When running a social media marketing campaign on Facebook, nothing is as precious as a “like.” In many ways, Facebook is a record-keeping device for all the things that consumers do and do not like. As a result, the primary sought-after currency that local companies should strive to acquire is as many “likes” as possible.
However, this may take some creative thinking. According to a Roost Local Scorecard survey of consumers, not all the people who click on the “like” button attached to a company’s page are from that organization’s area. In fact, only 15 percent were local fans, Gaebler.com reports. This can be some cause for concern, although it also indicates that there are creative ways that marketers can appeal to customers by using Facebook.
Consider expansion
There are certain businesses that aren’t capable of expanding to the internet or outside of a certain geographic area, but if there are quite a few long-distance fans of an organization on Facebook, it could be advantageous to pursue expansions in those areas. Even a preliminary exploration of the places that have quite a few followers might yield an untapped market that was previously unknown. It may be worth beginning a promotional products campaign or print media effort to begin raising awareness prior to expansion.
Work on the local fans
If only 15 percent of a company’s fans are local, it follows that increasing the local number would be helpful. This can be done simply by advertising the fact that a business has an active and informative Facebook presence. Signage in a store or office can recommend logging on and checking out the page, while promotional products and advertising should exhort customers to do the same.
Go beyond “likes”
It might be disheartening to hear about this low figure, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that people in an area aren’t interested in a business. It may simply be indicative of the fact that a company hasn’t done enough to train customers to take advantage of an online presence. In addition to Facebook and its “likes,” there’s Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, MySpace and a host of other services that can be just as useful. The “like” might be the standard today, but the dominance of Google+ or another service could be just around the corner.