Facebook Fans: Quantity vs. Quality

When you think of social media, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?  If you are the average computer user, your answer is probably Facebook.  And with the recent announcement that there are now a billion users monthly,  it would seem to be an obvious target for social media marketing efforts.  Or that is what Facebook would like you to believe.

A recently released study by Napkin Labs doesn’t dispute there are a lot of people using Facebook, but it does bring into question if those users are of any value to companies.  They looked at 52 companies who had fan bases of 200,000 to 100,000 people over an eight-week period.  Of the 37.1 million fans analyzed, only six percent actually interacted with the company’s Facebook page content.  The most popular pages also had the least interaction.   Pages with about million fans were 60% less likely to interact with the content than those with half a million fans.

And not all fans are equal.  The most influential were the superfans, the top 20 most interactive fans for the site.   This led Napkin Labs to determine that one superfan has the value of 75 regular fans.

So now that we no longer need to get everyone to like us, how do you get someone to really like you and be a superfan?  Napkin Labs suggests:

  • Make the opportunities to engage meaningful, not blatantly promotional.  Get your fans involved and invested by asking them to share stories or give input.
  • Find out who your superfans are and engage them.  Let them know you appreciate them by giving them special privileges or rewards.  They will only love you all the more and will urge others to interact with your page.

Seems like pretty common sense advice regardless of what your aim is.  Don’t use social media like advertising.  These are your “friends”, treat them like it!

If you feel social media marketing might not be friendly and need some seo advice, Webrocket Solutions can help you make the most of social media with a strategic internet marketing plan.