Fresh data by social media marketing company Wildfire (who must be doing good as they were acquired by Google last week), looks at the value of identifying and engaging a brand’s most influential fans.
The report, “Brand Advocate Factor“, is based on an analysis of 10,000 social marketing campaigns that ran on Facebook over the past 9 months, of which the top performing 10%, belonging to just under 700 brands, were isolated and studied to ascertain key differentiators that achieve success.
The top 10% performing brands are referred to as “Superbrands“. These Superbrands had significant more engagement counts than the average brands and also saw their fans grow ten times faster over the month than the average brand.
Six best practices to becoming a Facebook Superbrand
1. Run multiple engagement apps
Make the most of the apps that Facebook allows you to publish on your page. Only the first 12 are visible so make sure these are as engaging as possible. The top three after photos are the most important as they are always visible, try switching these around with some of your other apps and see what works best for you.
2. Always use ‘call to actions’ where possible
Use every available opportunity to stimulate interaction. When posting updates, photos and videos, make sure you encourage some sort of interaction, by asking questions, for votes, to ‘like’ or similar actions.
3. Images!
Use a lot of images. These take up most of the real estate on your timeline, but more importantly get the most real estate on your fan’s timeline as well, making them very valuable. You can still include a link along with your image and don’t forget to include a call to action.
4. Take advantage of seasonal trends
Use seasonal trends and events to encourage interactions. A prime example is the London 2012 Olympics, many brands have encouraged interactions by posting the Olympics theme related content. Be careful you don’t get this wrong, especially around sensitive issues.
5. Mix up offers and campaigns
Different campaigns generate different levels of engagement. Sweepstakes may have a high level of user entry but may not be shared as much, so use a variety of campaigns and offers to encourage diverse engagement levels.
6. Go beyond Facebook
The study found the Superbrands all had a presence on various social media platforms. You can build up communities on the different platforms and then encourage cross platform interactions.
Download the full report, “Brand Advocate Factor“.
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