Studying the impact of innovation on business and society

Why I Don’t Like Your Brand on Facebook

Guest post by Andrew Blakeley. Follow him on Twitter (for exclusive deals and offers!)

I recently undertook a simple Facebook experiment, inspired by a brief Monday morning rant from my boss: “This morning my yoghurt told me to find it on Facebook. It didn’t tell me why, it just told me to find it. Why on Earth would I want to find a yoghurt on Facebook? It’s a yoghurt!”

He was right, of course. As social networks slowly become the default online presence for brands to drive their consumers to, adverts, marketing and packaging has started telling us where to go. However, it hasn’t yet started telling us why to go there.

For my experiment – “Find Us On Facebook” – I vowed to Like every brand that asked me to for one week. I would then blog and analyse the various offerings of each brand, in particular how they were attempting to drive people from the offline world to the online, social, world. Here are the results:

As a marketer, I found the results very disappointing. For an industry the focuses endlessly on providing consumers with “benefits” and “reasons to believe” here was a lot of marketing asking people to take an action, without telling them what they stood to gain from it. In 2011 it’s more or less a given that your brand can be found on Facebook, and consumers know that. What they don’t know is why they should bother.

What consumers want from brands in social media is a topic that has been widely written about already, and is fairly well understood by marketers. Research from advertising agency DDB Paris found that amongst the top reasons for Liking a brand were: “to take advantage of promotional benefits”,” to be informed of new products offered by the brand”,” to access exclusive information” and “to give my opinion about the brand”. Four very clear reasons to bother, which could easily be affixed or suffixed onto any “Find us on Facebook” message for greater impact.

Another key finding was the number of brand Liking requests coming from email marketing. These are brands that I had chosen to receive email marketing from directly into my inbox, and here they were asking to appear in my Facebook newsfeed too. They weren’t, however, telling me why I should open myself up to them in another channel.

Only 1 of the 16 brands provided an incentive to make the leap from email to social media. I literally had no reason to bother with the other brands, as I was already receiving their deals and offers, and they weren’t giving me another reason. Some brands have found interesting ways to incentivise people to make the jump:

• Dingo, a dog food brand from Ohio, included a promotion that would only kick-in when the Facebook page reached 5,000 fans (from a base of 300). They had an unprecedented take-up, with fans forwarding on the email to their friends and encouraging sign-ups to get the offer. They hit the 5,000 mark in just 3 days.

• Bag retailer Timbuk2 included an opportunity to win a bike, helmet and messenger bag in an email to its 100,000 newsletter subscribers. It received 6,500 clickthroughs vs. just 9 from its generic social call to action.

Consumers need these incentives, because they know that otherwise all they’re doing is agreeing to be bombarded with more marketing unrewarded.

The sad thing is that some brands are actually building really fun, engaging content in these spaces, but not making people aware of them. The Fosters beer page, for instance, is full of great exclusive Alan Partridge content, starring Steve Coogan and written by Armando Iannucci. Their TV ad, however, had nothing more than a Facebook URL. Had they said “for exclusive Alan Partridge episodes” they would’ve opened their brand Facebook page up to a whole wealth of people, who felt genuinely motivated to click Like.

My week as a social consumer left me tired and confused. It left my Facebook newsfeed so crammed with nonsense to the point that I could scroll entire pages without seeing my friends. It left me a bit sad for the digital marketers and agencies who were building great content that wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. So, if you’re reading this and you work in advertising or are a brand manager – next time you think about telling your consumers to find you on Facebook, consider telling them why.

Artist: Natalie Dee

135 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “Why I Don’t Like Your Brand on Facebook”

  1. Paula @ Ollievision says:

    Thanks Brian! I’ve just changed my little Facebook intro note!

  2. Mads Fuhr says:

    Spot on Brian!

    I can only agree with your observations and it puzzles me how SO many companies are still missing this crucial piece of information in their efforts to gain more fans, likes, followers, money; a simple reason why!

