When Facebook opened up its platform this past February to enable pages to engage with one another, it opened the doors for brands to prospect in ways that are not unlike traditional direct marketing channels.
Think about it. Similar to email or postal lists, a Facebook page now provides a brand reach to another brands fans. There lies the opportunity for brands to like other brands and engage with a page and its fans. Those comments and likes will drive viewers of the page back to your page, providing you with the opportunity to convert the visitor into a new fan.
Impact of Page Networking
Im going to share a case study to show you the impact that this networking strategy can have. In this chart Client A is a professional services corporation whose Facebook page my company manages. Client B is a luxury retail brand that we consult with, but dont manage their page.
Shortly after Facebook made the platform change in February to enable brands to engage with other brands, we began to implement the networking strategy for Client A. Client B chose not to implement it. Look at the results.
Client As rate of new fans was boosted by 111%. Client B gained new fans, but at a rate 21% less than the previous month.
While a 37% growth in unique page views for Client B is nothing to shake a stick at, Client As unique page views increased by 279%, which was heavily responsible for the increase in the new likes. And again its nice to see a 20% growth in total page views, but it pales in comparison to 529%.
My advice? If you are serious about driving new visitors to your Facebook page, make this strategy a daily event.
We’ve started to do this in place of some of the commenting we were doing on other blogs and forums. This really is social networking! Glad to see the numbers on it, thanks!
Hey, that’s interesting to hear, Alisa! Having more success with it? Or are you making “enemies” with companies being all like “hey, cut that out!”?
Hi Ruud. Well, I’m trying to be very respectful and only post what is really going to be helpful to that business’ fans and not be stepping on their toes! So far I have had nothing but positive reactions from it. I love it when our business pages get comments on our updates, so I figure others will, too as long as they’re useful.
The “ticket” as Alisa points out is to be respectful and employ this strategy on pages that are complementary rather than competitive. It is a great win/win to give another page support while gaining visibility to their fans who might also like you.
What if a competitor is “on” my page. Or another business acts out of bounds. Can I ban or block them?
Hi Ruud. Absolutely you can. Just click the blue “X” next to the post and you can either delete the post or delete and ban the user. We get crazy “work from home and make $50K a month” posts fairly often, but only once from each user!