It’s a common assumption that more Facebook Fans equal more visits and interaction on the Fan page. This is not always true, as we’ll see in the following comparison.
1) The first Facebook Fanpage case we studied boasted close to 20,000 Facebook Fans, which isn’t bad for a national e-store.¬† Social media managers were posting several times a week or more, just the way they should. They were also developing great social media content: posting discounts, trivia, helpful tips etc. Despite the great Facebook Fan base and social media content creation/distribution efforts, they were still only getting a couple of hundred visits per week.
2) The second Facebook Fanpage case we examined was barely brushing against the 1,000 Facebook Fan mark, but this was a local bricks-and-mortar store, so they weren’t doing too bad after only a year of growing their base. But, in contrast to the national case, the most recent weekly summary email reported nearly 700 visits. That’s more than three times the amount of traffic the national store was getting.
One might imagine that the social media experts managing the Facebook account in the second case had some trick up their sleeves, but rest assured there was no vile sorcery to blame. After a deeper analysis, we came up with two reasons why the smaller local Fanpage seems to be scoring higher on traffic than such a national presence:
1)¬† Handshakes can be more powerful than advertising — For a local bricks-and-mortar (referring to case #2) that has been around for years, it’s easy to imagine how “real world” collaboration can yield higher quality fans than those introduced via a digital neutral 3rd party. Local Fans tend to check in often in-person and virtually to get the latest scoop. Fans attracted solely by internet advertising etc., which many national stores tend to use, may not be as vested in a Fanpage as those who came to know a Fanpage through personal interaction–in fact, many may of these uncommitted Fans¬† never again visit Fan pages after initially “liking” them.
2) Local stores also have the advantage of creating an excitement around hometown events that’s hard for national stores to replicate digitally, unless of course, you’re Apple, Nike, MTV, The Chicago Bears etc.
In conclusion, local bricks-and-mortar may not be a force in the national ecommerce world, but they’ve definitely carved out a nice place in the social media eco-system. If you’re one of the many national ecommerce stores that has complimentary local bricks-and-mortar stores, don’t forget to leverage your hometown advantage to add more oomph. This is especially true if your business lives within a popular niche area like sports, music, or foods.
Questions? Email Jonathan Poston at [email protected]
I find this to be totally true. One of the things I stress in classes I teach on social media is “quality, not quantity” is the goal. Just like any other online marketing strategy, conversion is the focus of a social media campaign, getting “visitors” to become “customers” is the #1 priority. The article says one thing I think is very important for business owners to realize, “in fact, many of these uncommitted Fans never again visit Fan pages after initially ‘liking’ them.” Social media marketing is about more than posting on your Facebook, it’s about making a connection. If you build real relationships with people they become loyal customers and this is more important and more profitable than the number of likes your page has.