Engagement How to Create
How to Create Meaningful Engagement With Your Customers on Facebook White Paper by Rubber Cheese Introduction Facebook presents business owners with a truly global advertising opportunity. There are over 1 billion people on Facebook worldwide. Amongst them, 665 million are daily active users who spend an average of 28 minutes browsing the site. 48% A whopping 30 million of those are UK based (that’s over 48% of the UK population!) so if you were to pick only one social media platform to market your business, there’s no doubt about it - it would have to be Facebook. It’s a global database of potential consumers at your fingertips, so it’s vitally important to get to know how to use Facebook for business now, not later. Introduction p.1 Engagement, Engagement, Engagement Engage is one of those words that gets mentioned repeatedly when discussing the best ways to use Facebook for business. By engaging with your audience, you’re ultimately building loyalty and creating opportunities to help generate sales. It is important to understand that having ‘fans’ does not mean you are engaging them. Studies show that only 1% of Facebook fans engage with brands. Equally, people who aren’t your ‘fan’ can still engage with your content. It’s all about the oldest marketing tool in the book - ‘word of mouth’. Creating content “You are invisible unless you engage” that makes your fans naturally want to share your content with their friends is the real science behind it all. Introduction p.2 First thing’s first: know your audience. Before you start creating any content, you must understand the following: Who is your target audience? How can you a!ract them? What do you want to gain from Facebook marketing? Virtually every demographic is represented on Facebook these days, so it’s important to know your target audience before you dive in head first. If you don’t have a good understanding of this your content could be reaching the wrong demographic which won’t help you to generate sales. Research p.3 Not sure how to define your target market? Here are a few tips to get you started... 1 Determine Your Current & Ideal Customer Base 5 Research the characteristics of your target market... Then ask yourselves who they are, why they buy from you, and look personality, attitudes, values, interests and hobbies, lifestyles, behavior. for common characteristics and interests. 2 Research Research your competition, find out who they are targeting and go for a different demographic, you may find a niche market that they could be missing! Characteristics 6 Evaluate Then once you’ve concluded your target market, evaluate your decision by asking yourself the following: - Are there enough people that fit my criteria? 3 Analyse - Will my target audience really benefit from my product/service? Analyse your product or service and list the benefits you provide. - Can they afford my product/service? - Do I understand what drives my target audience to make decisions? - Can I reach them with my message? Are they easily accessible? 4 Demographics Once you’ve answered the above, you should now have a good Choose specific demographics to target. Consider the following... understanding of the content and messages that will make your fans age, location, gender, income level, education level, marital or family like, share, join in conversations and ultimately purchase from you. status, occupation. Research p.4 How to attract your customers on Facebook Here are a few tips to get you started... 1 2 Content is Key 4 E-Marketing Generating relevant content aimed at your target market is without a In all your promotional e-newsletters, add a link to your Facebook doubt the most vital element of engaging on Facebook. We will asking the reader to like your page. This ensures that the right discuss this in much more detail throughout this white paper. demographic is connected with your page. Add a Link to Your Website 5 Word of Mouth Add a link to your Facebook presence onto your company’s website As previously mentioned, word of mouth is arguably the mother of all where it can be easily spotted. If you can add to the header or footer marketing tools, so inviting your personal friends to ‘like’ your of every page, even better. business page is a great way of reaching ‘friends of friends’ who could become new customers. Also make sure you have your Facebook page listed in the ‘About Me’ section of your personal page and make this 3 information public in your privacy settings. Like / Share Bu!ons Add Facebook like/share buttons to your website’s news/blog posts. 6 Respond Always respond to comments and interaction. If people see that you will notice and respond to what they have to say they will be more likely to engage. Research p.5 Types of content In a study of data collected from over 1.3 million posts on Facebook it was found that images have a higher like and share rate than normal text, video and links. They are also more likely to be commented on than video and links... Like % Comment % Share % 0.3 % 0.3 % 0.6 % 0.2 % 0.2 % 0.4 % 0.1 % 0.1 % 0.2 % 0% 0% 0% Stats courtesy of DanZarrella.com. Creating Your Content p.6 What will they like? Brands cannot expect to ask their users to like them, if they don’t give them something in return. So what can brands offer in return for a like, share or comment? • • • • • • • • • Exclusive content that can only be found on Facebook. • • Keeping your posts relevant to your audience and business. Special offers, coupons, discounts, competitions. Updates about the company. Interaction with the brand. Being entertained, shocked, or informed. Be succinct, friendly and conversational Asking questions or seeking input. Variety in your posts keeps fans engaged. Be timely by posting about current events, holidays or news. Becoming an information source for your fans, i.e. about key or interesting events of potential interest to them and their friends. Statistics show that: TIP! Posts including Like get more comments and likes. Posts including Share get more shares, comments and likes. Posts including Comment get more comments and likes. Creating Your Content p.7 What will they like? Case Study - Beefeater #AskDesmond Campaign Beefeaters ‘Ask Desmond’ campaign gained a positive engagement rate for the following reasons: 1 It Questions the User The title of the campaign is asking the user for a question encouraging engagement. 