3 Simple Steps to Influencing Your Facebook Fans

Connecting with your social audience can be difficult. Influencing their purchasing decisions? Even harder. Most brands on Facebook want instant ROI; but when it’s all said and done – Facebook is a social network, not an eCommerce site. Therefore, posting clearance ads and products as status updates won’t turn your fans into sales conversions. There are strategies that work though.

Here’s a few tips to keep in mind before you decide you’re ready to turn your fans into dollar signs:

Know your consumers. Understanding that people are on Facebook to connect with their friends – brands should be focused on the exact same thing. Truly understanding your consumers will allow you to post more relevant links and content that your fans actually WANT to interact with.

Be authentic. Connecting with people is why social networking exists! Focus on interacting with your consumers on a personal level and creating meaningful experiences. Once that connection is made, they’ll be more likely to not only buy, but share their experience with their friends.

Moderate, and then moderate some more. Connecting is a two-way street. If fans inquire about a promotion or comment on a product offering – seize the opportunity! Drop a link, make a recommendation, or suggest a call to action that will take their engagement with the brand to the next level. You might find the link you posted in response to one person gets hundreds of clicks.

Remember, Facebook was built to power social exchanges and share content. Instead of forcing Facebook to cater to your business objectives that don’t fit in the space, cater your business to Facebook’s model instead. Focus on being social and connecting with customers, and your Facebook sales are sure to follow.

All Facebook Fans Aren’t Created Equal: Participation Inequality and the 90-9-1 Rule

Researcher Jakob Nielson suggests that when considering the internet as a network of communities, most large-scale communities consist of users who don’t participate very often. He also explains that most of the content contributed to these communities originate from a small majority of very active users. Nielson refers to this discrepancy as participation inequality and speculates that it typically follows a 90-9-1 rule in which users fall into one of three categories: Lurkers, Intermittent Contributors, and Heavy Contributors.

The 90-9-1 rule aplies to even an inherently social platform such as Facebook. As shown by Adam Mosseri in his presentation presentation during UX Week 2010 about user data’s impact on product design at Facebook, 20% of users generate 85% of content on Facebook. This data comes as no surprise. Many users have those two or three friends within their own communities of Facebook friends who comment on what seems like every status update on their wall and update their own status a hundred times throughout the day. Mosseri makes an important point in citing the Facebook product team’s commitment to accommodating not only to those 20% of power users, but to the lighter users as well.

As brand Pages on Facebook amass millions of fans—becoming large-scale communities—participation inequality challenges brands looking to build a community of advocates on Facebook. The existence of participation inequality within brands’ Facebook communities demonstrates the existence of another hierarchy similar to the one Nielson describes. Brands must recognize the existence of these different types of fans, as they represent varying levels of value for a brand.

• Withdrawn Fans — fans who have hidden a brand’s posts from the News Feed
• Latent Fans — fans who see a brand’s posts in the News Feed but don’t interact with them
• Active Fans — fans who see a brand’s posts in the News Feed and interact occasionally
• Hyperactive Fans — fans who see a brand’s posts in the News Feed and interact often

In fact, Facebook inherently acknowledges this notion, as evidenced by EdgeRank, the algorithm that programmatically decides which stories appear in a user’s News Feed. Firstly, affinity—one of three key components in EdgeRank—draws upon historical interaction data between the viewing user and the originating source of the News Feed story. The premise is that activity from a brand Page that a user interacts on a more frequent basis signifies a more important connection to the user than one with which the user rarely interacts. Therefore, a fan that interacts more frequently with a brand’s Facebook Page holds greater value for that brand. Whereas affinity signifies the frequency of activity, weight, another factor of EdgeRank, demonstrates the different types of activity a fan may take to interact with a brand Page’s content. Simply stated, actions that require more effort from the fan (such as a comment or share) signify greater weight values than lightweight actions (such as a Like). In order to maximize visibility and engagement within the News Feed, then, a brand must incorporate two elements of News Feed Optimization into its Facebook content strategy:

1. Diversity. Content that elicits different types of actions with varying weight values (Shares, Comments, Likes, Clicks).
2. Consistency. A dedication to consistently post engaging content, in order to increase affinity scores among fans.

The existence of these different types and values of Facebook fans further proves that marketing on Facebook—or any other social media network, for that matter—requires a long-term commitment and insightful strategy. Furthermore, the notion of participation inequality supports the claim that when it comes to social media, content indeed reigns supreme.

BRAND: WINGMAN OR COLLABORATOR?

Culture Mapping, managing brands in a social economy View more presentations from Tim Stock.

The Great Motivator

What motivates a person to start a hobby or return to a routine they were so fond of 15+ years ago? Something that was continually growing into the distant past? I often turn down the opportunity to play golf (for many reasons), travel to much to join a local gym, and wanted to find an activity that I could do at home and on the road.  P90X was an option, but the idea of exercising in front of my laptop in a hotel room just didn’t excite me! 

Motivation for me was simple..an app on my iPhone and seeing other friends on Facebook getting themselves in shape again.

 RunKeeper has become my running buddy and my main motivation factor to get back into running.  Will I run sub 5 minute miles again, not likely, but I am extremely pleased with my progress to date! 

How does a great fitness tracking device motivate?  Not only do I want to run further and further each month, run faster and faster each month, it has become a great social tool.  Runkeeper introduced the STREET TEAM functionality, allowing you to link your account with other runkeeper users.  Trust me, if a team member has more runs than me, I’m going to push myself that much harder to hit the streets.  Being able to compliment one another on runs is also great (and prod them!).

There are great fitness classes, local race listings, fitness reports, etc.  If an elite user (I’m not, I’m cheap!), you can also get audio cues for your splits and live run-tracking, allowing your fans to track your run live!

No need for weights, no need for bands, no need to dance in front my my laptop in the hotel..all that is required is a pair of shoes, iPhone, Runkeeper app and a good pair of running shoes. 

If you are a runkeeper user, feel free to join my Street Team at http://runkeeper.com/user/davidjkelly