    Reminds me a bit of blind dating – I don’t know the track records, but I bet it’s a very small amount of people who actually live happily ever after…?@madsfuhr:twitter

  3. I LOVE this post. In our social media training for nonprofits we spend an entire section talking about how to create a REASON for people to decide to LIKE you – mostly because, if you craft that correctly AND follow through, not only will they LIKE you, but they will continue to ENGAGE with you in a meaningful way. (Consider how many brands/orgs/celebs, etc. we all LIKE on FB, only to never darken their Wall again!)

    On a business visit to Denver, I actually saw a sign on a local toll road telling me to LIKE the toll road. I laughed all the way to the airport.

    Thanks for this guest post. Well done.

  4. I LOVE this post. In our social media training for nonprofits we spend an entire section talking about how to create a REASON for people to decide to LIKE you – mostly because, if you craft that correctly AND follow through, not only will they LIKE you, but they will continue to ENGAGE with you in a meaningful way. (Consider how many brands/orgs/celebs, etc. we all LIKE on FB, only to never darken their Wall again!)

    On a business visit to Denver, I actually saw a sign on a local toll road telling me to LIKE the toll road. I laughed all the way to the airport.

    Thanks for this guest post. Well done.

  5. Jeff Gibbard says:

    I think this is a symptom of the pervasive misunderstanding of social media. Brands and companies are scrambling and often focusing on the platform, they are focusing on the “what.” To your point, there is a question of “why” that is getting overlooked. The majority of business entities lack a clear value proposition for their audiences to connect on social sites. For what reason would I “Like” my accountant on Facebook, why would I choose to “Like” a brand of soda, and why on earth would anyone want to “Like” a Chiropractor? Just because social media is a hot topic doesn’t mean it fits every business, and that hold especially true if the business hasn’t thought past “we need a Facebook page.”

    What ever happened to making something enticing?

  6. Woodhouse says:

    Excellent post. One of the most basic things that you always need to adhere to in marketing is letting the consumer know what’s in it for them. So much of SM just assumes that people will follow on Twitter or find on Facebook–without any compelling reason to do so.

  7. Eric Woning says:

    Hi there,

    Great post! I agree that there now just is a wrong attitude.
    I think that there is an even worse part to this thinking: why do I have to like a brand before I can see some content (or even get it) – Doesn’t the “like” button mean you like something… and doesn’t that imply that you have already been in contact with it?
    Nowadays we have to say we like something before we even know what IT IS. That’s just crazy. Even worse is when I have to let my friends know I really like something before I’ve read it (the Twitter “Tweet this & download”)

    When I like something – I will want to interact again. I will tell my friends… but please leave that decision to me – do not make that decision for me.

    Each time a “like” is given to something we don’t know – the intrinsic value of the like goes down. So please stop making things worse for those who are willing to do the right thing.

    My thanks will be given to you in abundance!

    P.s. I also think that attracting people solely on basis of having a one time offer is no good…. we need people to interact for them to keep on seeing the content (Thanks to edgerank) – so we need to tell them what to expect there… and what to expect there should create value to them. Be it through regular couponning, fun/usefull information or applications – we need to stop thinking in gettting as much fans as possible and then create ‘cool content’ and nothing more. Interaction stays the key….

  8. Sarah Tebbe says:

    For personal use, I interact with most social media outlets. However, for work I follow many blogs regarding social media and this is the one argument I have with Facebook being useful that is never addressed. I have never understood why I should be interacting/promoting a brand that gives me nothing back. I do not know what I would be looking to receive, but I do know I am not looking for them to clog my newsfeed.

  9. Angela says:

    I just wrote something this week about Lil-lets- I need a pretty strong reason to ‘follow’ them on Facebook. I did take a peak on their page and was disappointed at how badly the page was maintained. As well as being pretty uninspiring. Guess everyone except the 325 followers need a bit more motivation.

  10. cathybrooks says:

    There also is a fundamental breakdown in almost all cases between a brand’s presence on Facebook and pretty much everything else. Sure, the FB page may suck in feeds from Twitter, or pictures from Flickr, Videos from YouTube, but what is it that these brands *really* want? They want engagement and for that, it’s not going to happen on FB, it’s going to happen on their own site, or more likely within an app they may have created. Finding a solution that forges a bridge between these things is crucial.

