
I have a friend that sells a catalog of digital downloads for $5 each through his website. Every week he gives his fans access to a different video, but only for 7 days. You have to stay in touch on a regular basis to get the freebees, and each week when I get his email I am excited to see what I am getting that week.
It doesn’t cost him anything to distribute the videos other than hosting, but it does create loyalty in his customer base.
That is the value in social media and in this case it works beautifully.
