by Seth Kline on September 25, 2009
Vive le ROI!
France doesn’t have a king anymore. If it did, the phrase would hold more modern significance. However, if you pronounced that last word as “are-oh- eye” instead of “gwah,” you’re more likely to hit something modern and quite relevant to online marketing.
So, you want to know about ROI on social media? How far your fan page dollars go? Exactly how much cake you shall eat? Of course you do. It’s why hundreds of companies have empty fan pages, established but unused and unadministered. It’s why thousands of companies (though now quite a minority) have yet to jump in at all. And it’s why everyone’s wondering just how much money the Coca Colas and Nikes of the social media world are actually making with their fan pages.
I can’t give you your potential ROI, or even a way to determine it. But I can give you a few tidbits that may turn out to be quite filling.
1) You can acquire data ever so easily.
It’s the Internet, silly! Market research has been an intense and expensive business for years, but with your Facebook fan page (and especially with many of the applications that you can add), you are automatically fed usage data – metrics and analytics that can give you at least a general idea of your fan page’s impact.
2) It’s hard to be pessimistic about ROI when the “I” itself is of Napoleonic stature – low.
Fan pages and other social media are freely available, but you must know that they aren’t free – unless you can find volunteers to keep your content fresh, communicate with customers, and so on. But compared to the planning, production, and implementation costs of direct advertising, it really is small peas. So unless your social media efforts never take off at all, the cost will be worth it.
3) Social media shouldn’t stand alone.
Every marketing technique has its place, from newspaper advertising to lasers on the moon. Social media, too, has strengths and weaknesses – fan pages exemplify this by providing a “catalytic hub” for social media activity. They’re not good for widespread brand exposure, but they’re great for engaging your most loyal customers and giving them a platform from which to laud you in public. So don’t just set up a fan page, guillotined it from the rest of your marketing, and try to count every penny it earns you. Launch it as part of your integrated marketing strategy, and you’ll see the ROI debate in a whole new light.
4) You’re not the only one – answers, we hope, are coming.
In fact, just recently, Nick O’Neill reported Facebook’s newest branding salvo: “Brand Lift,” a partnership with Nielsen (of television marketing research fame) to provide instant market research results for online advertisers. Here’s his take on the deal:
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/09/brand-lift-facebooks-answer-to-the-brand-advertising-conundrum/
by Seth Kline on September 15, 2009
The largest sticking point for companies who are hesitating over getting into social media is the lack of statistical evidence that shows that marketing with social media isn’t simply flushing dollars. This is a natural reason for some companies to move slowly, to try to see if the first few seals will waddle back out of the orca-infested waters of Facebook. Well, you should be aware that there IS already some statistical support available.
One of my favorite resources, if you haven’t found them yet, is emarketer.com. I signed up for their daily newsletter a while ago, and was happy to find that they regularly dispense a good quantity of quotable metrics on social media. While most of it isn’t Facebook fan page-specific, you can still find many nuggets of pure, sweet relevance among the more general information.
A few questions that they can answer for you right now:
Are social media users receptive enough to justify a market presence via fan page? Yes. 52% of social media users are fans or followers of a company or brand. Though this isn’t Facebook-specific, you should be able to say that at least half of Facebook’s 250+ million users are actively participating in fan page marketing. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007252
Are other companies getting into it? Yes. 59% of companies are currently using social media as a marketing vehicle. Only 13% don’t plan to, ever – it will be interesting to see how that number changes over the next year or two. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007246
You said that lack of statistics is the largest stalling agent for social media-inhibited companies? Kind of. It’s the biggest, but it’s not alone – the lack of trained social media professionals is a close runner-up. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007063
Apparently, our metaphorical seals don’t just need to see that the water’s safe before they dive in – they also need to know how to swim. And, at risk of taking it too far: They ought to know that fan pages are like water wings for marketers…
by Seth Kline on September 2, 2009
So far, I’ve been mostly talking about the basic hows and whys of Facebook Fan Pages, also called profile pages. These pages have unique social advantages for marketers and brand promoters, are easy to implement, and as I’m sure you know by now, there’s already a great body of knowledge available online to help you get onto the scene with maximum impact.
I talk about Fan Pages, naturally, because that’s our business here at InvolveSocial. Our Fan Page Application Suite consists of tools that enable you to address one of the major challenges of a profile page: effectively engaging your audience to foster their interaction with – and loyalty to – your brand.
The only other tool that you need is the knowledge to use the applications, and the Fan Page itself, to best effect.