  11. Andrew Blakeley if only companies were more like you, me(Consumers). They would understand that Facebook is not for everyone. I mean in the case for twitter that would be easier I would certainly follow my favorite gelato shop to see if they have any specials for the week however on FaceBook , I do not think so. Your right! people need an incentive to Like you on Facebook. Why would I add my favorite chinese place, to be shown in my Facebook page- there’s no need.

  12. Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone – I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments here, so if anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.

    Thanks,

    Andrew Blakeley.

    • leigh says:

      i’m not convinced that promo based “likes” is the way to go.  I get it’s going to get you a whole bunch of pple in the short term (and you’ll look great to your bosses) but really, what kind of engagement are you building?  Their going in expectations are now, ‘free stuff’ – while that may be a small segment of your overall customer base, you are now spending dollars against the ‘free stuff’ crowd.  Is that really a great way to build community?  Again, not convinced.

    • Adminitrack says:

      Incentives mustn’t always equate to “free stuff”, and retention all depends on how the relationship unfolds after the “Like” button has been clicked…

  13. Beth says:

    Great article! Unfortunately many brands are following the trend and doing what they feel they need to do without understanding how it works. There is the right platform for every brand and it’s OK to accept that Facebook might not be the right platform for your brand. If information is not useful, interesting or not going to enhance my commitment to the brand I don’t “Like” it.

    I’m also not an easy sell… coupons and discounts are not worth it if my time is wasted by scrolling through Facebook feeds.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Great article! Unfortunately many brands are following the trend and doing what they feel they need to do without understanding how it works. There is the right platform for every brand and it’s OK to accept that Facebook might not be the right platform for your brand. If information is not useful, interesting or not going to enhance my commitment to the brand I don’t “Like” it. I’m also not an easy sell… coupons and discounts are not worth it if my time is wasted by scrolling through Facebook feeds.

  15. Brankica U says:

    I have the same opinion about this as you do. I am for example a big fan of some cosmetic products but never got around to like them on FB. Recently I found out that most of them have special promotions and free samples for their FB fans. Had I been aware of this before, I would have become their fan long time ago and share it with my friends, of course.

    I think a lot of those brands understand the fact they should be on Facebook but not sure HOW to do it.

  16. Chris Fowler says:

    Cheers @ABlakeley:twitter , great post. The reason most digital marketers can’t say “why” to find them on Facebook is because they haven’t asked themselves the question of “why” they’re there in the first place.

    As others have pointed out, it doesn’t make sense for some business to be on Facebook. Take, for instance, my child’s day care. By ‘Liking’ them, I’m ostensibly sharing with my ‘friends’—some of whom I’ve never met in real life—where my kid can be found when I’m not around. Why would I do that?

    • Mari Smith says:

      Excellent point @facebook-707113270:disqus – privacy is in the hands of the user and even a simple act of liking a fan page can reveal more info than folks realize.

    • Mari Smith says:

      Excellent point @facebook-707113270:disqus – privacy is in the hands of the user and even a simple act of liking a fan page can reveal more info than folks realize.

    • Mari Smith says:

      Excellent point @facebook-707113270:disqus – privacy is in the hands of the user and even a simple act of liking a fan page can reveal more info than folks realize.

  17. Allison says:

    I love this post. This is all stuff we know as marketers or brand managers, but fail when it comes to putting it into action. Thanks for the reminder – better make sure we are telling people about what they are missing out on when they aren’t a fan of us on Facebook! I’m curious, did you unfollow all the brands after this experiment?

  18. Allison says:

    I love this post. This is all stuff we know as marketers or brand managers, but fail when it comes to putting it into action. Thanks for the reminder – better make sure we are telling people about what they are missing out on when they aren’t a fan of us on Facebook! I’m curious, did you unfollow all the brands after this experiment?

  19. Allison says:

    I love this post. This is all stuff we know as marketers or brand managers, but fail when it comes to putting it into action. Thanks for the reminder – better make sure we are telling people about what they are missing out on when they aren’t a fan of us on Facebook! I’m curious, did you unfollow all the brands after this experiment?

  20. Allison says:

    I love this post. This is all stuff we know as marketers or brand managers, but fail when it comes to putting it into action. Thanks for the reminder – better make sure we are telling people about what they are missing out on when they aren’t a fan of us on Facebook! I’m curious, did you unfollow all the brands after this experiment?

