(SALES) It's Not Enough To Be "Liked"

7-29-2013

There is a difference between traffic, and the perception of traffic.

At Luce Performance Group, we deal with many advertisers and their advertising challenges. Here is one that I personally took on who expressed his frustration with Facebook. He wanted to know why his competition had more "likes" than him. This wasn't just a few more likes. We are talking 50,000 versus 5,000. He also said his competition almost never posts on Facebook, while he is posting several times a day.

This client was convinced that more likes and more posts on Facebook would mean more sales. He went as far as to hire a guy to set up a dedicated Facebook presence for his product. Using an aggressive marketing and like-building campaign, he has done well to grow his Facebook page. He directs the traffic to a specific domain so we know the sales came from Facebook. Thus far it?s been two months, 5,138 likes later, and not a single sale.

It?s possible to pay companies to get you thousands of likes. But those likes don't mean anything if they are set up by fake profiles, and people who really have no interest in your product.

Even if you were to get 50K real likes from people truly interested in your product, you only have their attention while you are at the top of their newsfeed. Five seconds later, photos of someone's cat pushes your product post down.

Due to the way Facebook is constructed they don't allow direct third party graphics and links. On other sites you could use a beacon image to track your open rates. This is similar to how e-mail newsletters are tracked. Even with e-mail newsletters you are lucky to hit 20 percent open rates.

Just think how you would feel if you posted something on Facebook and realized that of the 100K likes you have only 50 people saw it. Your ability to reach new customers is based on those 50 people commenting or liking your post so that all their friends are potentially exposed to it. If no one likes or comments on your post, then nobody sees it. Plus, on Facebook various advertisements are trying to get visitors' attention on the right-side column of the page.

Instead of chasing likes on Facebook, focus on your own Internet properties. Focus on developing quality content that will engage your visitors. Facebook should only be used as a way to drive people back to your website where you DO CONTROL the advertising. When you do post to Facebook post something interesting. Simply showing your product and saying "Buy Today" doesn?t get you far.

Keep these things in mind next time a client has focused the majority of their advertising budget on Facebook. Has your client actually measured the return on investment, or are they just buying advertising for the perception of traffic? 

Some will say that branding is important, and that is true, but branding is also expensive and can take months, if not years, to start showing signs of progress. Don't use branding as the excuse for why advertising with your property costs more than it returns to the advertiser.

If an advertiser does not get a return on investment, they are unlikely to keep advertising. A good advertising mix where you dominate the ?air? and the ?ground? is always the most advantageous when it comes to dominating your competition.

Paul White is the Head of IT for Luce Performance Group and can be reached at Paul@luceperformancegroup.com or www.luceperformancegroup.com.

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MOBILE - "Liked" is Good. Mobile Makes It Better.

Earlier this month, Lloyd Ford wrote a great piece with tips about Facebook and radio (?9 Ways to Make Your Facebook Content Explode?).  Today, I?d like to add a tenth tip: Extend the value of your Facebook presence through mobile marketing.

For radio, the benefit of mobile engagement is obvious?it provides us with the ability to readily reach consumers on their most personal of devices, their mobile handsets, and have two-way interaction that continues when they leave their cars or turn off their radios. It is a medium that extends the value of our medium?including the value we provide to our sponsors.

And now mobile can extend the benefits of another medium that is bolstering listener engagement: Facebook. Stations can easily integrate their mobile-marketing efforts with their Facebook presence?and the benefits are significant:

? Advertisers can easily capture multiple levels of opt-in data from their Facebook fans, including email addresses, mobile phone numbers and locations.
? Radio stations can implement technologies that seamlessly integrate their Facebook data with existing mobile and email databases to dramatically reduce the cost of acquiring customer data while leveraging the full power of Facebook.

Here?s why coupling Facebook and mobile marketing makes sense to reach engaged, opted-in listeners:
- They?re already going mobile to get social. And they?re already going social to connect with you. More than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices, according to statistics released by the social-networking site.
- Since they?re already connecting with their favorite radio stations on social media?some stations have hundreds of thousands of ?likes? on their pages?often on their mobile devices, the logical progression is to extend that connection right to their phone, through compelling content that reaches them when they?re not on Facebook.

Earlier this year, KIIS FM in Los Angeles integrated its mobile marketing campaigns with a Facebook page that now has more than 150,000 fans. ?We value our loyal fans and are looking for ways to extend our interaction with them,? said Eileen Woodbury, Clear Channel Los Angeles Marketing Director. They had used mobile marketing and listener loyalty clubs for years?and have extended those efforts by connecting their social media campaigns with mobile marketing.

They want the interaction with their favorite brands on this medium. In fact, they?re still waiting for it. According to Hipcricket?s fourth annual Mobile Marketing Survey, consumers want to join mobile customer relationship management (CRM) or loyalty programs for their favorite brands (such as radio stations and their sponsors)?33 percent would be interested in joining such a program, but only 12 percent currently participate in one.  Yet 75 percent of consumers found value from participating in mobile loyalty clubs.

For stations, the reasons are just as clear:

You already have the listener data?now you can make better use of it. You can easily capture multiple levels of opt-in data from their Facebook fans, including email addresses, mobile phone numbers and locations. In many cases, you just need to ask permission to interact with your Facebook fans via mobile. Mobile helps you better use listener data. Mobile marketing enables you to further leverage listener data with better-targeted content?or, for your sponsors, better offers.  And listeners have shown an increasing willingness to exchange personal data for compelling data?or savings.

This convergence of mobile and social presents stations with incredible new opportunities to interact with listeners. They?ve already shown they ?like? you on Facebook?mobile marketing empowers you to give them more.

Ivan Braiker is the president of Hipcricket+Augme Technologies, Inc and can be reached at 425.202.0833 or ivan@hipcricket.com

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