Despite its hundreds of millions of users, finding Facebook fans for your business can be difficult.
A recent article by Jay Baer discusses the problem many companies face: simply being ignored by their Facebook fans. A major contributor to this problem is that many people simply don’t know the purpose of Facebook.
A new study by ExactTarget examined why people ignore social and email connections with brands. Surprisingly, the results show that most people don’t know what to expect from brands after “liking” them on Facebook. For example, 51 percent of consumers expect the brand to send them marketing messages after “liking” them, 40 percent of consumers don’t expect anything from the brand, and 9 percent aren’t sure what to expect.
This means that even though people are willing to start a social relationship with a brand, they don’t understand what that relationship entails. As Baer illustrates, “Imagine that customers weren’t sure if you would answer when they called you. Of if they ordered something on your website, if you would ship it out.”
This uncertainty about what Facebook is for and what “liking” a brand entails can easily be avoided. Baer suggests that companies create a custom Facebook landing page, rather than encouraging consumers to simply “like” a page. He advises companies to explain to consumers exactly what to expect from the Facebook page. For example, he urges companies to let consumers know if they will receive special offers, customer stories, or inside information about the company. This simple step can help Facebook fans know what to expect from a brand and lessen the chance a Facebook presence will be ignored.
