Let’s face it, everyone likes to be popular. But if the number of likes and fans on your facebook page is your core metric of your facebook marketing, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
Don’t get me wrong – having a reasonable number of fans on your page is important in getting your message seen and building a community is important particularly when you are starting out or late to the game. The facebook edgerank algorithm means that only a proportion of your posts will be seen by the fans on your page so if there’s only 1,000 fans of your page and 85% of people are not seeing the content on your wall, then there’s lots of effort for little returns.
Like anything it’s quality over quantity that really matters. You’re better to have a smaller number of fans that you are engaging with than a big audience that is disengaged and not interacting. Think about ways that you can engage visitors to your cellar door or restaurant with your facebook page and ensure that you have the proper facebook integration on your website to encourage those who really want to follow your content can do so easily.
Before you post content, think about whether it really adds value to your brand messages or that you’re just doing it because you’re playing the edgerank game and doing it to be popular? Sure a cute photo or funny meme might get a laugh, but if it’s not aligned with your brand it’s doing more harm than good!
True results in your facebook strategy are driven by offering value to your community – thinking through your target customer and delivering content that is relevant in their eyes. It’s not just about talking about your own products, it’s about being able to educate, inform, entertain or give your fans on the page information that they find of value.
Spend the time to analyse what people like about your content, how they have interacted and what they have responded best and let that drive your page activity. If you’ve not yet discovered the facebook insights, it’s a free tool on your page that can give you invaluable information.
Simply look at the top of your administrator panel and you’ll see the insights graph and you’ll then be able to click and explore how many people interacted with your post, what the reach was as well as what negative feedback you might have had.
It’s worth taking the time to think through your plan and question what you want to get out of your facebook strategy, as the number of likes on the page is just one metric and there’s much richer analytics to consider in analysing your return on time invested.
