OK…you’ve done a great job getting your Facebook fans. You put together some fun social programs, got people aware of your Facebook page and converted them to “likers” and “fans.” Altogether, you increased activity by 340%. Awesome. But, that’s only half the story. Who are these people and, more importantly, why are they here?
To get to the answer, you have to understand the nature of the Facebook audience, and their motivations in becoming fans of your brand or product. Basically, fans will fall under one (or more) of several categories:
- The Miner: these are low-stakes players. They have engaged with you because they believe that in doing so, they will benefit somehow, i.e. from a sweepstakes, a coupon, an exclusive offer, etc. If this is something you’ve promised then you must deliver.
- The Liker: these are probably heavy Facebook users who “like” everything they come in contact with on a regular basis, i.e. they “like” their mobile service provider simply because they can. They are not necessarily emotionally invested in your brand or product, but probably don’t have any negative feelings either. They are probably existing customers.
- The Advocate (or Evangelist): these people genuinely love you, and are almost certainly existing customers. They are your most valuable social asset. They don’t mind having you show up on their profiles, and they are happy to announce their association with you to their social network. You have done something right in getting them to connect with your product.
- The Cheerleader: these people may or may not actually use your product or service, but you have done something to get their attention, i.e. donated to a cause, become more “green”, stopped a controversial biz practice, etc. They are applauding a specific action, but not necessarily your products or services.
- The Spy: they “like” you because they want to talk smack about you on your wall, and want to vent publicly. Pretty sneaky, but effective. This is likely a small segment of the overall audience, but angry or upset customers can be pretty motivated.
It’s obvious that each of these fan types have differing value to your organization. Spies can be converted to genuine Likers. Advocates can be encouraged to have a stronger voice. Miners can be rewarded and converted to valuable customers. But, how do you know which is which?
Chances are you’ve taken some steps to drive your fan acquisition. If you observe fan activity spike during a marketing or promotion activity specifically focused on your Facebook presence, there’s a good chance you can correlate the two. For instance, if you run a “Fan-Only: Buy One Get One Free” promotion and you double your fan base, there’s a good chance you picked up some Miners.
Advocates will “like” a lot of your wall posts, or provide a lot of comments, and are clearly more engaged than other fans. Watch for this activity and engage these customers. Be sure to gauge sentiment, as Spies might be heavily active as well. Today, sentiment is a huge buzz word in the social space. There are some powerful, evolving platforms and services out there today that can help with this. One great, upcoming service is run by a company named SocialRep, based out of San Francisco. They focus sentiment analysis, and will help you leverage the data for actionable business decisions. Good stuff.
Do what you can to segment your social audience types into clear groups, then develop a plan for creating stronger relationships with each.