  21. Allison says:

    I love this post. This is all stuff we know as marketers or brand managers, but fail when it comes to putting it into action. Thanks for the reminder – better make sure we are telling people about what they are missing out on when they aren’t a fan of us on Facebook! I’m curious, did you unfollow all the brands after this experiment?

  22. Don Power says:

    Excellent point. Whether you studied marketing 101 yesterday or 100 years ago, one of the most important functios is a compelling ‘call to action’. Asking a fan to Like your page is a call to action, bit it is noo longr compelling.

    Providing a reason – a compelling reason – to Like your brand – well, there’s GOLD in them ‘thar hills!

    Cheers!

    Don Power
    aha @donpower:twitter 

  23. Mike Daye says:

     I tend to be a fairly discriminating consumer. Yea, I know why you want me to ‘Like’ your FB page, but why should I press the button? 

    On a related note, the ‘Messin with the Sasquatch’  campaign just got me to ‘Like’ the product on FB simply because the commercials have amused me – no additional content required.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Sarah Evans just did a similar post on her blog on how many times the average person is bombarded with the social ‘ask’ each day.  It seems like in the rush to have a social media presence on the ever-growing list of social media sites, marketers are forgetting that they actually need to give people a reason to like them, follow them, etc.  Back in the old days of email marketing, legitimate marketers were focused on communicating the reasons why people should hand over their email address, and they did so diligently.  It seems that the principles we used then have fallen to the wayside and we expect that consumers are thrilled just to have an social media “relationship” with brands.  Not so.  The stakes are higher now – consumers are far more savvy and fickle.  They expect more from marketers and the marketers that don’t learn the lesson will be left behind.

  25. Matthew Loop says:

    Right on… It’s the old “What’s in it for me.” It’s important not to lose site of the marketing fundamentals on newer media.

  26.  I agree and really never thought of that in the wording “Find Us on Facebook”. I have to go find you and then what? Why? I usually ask my clients why they want something and the purpose. This hammers it home nicely. Thank you, definitely one to share. 

  27. Joe Sorge says:

    nice reminder, seriously. thank you. 

  28. Mari Smith says:

     Brilliant article, Andrew!! Thank you for conducting the experiment and sharing your findings with us. I loved the examples you gave too – kudos to Dingo! They’re way up to 25k+ likes now. 

  29. Mari Smith says:

     Brilliant article, Andrew!! Thank you for conducting the experiment and sharing your findings with us. I loved the examples you gave too – kudos to Dingo! They’re way up to 25k+ likes now. 

  30. Mari Smith says:

     Brilliant article, Andrew!! Thank you for conducting the experiment and sharing your findings with us. I loved the examples you gave too – kudos to Dingo! They’re way up to 25k+ likes now. 

  31. @twitter-15756441:disqus  Such a great post.  And isn’t it the “why” that’s important in most choices…Why is someone on social media?  Why comment on blogs? Why click the ‘like’ button?

    Underlying all of our human behaviour that “results in results”, there needs to be a compelling reason: a wide-eyed-wonder…why.

    My clients and potential clients are often chasing the tail of the latest “thing to do”, without first asking themselves: Why am I doing this, for what significant beneficial value to my customer?  Providing compelling reasons that result in value and benefit is the starter’s pistol that gets people off the blocks and into action.  It boils down to the WIIFM: what’s in it for me.  Cheers!  Kaarina

  32. Lara Dickson says:

    Following through on the ‘why you should like us’ would be the real kicker, though. Don’t just pitch to me over and over, give me something worth maintaining my ‘likeness’. 5,000 new fans would be great, but how many are going to end up customers?

  33.  hahaha…very nice…lovely and to the point! 

  34. Catherine says:

    Good article that made me think about my @classiclegacy  brand.   I do want my followers to know that I will provide tips and news about gifts and custom design.   It is important to Engage and add value …..that is what I like best about the pages that I follow.

  35. Good article that made me think about my @classiclegacy  brand.  
    I do want my followers to know that I will provide tips and news about
    gifts and custom design.   It is important to Engage and add value
    …..that is what I like best about the pages that I follow.

