According to an article published today in Mashable, 70% of marketers plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% this year. The primary goal of increasing this budget is to increase Facebook “likes”.
Ugh. Here we go again.
Let’s pretend you create a new Facebook page, and you aggressively market using a major prize giveaway on that Facebook page, and you get 1000 people to click “Like” in just the first month! You give away your winning prize, the contest ends, etc. You post your ads all the time, and your likes slowly begin to decline, as people slowly shut you off. There isn’t a mass exodus, but on average you have someone click “Unlike” once every other day, and no new likes are coming in. A typical status update from your page will have one or less comments. At the end of a six month period, you have 900 followers.
Let’s compare that page to a second concept. You create a new Facebook page, and you run small, interactive contests with lots of small prize, which people need to interact with in order to win. In the first month, you only get an initial 100 people to click “Like”, but you average an extra 3-5 people a week that additionally click like. Your page is growing, and the people that “Like” your site interact with it well. A typical status update from your page will have an average 5 comments. At the end of a six month period, you have 400 followers.
Out of these two options, which would you prefer? According to the primary goal listed above, the first campaign would be the more effective, right?
Likes are the primary goal because there is an obvious number. You can simply look at the increase in the number, and say, “It went up, so therefore I did a good job.” The fact that no additional sales occurred does not matter. The fact that your customer loyalty did not change, and that your customer satisfaction did not change doesn’t matter to “Likes”. If your “Likes” go up, and nothing else does, WHO CARES?
Meanwhile, if your interaction goes up, typically, so do your sales. People that are responding to your status updates, and are interacting with you on your social media sites are also spending more money at your location. They are able to receive better customer service, and will most likely refer you to others more often. This interaction helps to build brand loyalty, and keep your customers spending money with you.
In essence, it boils down to the fact that the number of “Likes” is secondary. Obviously, you need people on your site, but the focus shouldn’t be on arbitrarily achieving them, but rather on making their experience the best possible. Happy people will bring you more “Likes”. Simply buying them with a single time contest gives you “Likes” for a short period of time, but does not necessarily relate to any form of monetary or customer satisfaction gains.