With any marketing plan, getting the right customer market is crucial to your messaging, and targeting strategies on social media
With the increased number of people spending their time online, it is no wonder that you have been noticing that more and more of your Facebook friends are inviting you to like their new Facebook Business Pages. While we would like to give them an awesome pat on the back for starting a new venture, we would like to support them in any way that we can right? However, when we “Like” their page, do we really help them in their cause?
1. First things first, how the Facebook Algorithm works
Various social media platforms have their own “algorithm” so to speak, which means, the way in which posts are presented and timed to show up in the users’ newsfeeds. With Facebook, their algorithm relies on how “relevant” the post is to the user. How does Facebook know what the particular user likes? Well, if you go to your personal profile, click on “More”, then select “Likes”, you will see some of the Pages or topics you have “Liked” in the past. Your interest, plus demographic data that you have entered on your profile, allows Facebook to “guesstimate” what type of content you will want to see on your Feed.
2. Facebook’s Organic Reach and Engagement Rate is declining
Now that we understand how Facebook determines what topics are relevant enough for us to see those on our newsfeed, what happens if we “Like” a Page to support a friend, but we are truly not interested in their product offering? We often choose to “Unfollow” or “Hide” the posts, but still leave the “Like” button selected. This action further lowers the Organic Reach and Organic Engagement the brand page will get. As a Page admin, “Organic Reach” means, the number of people who actually see your posts on their feed, and “Organic Engagement” is considered as the “real” interaction the posts get such as likes, comments, or shares, without having to pay “Facebook Ads” or “Boosting” your posts.
As it is, the current overall decline of every Page’s Organic Reach and Engagement has proven to be a challenge to most marketers, forcing them to pivot their content strategies to get around the new algorithm that caused the decline in the overall organic activities associated with their Pages. According to Hootsuite, the average organic reach for a Facebook post is 5.5% while the average engagement rate for Facebook posts is 3.6%. So imagine, if a Page has 1000 fans, only 55 people will, in essence, get to see your post on their newsfeed and around 36 people will interact with the post! What will make the statistic worse is, if those people who will be able to see the post, are not the ones who are truly interested in what you have to offer, they may be replacing a person who may really be interested.
3. The Number of Page “Likes” does not matter anymore
At some point in the previous years, Facebook has “hidden” or made the number of the Likes on the page less prominent for users. Whereas before, it was considered a status symbol to have large number of fans on the Page, now, it’s all about the engagement, baby! So a Page’s success cannot be measured by the number of Fans it has, rather, by how much the Fans interact with the posts on the Page. It’s quality over quantity in this case.
4. High number of Likes but not enough Engagement on your Page?
Are you talking to the right audience? When you ask your friends to “Like” your Page just for the sake of adding a Like to the number of fans, but they are not your target market, then you are messing up the demographic audience that sees your posts. Maybe that is why there are not enough engagements on your Page, because your current “fans” are most likely composed of your friends and family and are not really the ones who are interested in what you have to offer. Check your Insights, go to “People” and see if the current demographic your Page has, is your target audience. If not, then you have some fixing to do. You cannot expect an increase in engagement and eventually sales, if you keep “barking up the wrong tree” so to speak.
5. So going back to the main question on hand, should we ask our friends to “Like” our Business Page?
The quick answer, is YES we should, BUT IF AND ONLY IF they are truly interested in the product or service we are offering. Do not ask them to “Like” to support the Page. You don’t need “pity Likes” so to speak, you need “real Likes” of people who will become your brand advocates, and eventually your customers.
6. The WRONG method of getting Likes on your Facebook Page
These are common ways most people when when asking their Friends to “Like” their Business Pages:
- Going to the Page, clicking “Invite Friends” and selecting all their friends.
- Sharing the Page on their personal profile saying “Please LIKE our new Business Page”
- Joining “Like Exchange” Groups on Facebook
- Participating in “Like Parties” wherein someone will post, let’s support each other’s businesses, and exchange one Like for another.
All these actions will damage the fan demographic you have on your Facebook Page. Again, consider the rate of Organic Reach and Post. Are these really the people who will buy your products and services? Going back to Point #2, Are you willing to let your friends replace the miniscule 5.5% reach that your posts will have or would you rather spend the 5.5% reach on people who will really buy your product?
7. The RIGHT way of getting REAL FANS to your Business Page
So the question remains, how do we attract the right people to Like our Business Page? Here are some organic ways of increasing your fan base:
- Instead of selecting all friends when you click “Invite to Like”, select only the friends who you think will be interested in what you have to offer.
- When you share your Page on your profile, reword “Like to Support” to explaining what your brand represents and its products or services. If they like what you have to offer, they will hit “Like” on your Page, without you asking them to.
- Never join “Like Exchange” or “Like Parties”, these will seriously damage your fan demographics.
- Instead of posting, “support each other by Liking the Page”, again, explain what your brand is, and your offerings, and ask people to Like it only if they are truly interested in your offer.
Now the most effective way of expanding your network to target people who will be really be interested in your brand is really through Facebook Ads. Here’s why:
- Facebook Ads allow you to target specific locations, behaviors, interests, life events, of users, these are not possible organically.
- Facebook Ads allow you to EXCLUDE people who for sure will not buy your products, this will make your ads more cost efficient as you will be only spending for the ads to be shown to ONLY your target audience.
- Facebook Ads will extend your reach beyond your family and friend’s networks.
- By targeting the RIGHT people to your Page, you will notice your Organic Reach and Engagement will eventually correct itself by slowing increasing over the months. It is because the RIGHT people are now seeing and interacting with your posts.
With any marketing plan, getting the right customer market is crucial to your messaging, and targeting strategies on social media. Our social media management services allow you to focus on your business while our team manages the contents, ad executions and interactions with your fans.
Recognized as one of the Top Social Media Agencies in the Philippines by Clutch.co, a research-based firm out of Washington D.C, we strive to make brands more visible online, especially now that more users are spending a significant amount of their time on social media.
