Social Media has fundamentally changed the way we communicate. No longer do you scour your email in-box for messages from your friends, family and important colleagues. Email has become the resting place of business and spam. Facebook is the way to keep up with the people who inhabit our world. Whether it is pictures of your newborn niece who lives out of state, or checking in with your friends to see what Friday night’s game plan is, social networking has fundamentally changed the way we communicate with each other.
In the US there are 245 million internet users and 155 million registered Facebook users. Facebook has a whopping 63% market share of all US internet users!
But social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are not just about the latest funny cat meme. They’re about two-way conversation. And one of the many conversations that people are having is about which products to buy. According to the Pew Resource Center’s Internet & American Life Project 60% of US consumers perform online research on the products and services that they are considering buying. And one of the most trusted sources for recommendations are your friends on sites like Facebook.
So what’s a brand to do? Most of your customer base is on Facebook and they’re willing to show their support for your brand by “Liking” your Fan page and engaging with you. What could be more effective than having a customer like your Fan Page, demonstrating their support for your brand for all their friends and family to see?
Imagine what would happen if you asked that same customer to write a review on Yelp, then you posted a link to their positive review on your Fan Page, thanking the customer for their support! Peer reviews can be incredibly persuasive social proof of the value of your brand.
The Power of EdgeRank:
When you log into your Facebook account, the “News Feed” that you see is not a timeline of posts from Profiles and Pages that you are following. Facebook has an algorithm that determines rank, called EdgeRank. This algorithm determines what gets shown to whom. Essentially, EdgeRank places a “Quality Score” on every post. If your posts have a low Quality Score, it doesn’t get shown to very many people.
If you had a decent EdgeRank and you posted a link to a recent Yelp review written by one of your customers, and in your post you thanked your customer profusely…and this post appeared at the top of the wall of all your followers…do you think this would have a positive impact on your brand? If a few of your followers commented on your post, the post in turn would appear on their timelines, thus exposing your brand to hundreds, maybe even thousands of potential customers. This would have an incredibly positive effect on your brand!
There are many factors that impact EdgeRank, but these are the main ones:
- The Volume of Interaction on Posts
- Post Frequency
- Number of Likes
- Number of Comments
- Number of Shares
Promoted Posts
Promoted posts are an easy way to get more people to see your posts. Promoted posts appear higher in News Feed, so there’s a better chance your audience will see them. There are two ways to promote a post: from your personal account and from your Facebook Page.
When you promote a post from your Page, it will be shown in the News Feeds of more of the people who like your Page than you would reach normally. You can choose to reach People who like your Page or People who like your Page and their friends when you promote a post from your Page.
People trust recommendations from their friends, which means that this extended audience is more likely to be interested in your business when they see that a friend has liked, commented on or shared your post.
A strong Facebook strategy guarantees that you will maintain top-of-mind-awareness and be able to garner repeat business as well as referrals from your customer base.
“New research from social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group found that companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period.”
Don’t place your social media strategy in the hands of an intern! Social media is your best weapon for creating positive sentiment and top-of-mind-awareness. We offer a variety of very affordable and practical services at a variety of price points depending on your requirements.
Here’s a Sampling of a Few of the Services We Offer:
- Full-service social media management including daily fan & follower engagement
- Pay Per Click and CPM based Social Media Campaigns
- Strategic advisement, policy creation, & training on social media engagement strategies
- Custom social contest management & build-outs (content submission contests, trivia, sweepstakes, etc.)
- LinkedIn business profile management
- Review & reputation monitoring services
- Custom HTML based branded skins & backgrounds for social pages (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Others…)
- Custom HTML based landing pages for Facebook (Basic Forms, eCommerce, Product Pages & More…)
- Blogger & Influencer Outreach
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & LinkedIn Advertising Solutions
Please contact us for more details and pricing (401) 685-0606