2 It’s Personal Allowing users to communicate and interact with them on a personal level helps the brand build relationships with their fans. 3 It’s Visual Including an image of Desmond allows people to put a face to the name making it more personal, while encouraging shares. 4 It’s Exclusive This campaign allows users to find out exclusive information that they wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere, therefore increasing engagement. 5 It’s Simple It’s a really simple method of being able to communicate easily with their fans. It requires no additional information from the fan. Creating Your Content p.8 Offers Offers are a great way of giving something back to your fans. Certain business, brands and organizations (with at least 100 likes) can share discounts and special deals with their fans by creating Facebook ‘offers’. Once a fan claims an offer they will grant permission for a link to be posted onto their timeline, which will then appear in the news feed of their friends reaching a wider audience of a similar demographic. An email will then be sent to their inbox with the details of how they can redeem the offer. They’re even free to create - bonus! Facebook are strict... CAUTION! Make sure you read their Promotion Guidelines before you publish any promotions. If you breech their regulations you are at risk of your page being disabled. Creating Your Content p.9 Competitions & ‘Apps’ Brands are using competitions powered by applications (‘apps’) as a great way to increase engagement with their users. Before you get started though it is important to look at your target market and determine: • • • • Are your targets the type of people to enter competitions? What type of competition would your targets be likely to enter? What prizes would be of interest to your targets? Does your competition fit in with your other marketing activities? Usually apps will ask for the users consent to: • • Post onto their timeline Gain access to their personal information - Studies show that users might be put off by these requirements and not go through with it, so make it an optional feature to give your users the option of disclosing their details with you or not. So why are apps good for brands? • • • • Creates enhanced engagement with existing & new users • Gives more content to post to the wall Creates co-creation from users Creates more sharing opportunities with Friends Gives a reason to advertise the page, which means that they work well when using them in conjunction with Facebook advertising. They can give an ad a purpose. Creating Your Content p.10 Offers, Competitions & Apps Case Study - Giraffe Restaurant Competition Here’s an example of a competition run by Giraffe Restaurant on Facebook every Friday. Here are a few reasons why this competition gains so much interest: 1 It’s Not Invasive No personal details need to be handed over to join the competition (which is often what puts users off entering) 2 It’s Simple to Enter All the user needs to do is allow the app to post to their news feed on their behalf, and click the ‘Enter Now’ button. 3 It’s Specific Choosing a specific day to announce this competition is a great way of creating a buzz. It also means they don’t need to hand out prizes every day, and it gives the chance to promote the competition via other social media channels. 4 It’s Professional The overall design of the app appears very professional making it appear trustworthy. 5 It’s Realistic It’s a realistic prize making the competition look genuine, therefore encouraging more users to enter. Creating Your Content p.11 Announcing news Announcing exclusive news to your Facebook fans is a great way of creating huge interest on your Facebook page. Knowing that they can get that first glimpse of fresh and exciting news before anyone else, just by following your page is sure to keep them interested. Perhaps one of the most exciting marketing methods is the Power of the Teaser. Noone enjoys being left in suspense, whether it’s the having to wait for next week’s episode of [insert TV show here...], or having to wait for an album release for example, but it’s a sure way to gain people’s attention, interest and engagement. So if you’re releasing a new product, service, shop, whatever it may be... tease your way to more like’s and shares, then when everyone’s expecting it... go for the big reveal and watch the engagement start rolling in! Creating Your Content p.12 Announcing news Case Study - Beefeater Gin Beefeater Gin’s announcement of their limited edition bo!le design on Facebook paired with the text “Here is is - the limited edition Beefeater bo!le created by Londoners. Like It?” gained a large amount of engagement. It worked well for the following reasons: 1 It’s Exclusive Content included exclusive news being revealed to Facebook fans for the first time. 2 It’s Visual The inclusion of an image encourages people to share the news with people they know, to let them in on the latest announcement! 3 It’s Simple Keeping it simple with a clear image paired with succinct text helped encourage engagement. 4 It Questions the User Including a question aimed at the user encourages people to comment with their opinion. 5 It Mentions ‘Like’ Statistically, mentioning the word ‘like’ encourages users to like it. Creating Your Content p.13 When to post Like Percentage Like % Recent statistics show that a good time to post content to your Facebook page is when users aren’t at work and when most brands aren’t posting to their time lines. 