This afternoon, I had the pleasure of listening to Robert Cifarelli, manager of in-restaurant and online communications for A&W Canada. He highlighted a point I believe many businesses don’t think about:
Attract people to your Facebook page who actually like you, he said.
This might seem like common sense, but think about it for a second. Many companies judge their success on social media by solely looking at the number of likes or followers, although no one is engaging with their brand.
So how do you get people to like you online, for the right reason?
Like A&W if you love burgers.
This was the Facebook campaign that A&W used when they joined Facebook in 2013. They wanted people to like their page because they shared the same enthusiasm for burgers as A&W, because these people would be the loyal, engaged fans. They didn’t simply want a “like” to be a value exchange, by running a campaign where you could win something (they considered a trip to Las Vegas with your friend), if you liked A&W’s Facebook page. As Facebook’s organic reach is “dead”, in that a post only gets out to less than 10% of your followers, you need to make sure it reaches people who actually care about your brand, and will join in the conversation.
So what is my main message? It doesn’t matter if you have a million likes if no one is engaging with your brand. It might be harder to get the loyal fans in the short run, but it will pay off in the long run, as you will have a happy, engaged fan base online. So find out what the purpose of your product is and tell your story on social media.
Source of featured image: A&W’s Facebook page