Last week I was speaking to a group of students at a college in Duluth about the different ways businesses can use social media. As I was finishing, a student asked a very important question, a question I’m confident many of you are struggling with.
His question was this, “I intern for a local company who has a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account but we don’t have any fans or followers. How do we get more people interested and engaged in our social media efforts?”
Am I right? Do you find your company in this same predicament?
Take a step back
First off, why did you jump on Facebook or open a Twitter account? Do you have a strategy or was it because you heard all of the hype and thought you needed to be there? If it’s the latter, at the minimum you may want to think about and answer these questions…
What are your goals for your social media program? Is it to gain awareness? Increase sales? Or create loyalty? Do you know who your target audience is, what social media services they use and how they use them? Do you have a plan to engage, empower and connect your followers/friends? Or are you going to use it as a message board to talk about yourself or your company? If that’s the case, use your website.
Okay, I get it…but that still doesn’t get people to “follow”, “fan” or “friend” me.
When you open a new location or add a new service, do you just sit back and hope that customers will figure it out? No, you tell people right. The same is true about your social media efforts…if you don’t let people know where you are and what you’re doing, nobody will know or care.
How do you do this? Use your website, online media, signage in stores, and/or TV and radio commercials, basically any and all different forms of media will work. The important thing is to give them a reason to join – what added value are they going to get from joining your social media program?
What companies do you connect with in social media? How did you learn about/find them? How active are you? What benefits do you receive for being a part of their social media community?
Photo courtesy of Justin Brockie.
What makes this campaign so impressive is how a commercial entity essentially asked for and received permission to advertise to customers on Facebook. By using a free hamburger giveaway via a cleverly executed challenge to reach 500,000 “friends” on Facebook, TGI Friday’s lured customers and potential customers into the heart of the campaign.