0.18% 0.16% 0.14% 2PM 4PM 6PM 8PM 2PM 4PM 6PM 8PM 10PM 12PM 10AM 8AM 6AM 4AM 12PM for Likes : 6pm - 8pm and at Weekends 2AM 0.12% 12AM The majority of brands post messages during the working week and hours. So the best times to post seem to be: Share Percentage Share % for Shares: 8am, 12pm & 6pm 5-10 posts per week 10PM 10AM 8AM 0.02% 6AM Studies show that the ideal number of times a brand should post to Facebook is between: 4AM 0.03% 12AM There is no exact number of times you should post to Facebook, but post too often or not often enough and you will typically lose your user engagement. 2AM 0.04% Like % Like Percentage 0.17% 0.16% 0.15% Saturday Friday Thurdday Wednesday Tuesday Monday 0.14% Sunday You can also check into the ‘Posts’ section of your ‘Facebook Insights’ panel and find the average times your likers are most active on Facebook throughout the day - very handy! TIP! Stats courtesy of DanZarrella.com. Creating Your Content p.14 Schedule your posts with Hootsuite Facebook users spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Multiply that by the minimum hourly rate in the UK and that equals over £72 million pounds of potential business lost. To avoid losing any potential business, check out Hootsuite. It allows you to check your news feeds, reply to comments and post onto all your social networks, in one easy place! We use it a lot, it’s really great at saving you time (and money) so you can get on with business! Creating Your Content p.15 Insights & data overview ‘Page insights’ include data and information explaining which posts received the most engagement, along with an overview of who is connected to your business. It’s important to check this data on a regular basis to fully understand what’s working and what’s not. To see your page insights simply open the admin panel of your page, and in the insights box click the ‘See All’ link. From here you have access to view the following: 1 Overview 4 Visits - Page likes (from the past 7 days) - Page and tab visits - Post reach (from the past 7 days) - Other page activity - Engagement (from the past 7 days) - External referrers - Recent posts (from the past 7 days) 2 Likes 5 Posts - Your posts total reach, post clicks and engagement - Total page likes and unlikes - When your fans are online - Net likes (what changed) - Your most successful post types - Where your page likes come from 6 3 Reach People - Gender, age & location - Post reach - Demographics reached (most often) - Likes, comments & shares - Demographics who engage with you (most often) - Hide, report as spam and unlikes - Check-ins - Total reach Tracking Your Success p.16 Round Up "Facebook says you are Invisible unless you Engage" Step 1 - Research Step 2 - Creating Your Content Step 3 - Track Your Success To engage with your target audience and to build relationships, you need to know and understand the demographic first, what they like, dislike and what they’re most likely to engage with. • Once you know your target audience and what they like, attract them with valuable content aimed towards them they will want to share with their friends. (word of mouth) Track and calculate your success to discover the posts that are gaining the most engagement. • Establish the type of content that works best for you and your business. (Studies show that images have a higher like and share rate than normal text, video and links.) • Give something back to your fans. i.e. exclusive content, announcements, special offers, discounts, competitions & 'apps', entertainment and plenty of variety. • • Respond to engagement. • Link your Facebook Page to your website and other social platforms Round Up The best times to post are for likes : 6pm - 8pm and at weekends and for shares: 8am, 12pm & 6pm. p.17 Conclusion There is a significant opportunity to drive sales through Faceboook advertising. We hope that this white paper encourages you to set up your very first Facebook campaign, or perhaps to simply improve your strategy. Here are a few final words to keep in mind... Don’t be afraid to experiment with your content. If you feel something isn’t working, change it up, try something different. People love variety so experiment often, try new things and keep it fresh and exciting! Don’t give up. Just because one post didn’t receive as much engagement as you’d like, it doesn’t mean that everything you do from then on will receive zero likes. Facebook is about long-term engagement rather than short term sales. Stick at it, and you will see the results. Have fun with it! If you’re not having fun engaging on Facebook, it will show, and it’ll leave you with very little engagement in return. To get the most out of Facebook you should aim to be that fun and entertaining person that everyone can’t wait to hang out with, hear from and catch up with. The more you have fun with people, stronger relationships are formed, and the more memorable your business becomes which all helps to generate new sales. Conclusion p.18 Helpful Resources [1] https://www.facebook.com/business [2] http://danzarrella.com/ [3] http://www.hubspot.com/ [4] http://econsultancy.com/uk [5] http://www.marketingprofs.com/ [6] http://socialmediatoday.com [7] http://www.searchenginejournal.com [8] http://www.socialbakers.com [9] https://hootsuite.com [10] http://blog.hubspot.com/ Helpful Resources p.19 Who are Rubber Cheese? We’re a creative agency. An approachable team of innovative designers, developers and problem solvers, that love to share our ideas and nurture yours, to create something that you and your customers will love. We believe that every project is unique. What stays consistent is that we’ll deliver an influential experience to your audience via; digital, mobile, social and traditional channels, every single time. By using vision driven design principles, the latest digital technologies and a big wedge of our ideas and humour, what you’ll receive is more than just a service... it’s an experience, one that will exceed your expectations as well as make you smile. Thing is, what we really understand more than anything is that it’s not about us at all, it’s all about you. Who are Rubber Cheese? p.20 We thrive on challenges, so come and speak to us for a pleasantly unconventional solution! www.rubbercheese.com [email protected] 0845 867 6750 twitter.com/rubbercheese facebook.com/rubbercheese
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