07 Nov, 2011

Engage Your Facebook Fans: Shift from Mass to Targeted Facebook Messaging

Posted by Brianna Littlepage | Categories: Facebook, Social CRM | Tags: Social Targeting

You have a ton of fans, maybe even an editorial calendar to schedule FB messages, but is everyone getting the same message? Did you know that on average, only 2% of a brand’s fans engage with their Facebook messaging directly?  Given the importance of fan interaction with posts to drive FB graph rank, we think there is a better way to engage your fans….

Start shifting your Facebook contact strategy from a “one-for-all” approach to a targeted strategy that leverages social behavior insights from fan interaction with open graph plug-ins on your site. Instead of guessing what fans want to hear about, you can post targeted messages directly to fans’ newsfeeds based on their unique “Likes” of specific products, categories, music, etc! 

Interested? Let us show you how it works:

Assuming you’ve already taken first steps by implementing social plug-in’s (ex: the Like buttons), here’s how it works:

  • Think about what your targeted contact strategy should look like. Consider leveraging consumer voice insights to help prioritize your plug-in strategy. Are people talking more about your shoes than your women’s clothing line? If so – start there.
  • Consider how you want to deliver distinctive messages. Do you want to speak to parents differently than grandparents? How about men vs women? This will help you develop a plug-in categorization structure to enable downstream Facebook targeting.
  • Identify the location of your open graph plug-ins on your website.
  • Create groups of Like buttons to form natural targeting segments.   
  • Leverage a social targeting platform to message to unique fan segments, delivering content that is consistent with previous Like button interaction on your site.
  • Evaluate fan interaction with targeted, relevant messages.

Picture the process:

Results: Based on our experience we are observing brands that take this approach tend to achieve:

  • Increased interaction rates - more relevant posts drives interaction behavior and brand engagement
  • Increased post impressions  - more interactions create higher FB graph rank, which increases newsfeed impressions and overall social reach
  • Increased engaged users within fan base - relevant posts drive higher engagement rates and get more unique fans engaging with your brand

Brands are just beginning to explore the world of plug-in targeting, but there are a few leading the way - including Levis, Universal Orlando, and Vegas.com.

The bottom line is you can deliver targeted messages based on Like buttons that will increase interaction rates and create a highly engaged fan base. Knowing this is possible with “Likes”… think what you can do with new FB plug-ins, “Wish”, “Listen”, and more!  These new terms will create new opportunities for marketers to introduce new audience segments, unique messages and ultimately drive interactions and conversions!