     

  36. Tash says:

    I worry about offering people a prize or incentive as its against FBs rules to do giveaways. I do tell my ‘likers’ or likers-to-be to pop over, visit us for sales, fun and news about latest cloth nappy happenings. I have done giveaways in the past (before i knew the rules) and people join very fast as they want to win, but doesnt make the page anymore engaging because some are only interested in winning something, relevant or not!

    Definately something to think about, and i try and make my page and business more personal everyday so this is another reason to keep trying! Thanks 😉

  37. Jan Rossi says:

     Very good information that needed to be said and you did it so well! giving people a good reason to like your page is very important. I am going to be re-evaluating my clients pages and we will pay attention to giving their customers a reason…..very well said.

  38. Trace says:

     Excellent Advice!  And interesting work you did on the pages you looked at to ‘like’.  Is sad that there is so much going on on Facebook that the really good stuff can be lost in shuffle.

  39. tyler durden says:

    As a lover of swag, or even a robust discount, I gotta say that both leave me feeling cheated. I need my brands to inspire a deeper conversation. Praps through intimate, unexpected,, and authentic things. Prolly innit another cinch bag, koozie, or refer magnet. Nearly 100% of the brands I’ve made the mistake of liking have used that permission asset to broadcast drivel. Oh well, opportunity lost.

  40.  If your goal is to let people know you are on Facebook, then adding a logo is fine. If you want to look like you have fans, then an incentive is okay. But both miss the real power of social media engagement. 

  41. Jojo Montoya says:

     My thoughts after reading this and discussing with my very social teen, why she liked the pages she does – her answer made me think – well then go and tell them why you like them…so my next project will be to help those I like and tell them exactly why I have added them to my favs – great post, you certainly have created a buzz on the like!

  42. Jojo Montoya says:

     My thoughts after reading this and discussing with my very social teen, why she liked the pages she does – her answer made me think – well then go and tell them why you like them…so my next project will be to help those I like and tell them exactly why I have added them to my favs – great post, you certainly have created a buzz on the like!

  43. Classic Exec says:

     My thoughts after reading this and discussing with my very social teen, why she liked the pages she does – her answer made me think – well then go and tell them why you like them…so my next project will be to help those I like and tell them exactly why I have added them to my favs – great post, you certainly have created a buzz on the like!

  44. Great Facebook Experiment, Andrew! Interesting to note no reasons are usually given as to “why” a brand’s Facebook Page should either be sought out or “Liked,” other than for the sole purpose (‘why’) of amassing a Facebook following. As you well know, an effective Facebook Page is an opp to create excellent customer relationships, provide information to interested followers and make special offers to keep the business and FB followers coming in. At this rate, no surprise RE: complaints related to Social Media ROI and great ‘expense’ of time, when the medium is so misused, is it? Oh, and as related to the drowning out of useful content in your feed — yesterday I was thinking how great it would be if Facebook would aggregate FB Page feed separately on the home page…  

    • I have a facebook page for my blog on eating out – I use the page to “like” the brands that I like eating out at/getting produce from – this helps to unclutter my feed so I have only friends in my main feed and then foody things in my page’s feed. It’s great to have that option.. I think facebook should allow filtering so everyone could do this!!

    • Valerie says:

      …..same Becky! I have been wondering if there could be a filter that streams yours friends aside from the ‘likes’.
      I follow quite a few interesting sites and miss stuff as the pages fill up quickly!! cheers……..me, valerie

    • Valerie — thanks and I agree. Let’s hope Facebook will soon implement a feature to segment these feeds and enhance the user experience. I think brands with Facebook Pages would appreciate the greater visibility as well! If you think about it, the FB feed as it is set up today, differs somewhat but not a great deal, from how it has functioned in the last several years. Not surprising many folks think they’re not able to keep up, with FB Pages in addition to FB Friends to catch updates!

    • Laura Alisanne says:

      Creating Lists is a good option for managing the way in which you’d like to view the content on your News Feed. I have 8 lists, from “All Friends” to fan pages “In My Industry” to “Best Social Media Pages.” It’s an extra step, but you can then click “Most Recent”  on your News Feed, and select the List you’d like to have populate the feed.