However, with all the information out there from casual and professional bloggers about how to best implement a fan page, from such a wide range of experience and with so many varied methods of addressing the topic, it may get a little overwhelming. So, I’m happy to point you in the direction of what I think are a few really good resources.
To start, here’s a short article that sums up how many businesses are easing into Fan Pages. Useful to note: You don’t need to end up with a million fans for the page to be worthwhile:
However, it is useful to take a look at a few standout Fan Pages (some of which DO have a million fans) to see exactly what they’re doing right. Callan picks big-name brands that already have massive brand recognition helping fill out the roster, but make no mistake: Big brands still need to reach and engage their fans, just like the rest of us (albeit on a different scale, and with a head start):
There are quite a few Top 10 guides out there for Fan Page best practices, and they mostly agree on the basic ideas. Here’s a good one that should serve you well. Take a look at some of Carnet’s other guides while you’re there, chances are he’s got something relevant to your situation:
Here’s a great take on how to engage a fan base. Jeremiah refers to a fan base as a “community,” which is a term that I’ve been avoiding for accuracy’s sake – simply put, not every crowd is a community, even if they talk to you and to each other from time to time. But sociological terminology aside, it is a great way to conceptualize your Fan Page. Jeremiah gives a great list of steps toward establishing your own “community” – many of which I’ve addressed in my own posts, but I definitely recommend taking a look at them:
Finally, Nick O’Neill is known as one of the foremost authorities on all things Facebook. If you know anything about Facebook, chances are that you learned some of it from him. Here’s one post where he details one out of the thirty strategies that he published in his 30 Days to 3,000 Fans e-book. His home page, www.allfacebook.com, is incidentally also worth perusing and keeping tabs on:
Do you have a favorite blogger, e-book, or other resource on Facebook Fan Pages? We’d love to hear who, what and why – leave a comment!
by Azam Khan on September 1, 2009
Trust Agent’s Facebook Fan Page discusses the deeper meanings behind the book, instead of spamming and bombarding users to buy the book. Chris Brogan and Julien Smith actively maintain a conversation on the Facebook Page and people trust them. In this video, I casually discuss why the facebook page is great and should serve as an example on how to engage your fans via on your Facebook Fan Page to people looking to promote anything from a product to a service to a brand.
by Seth Kline on August 31, 2009
In my last post, I mentioned that there is a great way to boost brand image, increase customer loyalty, and engage new visitors to your Facebook Fan Page. Many companies have done it well, online and off, but doing it online has the extra benefit of visibility – anyone who participates automatically broadcasts their involvement to their friends. [click to continue…]
by Fauz Amir on August 28, 2009
This era requires one to not only SELL their products but also their Fan page. Funny, isn’t it, it’s a commodity that reaps its benefits not via revenue, but via fans! So think of your Facebook Fan page as a project. Like any project, the success of it not only depends on the accuracy of its implementation details, but also on its well-thought, well-organized and above all, well-strategized project planning. [click to continue…]
by Seth Kline on August 26, 2009
It’s safe to say that most businesses are starting to need social media marketing to stay competitive. But traditional marketing tactics are, in general, simply not appropriate: The attention of consumers is in extremely short supply on the Internet, which makes it a legitimate commodity. So how do you get your share? [click to continue…]
by Seth Kline on August 24, 2009
If you’re like anyone else who’s just starting to learn about Facebook Fan Pages, the biggest question on your mind is probably:
“Why?”
It’s a good question do Fan Pages really stand out as exceptional among social media platforms? Dear reader, hold on to your hat:
Yes.
Here’s our pick of the top 10 reasons why Facebook Fan Pages are worth investing in. Not all of them are unique to Fan Pages, but only Fan Pages have all of them. [click to continue…]
by Seth Kline on August 20, 2009
If you haven’t figured it out yet, we here at InvolveSocial are crazy about Facebook Fan Pages!
Here’s the deal. We’re application developers, but with a twist: Instead of charging thousands of dollars to build or license each bit of software to clients, we offer a comprehensive Fan Page application suite as a very inexpensive SAS subscription service. [click to continue…]
by Seth Kline on August 11, 2009
So, you have a new fan page. It displays your brand graphics, has your company info, and you put up a few posts. But you have only 34 fans, and most of them are your own employees or family members or people trying to sell you something (how rude!). How do you get the word out to your target audience, cheaply and effectively, to jumpstart your Fan Page and tap into all that social media potential? [click to continue…]
