While marketers have been preaching this for some time, it is interesting to hear someone on the revenue generating side of Facebook, encourage brands to see beyond “likes”. At the most recent Social Media World Forum in London, David Parfect, the group head of agency sales at Facebook, essentially made the case for why fan engagement is far more important than a simple, passive “like”.
I have seen varying statistics, but the consensus is that 4/5 people who “like” a fan page, never come back. Many campaigns focus on accruing as many “Likes” as possible, and target all their efforts on getting people to click “like”. Of course with no plan to engage with them after they have become a fan, many brands are seeing that massive number of “Fans” on Facebook does little to help the bottom line. With Facebook preaching the merits of fan quality over quantity, I think we might hopefully start to see a shift in the way these campaigns are conducted.
So to all the marketers out there, breathe a sigh of relief and keep up the good fight. The truth is out there. Find ways to get fans engaged, no more resting on the likes of yesterday.
*Click here for another great article that explores this more
Ha ha… I was just surfing around and took a look at these remarks. I can’t believe that there’s still this much attention. Thanks for writing about this.
Hi… Thank you for the post and well pointed. Quantity is not everything.
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What you’re saying is completely true. I know that everybody must say the same thing, but I just think that you put it in a way that everyone can understand. I also love the images you put in here. They fit so well with what youre trying to say.
I have the same thoughts, exactly. Numbers lie and that’s why it’s hard to measure the ROI of any social media campaign. Like, many are into SEO no matter how black the practice is just to get a lot of traffic to their websites. What good is a traffic if it won’t convert to sales? Here’s where we see the thin line between marketing and revenue making. Just because I like or did a +1 on your site doesn’t mean I’m engaged. I may just do so to kill time…
Having run several pages for my various sites, both aquiring likes naturally with targetted users who come to my pages, and also by aquiring random uninterested likes on mass i’ve found likes to be just a way to get social proof of yoru brand or site.
I think the way forward with facebook users is to integrate a facebook signin – that way you can post to there wall etc. – certainly better than just clicking a thumbs up button randomly.
This is completely spot-on. Marketers who push incessantly for that “Like” with very little else coming to keep us engaged miss the entire purpose of marketing.
I have not found a link to any video footage of it yet. There are few good articles that go a little more in depth
Here is one.
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1062526/Brands-need-look-beyond-fans-says-Facebook-leader/
I’ll keep an eye out to see if the panel is on video.
thanks for reading!
Thanks Ryan thats great. Appreciate it
Do you have a source for this article? Any links to the actual talk- would love to hear that.