    • I agree about creating lists, and have a bunch myself. Thanks for sharing how you use yours Laura. I’m referring to a Facebook feature creating a separate simultaneously-running feed expressly for Facebook Pages, in addition to the current feed we have (but only for friends). This way, we can stay up with realtime events, updates and info on different channels instead of wading through the quickly-moving feed comprised of the mashup of everyone in our network and all the Facebook Page updates.

  45.  I do enjoy this article a lot and it does make sense, however there also needs to be a consideration that you are also trying to build and interactive community of people around your brand. Simply offering people something to follow you on Facebook might bring in the wrong type of people. People who do not want to listen to what you have to say and people that will hide you from their news feed. Yes sure it is great to have a nice big following on your page but I will take quality followers over those that are only in it to receive free stuff, any day. 

    One of the main reasons that the “Follow me on Facebook” slogan is loosing its value is because of business pages that do not provide quality content. A business page has the responsibility of providing this to their followers.

    In the end we can provide whatever call to action we want but if we are not providing valuable information on the actual page itself then your audience will be worthless to your business. 

    If you have a great website, which is the hub of your business, then you should also have a great facebook page or any other platform that you use for marketing, otherwise you are lowering your reputation for your followers.  

    I still believe in growing a page organically by knowing what you are going to offer your “likers”, having a plan, delivering or over delivering on your promise (You already made a promise to them when you put the facebook icon on your website, to deliver the same great content that they have experienced from you on your website,on any other platform you ask for them to follow – make sense?)

    Once you have a plan for your page then that is when you can start applying the things mentioned in this blog and find yourself with a great interactive listening-to-your-message audience. 

    You can follow me on twitter if you like @Stefi_War:twitter but I’m only getting started on that platform and learning myself. However I plan to deliver more of my opinions on the way social media is used these days and retweet anything that I think is of great quality from people I follow. 🙂

  46.  Brian, I really loved this article!  Thanks for posting it.

  47.  Brian, I really loved this article.  Sometimes the simplest things are the best.  Well often in fact.  Thanks for posting it.

  48. Anonymous says:

     I must admit that Andrew has touched the real pain practice of many brands – at social media – who just want to glow iwth social media but don’t realize the other part of the ecosystem. It’s not only taking, its also giving an incentive – by any form. And if your brand does that, nothing can stop that to be another Brand bull on social media. There are couple of excellent technology analysis portals who are very much focused on contents and deliverables but still lags with the incentive structure.

  49. SM says:

     please, please won’t you refer to yogurt in its traditional spelling! It just looks wrong..

  50. Don Norris says:

    Could not agree more with this piece. Confusion is growing and inboxes and link pages are bursting with really useless information. Now hat TV ads are posting the go to facebook page things wil not get any better. I feel like they are adding the facbook link because evrybody else is and the brand manager wants theirs notes as well, but as Natalie points out…why? 

    • Don Norris says:

      Sorry noted the wrong author of the post. I should have mentioned Andrew Blakeley wrote this good piece. 

  51. Jeff Gibbard says:

    I completely agree, and I didn’t mean to imply that a chiropractor or an accountant couldn’t be compelling on Facebook or any other social media site.  My point is that most businesses are just scrambling to get on Facebook without first understanding why they should or what they should do to make that property enticing. 

    I just wish more businesses were driven to social media by purpose rather than by hype.

    • Jeff smith says:

      Jeff, good point.  For many businesses that missed the first phase of offering value on the net, the transformation to social may get them to catch up…it will be a real learning experience for many businesses who have just put up a website without figuring out how to offer value to their market online.   

  52. I agree! Such an interesting article and experiment. Now with the abundant use of social media it’s true – “it’s more or less a given that your brand can be found on Facebook, and consumers know that”-  great advice and loved the examples =]

  53. Anonymous says:

     How about this for a good reason to “like” a brand – they will actually get back to you if you post them a question on their Facebook wall! I do find it peculiar when both big brands and social media gurus will like to post their own stuff, but don’t seem to bother with actually responding to any of their own fans questions. I’m not talking about everyone or even most fans, but more like at least one fan a day from the a few days of fan posts – why not? Or at least do 10 minutes time going through comments and responding to just one that inspires you. Or how about a half hour for just one day every week? You shouldn’t have to pay for someone’s conference to get a little attention. Just my two pesos. 

