Mike Stiles
I read a statistic recently that alarmed but didn?t surprise me. Only about 2% of Fans return to a Facebook Page after they ?Like? it. 2%! What if a friend told you they liked you, but then they never called, never visited, and never had any idea what was going on in your life? You wouldn?t feel like you had a very valuable friend would you?
In the social marketing world, we?ve adopted the mantra that it?s not about the number of Fans you have, it?s all about the number of engaged Fans you have. Meaning you?re not just collecting people as if they were baseball cards or snow globes from tourist attractions. You?re out to make ?good? friends.
In radio, we?ve been all about numbers. We see the PPM numbers, and that?s what we care about. We don?t know who those people are or what they really think of us. All we know is they listened. And in all fairness, the numbers are what we sell. It?s our business model. So we haven?t had to worry about forming real, deep, lasting relationships with our listeners?until now.
What are you doing on the air to make people keep coming back to listen? You put together the best content you could think of and you?re keeping it steadily coming. Great. Now what are you doing on your Facebook Page to make people keep coming back? Are you putting together the best content you can think of and keeping it steadily coming? Or is your Facebook Page looked at as a pain in your ass that you?ll get to when and if somebody has the time?
Much of the responsibility for low Fan Page return visits lies in the lap of the Fan. People who ?Like? 675 Pages are brand whores. You can?t tell me they?re so into those 675 brands that they?re going to check in with those Pages regularly to see what?s going on. They ?Like ?em and leave ?em.? And so, brands have to find a way to show up in these people?s news feeds.
There is something that can get you there. It?s a mysterious little bugger called EdgeRank. EdgeRank is an ever-evolving Facebook algorithm that decides what shows up in any given user?s news feed. And while it is largely a mystery, there are some things that increase your content?s chances of showing up.
- Post content that baits interaction. Things like polls, quizzes and games are good for that.
- Encourage people to click that ?like? button under your posts. If they like your posts, your stuff will keep showing up. Of course, if you expect them to like your posts, they have to be really good.
- Use photo and video as often as possible. Stats consistently show these get better engagement by a wide margin than a couple of lines of text.
C?mon, you?re radio for crying out loud. You?re supposed to be good at this. You not only shouldn?t be bringing up the rear in social network marketing, you should be showing other brands how to amass, entertain and retain Fans.
Mike Stiles is a writer/producer with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue, and head of Sketchworks comedy theatre.
Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files.
Find him on Facebook or on Twitter @mikestiles
(8/3/2011 7:10:00 AM)
Mike, well stated! It is very true that radio's focus in social media is too often just about numbers. Stations are focused on getting likes, with no focus on the content strategy that makes listeners stick around. I recently wrote an article for Radio Ink mag called "From Likes to Loyalty" about this! I wish I would have read this first so I could have quoted you on the term "brand whore". Hilarious!
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