Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
Social Media for B2C: What are the best tactics to increase Facebook fans?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Willem Tait,
- Nick Hughes,
- Greg Duell
Have a good product is a start. No one is going to like something they don't use.
Now, let's say you have a great product... what currently goes on at your Facebook fan page? Is the page fun? Does it's landing page draw people in?
An easy way to pull people in is to have a contest. Again, it needs to be worth mentioning to their friends.
Do you engage with fans? Do they feel like part of a community?
An idea to keep fans around is to randomly reward members of your fan page with something.
Ultimately, there is no 'overnight 1000+' fan solution. You need to make it a place people want to come above all else. If it's not fun, it's not fan-worthy.
- Recommended by:
- Jim Palmer
Do a small "become a fan" campaign on facebook. Simple ad that requires only for the person to click and then they become a fan. It is fairly inexpensive and is a great way to generate interest and hype around your business. Consequently it is the most effective way to do it. The other options take a lot of time and effort and are much slower to produce results. You can add your link to marketing materials etc and I still recommend doing that but if you're looking to get results the easy and quick way then definetely a facebook campaign.
I have been on Face book and some of the other social media networks for the past year and have grown my friends list to 700 contacts. My suggestions would be the following:
-15 minute session each day i.e. replying to messages and making sure that you have an online presence
-If you have a list of your clients, send them a bulk email via another application or from your own email, explaining to them why you are on Face book and why they should consider following you.
-Make 100% sure that your Face book profile is linked on your own website as well as in your email signature, so that customers can click and follow you.
-Lastly, LinkedIn, twitter and Skype and most or the other social media sites, provides a link were you can import your contacts from Face book. This will allow you to post your “other” social media activities on all the platforms with a single click.
Trust that the above will help.
Regards - Willem Tait
If your goal is simply to grow a large group of followers, you risk alienating the followers you have. While Willen Tait provides some good tips in his answer to grow a base, I would say that your goal should be to fully serve the fan base you already have. I'll make up a farm analogy here, and say that you don't grow a bountiful field of corn by planting another field or two of corn. Take care of what you have now and it will grow.
There are so many businesses trying to figure this question out right now with so many offering the magic solution. In the simplest terms, there isn't a magic solution. What works for one business, even in the same industry and market may not work for another.
With that said, I think it's important to realize what your specific customers want from you. What makes them come back time and time again? How do you transfer this awesomeness to your Facebook page? Is it coupons? Free stuff? Contests?
What are you doing outside of Facebook to promote your page and connect fans? Are you telling them about it? Are you suggesting it as a place to connect to you? Do you even let people know that you have a Facebook page?
Finally, do you cross-promote your offerings throughout all of your marketing channels? I feel that your Facebook page should enhance all your other marketing as a supplement, not necessarily a one-stop solution. Sure, you can offer your Facebook Fans something special, but relying solely on Facebook could sink you unless your super careful and targeted with your offerings.
I'd like to thank everyone who took time to respond to my question. Most responses were well thought out. This is a clear indicator that businesses and brands are seeking to achieve more measurable results from their social media marketing.
I selected Mana's answer as the best this time because of the extra effort she put forth to organize he suggestions. They're short, to the point, valid and actionable. Thank you Mana!
I'd like to invite everyone to stay connected with me on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter.
Tom Harpointner, CEO
AIS Media, Inc. "Your Digital Agency"
Web: www.aismedia.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ThomasHarpointner
LinkedIn: www.Linkedin.com/in/ThomasHarpointner
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/TomHarpointner
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
All of the above are super-valid. Assuming you have a great product, you interact with your fans every day, etc. Doing those is necessary but will only grow your follower base slowly. The plus of this approach is that these people will be the most engaged, because they liked your page out of true interest. So before you move on to the other options, take some time to think about what you are really looking to accomplish - big Facebook numbers or big engagement numbers?
If you decide you want big numbers you have 2 options:
Option 1: Buy targeted Facebook ads,
Option 2: Boost following through the power of your existing network.
Related to option 2 we've done contests, photo contests, raffles, you name it. Not all of these drove new page "likes." Most drove engagement from the already-existing fans.
There were three strategies that engaged new Facebook fans more so than any other:
1. Putting the Facebook link on all marketing materials. Everything that gets printed, every email, every digital piece should point to the Facebook page. That includes the Twitter bio url.
2. Encouraging fans to put interesting, fun, adorable, exciting, useful content on your Facebook page and then share that with their fans. For example, we had a customer who took the most adorable picture of her infant son with one of our business' temporary tattoos. It was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen. She then put the picture on our Facebook page and shared it with her followers. That day we saw a spike in "likes."
3. Contests that require users to gather votes from their friends. An easy example is a photo contest. Give away an award for the picture that gets most likes.