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Social Networks

Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Getting More Fans

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Krista Neher

Jan 23 2012

One of the top questions that I am asked is: “How can I get more fans to my Facebook page?”

This is a common question that businesses ask during our social media training programs, and it can be a legitimate concern.  In order to get results you obviously need some sort of a fan base, but once you have a solid base of organic fans, forget worrying about getting more and start worrying about what to do with them.

Why You Don’t Need More Fans

Most of your fans don’t even see what you are posting.  Seriously, this isn’t my opinion, it is proven.  A study by PageLever showed that only 3% – 7.5% of fans actually see your posts.

What this means is that most of your fans don’t see your posts.

Think of it this way.

Today, you have 1000 fans and engagement of 3%.

Fans seeing your posts = 1000*3% = 30

If you focus on engagement with existing fans and get it towards the top, you could increase it to 7%.

Fans seeing your posts now = 1000*7% = 70

Improving your content and the engagement with your content can more than double your actual post views.

Instead of focusing on engagement, you may want to try to increase your number of fans.

Let’s say you increase your fan base by 50%, which is pretty significant, and do not focus on your engagement.

You now have viewership from 1500 * 3 = 45

As you can see in this math, you can probably get better results with less effort by focusing on improving interactions with your fans and increasing engagement vs worrying about getting more fans.

Engagement Gets You Even More Fans

Here is another dirty secret of social media marketing (ok, it isn’t dirty).

Your best new customers are one step removed from your current customers.  This means that your best new customers can be reached by your current customers on social networks.  What is more is that when your current customers interact with you on social networks, your next best customers can see it.

According to “The Power of Like: How Brands Reach and Influence Fans Through Social Media Marketing” study, conducted in May by comScore in conjunction with Facebook, for every fan of a top 100 brand, an additional 34 friends of fans can be reached through an exposure to the fan, or liker. (from ClickZ)

This means that friends of your fans are a great target for your business.  Getting your fans to interact with you on Facebook means that their friends will be exposed to your updates.

So Worry First About Driving Interactions and Then Get More Fans

The truth is that it isn’t an either/or proposition.  You can both work on creating meaningful Facebook posts that drive real interactions and at the same time acquire more fans.

But, most businesses are more concerned with getting new fans than they are at doing something meaningful with their fans.

You can get more exposure by engaging existing fans vs. adding new fans.  Remember this when you set your social media priorities.

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