Everybody wants to be liked – especially in today’s Facebook
world, where the thumbs-up “Like” button represents the ultimate stamp of
approval from consumers to their networks. But how do you get the “Like” love
on Facebook (and other crowd-sourced social media channels)? The key is to
engage those within the network, giving them a real reason to opt into your
Page.
Facebook Pages are growing in popularity and importance each
day, often serving as a second home page for your business on the Web. Chances
are that your customers already have Facebook accounts and spend an average of
25-30 minutes on the social networking site each day. The News Feed they view
intersperses updates from the Pages they “Like” among the pictures and status
updates from their friends and family, essentially giving you a self-selected
audience wanting to hear your advertising for free. It’s a no-brainer to make
your business front of mind – but the trick is to do so in a way that adds
value for THEM (not just for you).
So how do you create ways to get them involved with your
Page?
Here are some ideas:
- Create a contest that requires them to “Like” your page. Vivint does this wonderfully each year with their “Vivint Gives Back” contest. They give away $1.5 million dollars to the top-voted charity overall as well as $250,000 to the winners in each of five regions.
- Most people are willing to click “Like” to support a cause close to their hearts, and it’s a great way for Vivint to get name recognition as people post about the contest on their own Page in order to drum up votes offer coupons and deals for people who Like your page.
- It’s as simple as posting to your Facebook that anyone who mentions a certain code on a particular day will get a discount. This is a great way to give back to your top fans – after all, if they’ve taken the initiative to opt into your network, they likely merit the recognition.
- Reciprocate the love by interacting with those who write on your wall. It builds the sense of a one-on-one relationship between the consumer and brand, and those are the kind of relationships that foster customer loyalty.
- When you consider how expensive the conversion process is, taking that next step to make your individual brand evangelists feel like their loyalty is recognized and appreciated is worth every cent spent in time and effort.
