We don’t need to tell you Facebook can be a powerful channel for brands, but it is important to know it’s role in the mix.
Marketers often ask us to improve their Likes or to drive acquisition via Facebook. You know what? In itself, social media isn’t a great direct acquisition tool.
Whilst you can grow your business using social media, it’s generally not a straight numbers game. Instead of looking to grow your followers exponentially, our advice is to use it to consolidate relationships with those already ‘in love’ or Like with you. And in turn, these enamoured Facebook followers will act as your word-of-mouth army to spread the love.
A recent Gallup survey of more than 17,000 social media users (reported in BizReport, 12 September 2011) validates this approach.
Their findings turn the acquisition theory on its head. According to Gallup’s Jim Asplund and Blaise James, “customer engagement with a brand drives social enagagement” not the other way around.
So, you need to have worked hard through all the other channels available to you to drive consumers to your brand and engender loyalty, and then look to social media avenues to deepen an engagement that already exists. If you can achieve this, then Facebook becomes the perfect way to facilitate your brand lovers actively advocating for your brand.
How do you do this? Well of course we’d love to chat with you about the unique conversation your brand can have with your brand champions, but before you go running off and offering lots of promos and giveaways on social, just stop and consider whether you want to throw goods and money at people that already love you and buy you.