  54. Erica Ayotte says:

    Andrew—thanks for
    pointing this out. As many who already commented here
    have stated, proving your value as a brand
    worthy of a “Like” is essential to not only gaining,
    but also retaining fans.

     

    Part of the problem is that many marketers look at Facebook
    fans as they would advertising impressions, with
    their goal being to get more “stuff”
    in front of more eyes.  As you discovered, more isn’t more on
    Facebook—it’s just more fluff. There’s a lot
    of noise on all social platforms, and you’re either part of the cacophony, or you learn how to rise above it.

     

    In the case of Facebook,
    engagement isn’t just a best practice; it’s a must-do to get your content seen
    at all. (See TechCrunch’s great article on EdgeRank: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/22/facebook-edgerank/)

     

    Something that I think
    marketers overlook is using engagement tactics not just to score more likes or
    comments, but to use that information from a business intelligence perspective. For example, one of the best tactics I use is
    often the simplest—I ask a question. The right questions can serve a two-fold
    purpose 1) yield a lot of engagement, and 2)
    provide you with some interesting directional data as well.

     

    In my experience, knowing when
    to enlist subtleties is just as important as remembering that being social means having a conversation;
    not using a bullhorn.
     

  55.  Ohh! Liking this, giving a CTA is extremely important, but to add the why, is simple yet effective.

    I shall be rolling this out to all of the landing pages and imagery we do for our clients from now on.

    Excellent! Thank you! 

  56. Louie Chow says:

    I think social media, like any other media, cannot be treated as stand-alone. it is always ‘connected’. So if you ask people to ‘like’ you, you should have already started a certain kind of dialogue somewhere. Just like you do not just come up to anyone on the street and say ‘will you marry me’! It takes at least a bit of time to nurture the relationship! 

  57. Anonymous says:

     Great read! I actually did a similar blog post on the problem of making customers find you on Facebook http://exercitare.com/2011/05/18/whats-wrong-with-this-picture/

  58. Zuza says:

     I agree that marketing online have become a great aspect of the general promotion of any product or service. However I think that many companies just chose to create a profile on either of the social media and then they simply cannot really manage it. I do not think that mobilizing people just to click ‘Like’ is going to change much, at least I find it would be sad if it did. There is a need to make these people participate or engage, form a relationship with the potential customers, etc. I believe that we are experiencing just the mere beginning of the social media and it will evolve to fit more updated business models and be more transparent, in regard to the ways that these tools can be applied. 

  59. Great points Andrew, especially about proactively answering the why questions when asking customers or prospects to Like your brand. It seems like in the race to get to some arbitrary goal of x number of fans by y date, marketers often forget about providing the customer the famous WIFM (What’s in it for ME) or worse yet, invest in developing something of value to users yet not adequately portraying that value add as an incentive. At the end of the day, if you want to get something from your target market (Like in this case), you need to provide something in return.

  60. My point is that most businesses are just scrambling to get on Facebook
    without first understanding why they should or what they should do to
    make that property enticing. 

  61. Kwamster007 says:

    Very interesting read. As a new artist manager I am going to keep that in mind when asking people to like my artist page.

  62. ZacharyJeans says:

    So, here is my “add”…. Social Marketing only innspires me if they are more social than marketing. This goes against buisness’ most basic mandate, find a system and execute efficiently as many times as possible. Social is not efficient. Real people take real time. My solution? I now have two Facebook Profiles. One for family and good friends and the other for professional and buisness “likes”. – zacharyjeans@twitter.com

  63. Pingback: 404 Not Found
  64. Anonymous says:

    Couldn’t agree more, Andrew. (It’s the reason I’m here, as I’ve added the “like box” FaceBook plugin to a client’s website (pawnbroker) and am wrapping it with an accompanying article entitled “[some number] of reasons to like NicolPawn on FaceBook”. 😉

  65. Jessica says:

    this reminds me…I have to “unlike” some brands.

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