Many businesses jump on Facebook & expect instant results.
They see other businesses succeeding & ask why they're not getting the same results.
The truth is -- if a business is succeeding on Facebook, it's rarely because of luck.
In fact, it's probably because they've been in the trenches for months, doing things like:
- researching the demographics of their fans
- researching the online behavior of their fans
- identifying their ideal fan
- testing different tactics to drive fan engagement
And their success is likely the result of not just achieving a high fan count -- but achieving a high number of the RIGHT KIND OF FANS.
Get More Facebook Fans, Yes... but Which Kind?
Knowing who your current fans are is the first step.
And trust me, who your current fans are & who you think they are may be 2 very different things.
So take a moment to look in your page Insights & learn as much as you can about your current fans.
Then move on to the more important task! -- Devote some serious time to deciding who you WANT your fans to be.
Decide which kind of fans you WANT to have on your page.
Because here's the truth: no matter how big your business is, how many fans you have or how long you've been marketing on Facebook, you will reap huge benefits by knowing who the best kind of fans for your page are.
Where do you start?
Try answering the following questions:
7 Questions You Must Answer to Get the Right Kind of Fans
1. What are the goals of your business?
Are you in it for the money? The lifestyle? The passion? The fame?
What are your business's goals?
Not sure? Then there's no better time than right now to figure this out!
2. Who is your target market?
Who do you want to sell to? Define the specific demographics of your target market:
- How old are they?
- What specific industry or niche do they work in?
- Do they skew male or female?
- How educated are they?
- Are they married or single?
- What is the role they have at work?
- Do they work?
3. What is the online behavior of your target market?
This is key!
If you don't know how your target market behaves online, then you're going to have a hard time targeting them & turning them into fans & then customers.
- When are they online?
- What social network sites do they frequent & why?
- How often do they frequent them?
- Do they use mobile devices, tablets, or a desktop?
- Which one do they use most?
- Do they read blogs?
- Do they prefer video, audio, text or all of the above?
4. What pain does your target market have & how can you solve it?
As my good friend & Chief Customer Pain Killer at Post Planner, Josh Parkinson, would agree, killing customer pain is essential to building a thriving business.
So what pain does your business kill?
- What aggravates your target customers?
- What annoys them?
- What keeps them at night?
- How can you help them rest easy?
- What events do they dread?
- Where are they losing a lot of time, efficiency or money?
- How can you help them save time & focus on their core business tasks?
5. What language does your ideal customer use?
I'm not talking Spanish or Chinese here -- although that's important too.
I'm talking about the language they use when talking about their business -- and about social media & marketing.
- What terms & jargon do they use?
- How do they refer to their own business tasks?
- How do they refer to their own sector & value proposition?
- How do they refer to their competitors?
- What is the tone of their conversations?
- Are they more casual or formal?
- Are they using simple language or more complex?
- Do they talk the same language & in the same tone of which you have been speaking to them?
6. What benefits do you offer customers that they can't get elsewhere?
Yes, I'm talking unique selling proposition here!
- What do you offer that is unique?
- How would your customers finish this sentence when talking about you: "That company that ________"
- How is your product or service more valuable than your competitors?
- What can you do to drive higher value in the eye of your ideal customer?
7. What can you offer customers for free to attract them to your brand?
One of the best things you can do to get more of the right kind of fans is to share the right kind of content.
What information could you share with your target market to help them meet their business or life goals?
For example, you could offer:
- free blog posts
- downloadable worksheets
- white papers
- training
- videos
- podcasts
Or you can provide a completely free product that has limited features compared to higher premium products.
Ask Your Fans!
If you're struggling to answer any of the above questions, try asking your fans, followers, subscribers and/or current customers.
People love to answer questions! It's actually a great way to grow engagement on your fan page!
- If you don’t know what your customers want, ask them
- If you don’t know what pain they need solved, ask them
- If you don’t know what keeps them up at night or how you can help them, ask them!
Now Go Out & Get More Facebook Fans!
Maybe this wasn't exactly what you expected when you clicked on the headline of this blogpost.
But trust me -- identifying the answers to these questions is a core Facebook marketing task! -- one that will help you build a fanbase that actually makes your business money!
Once you have these answers, you'll be in a much better position to get the right kind of fans for your Facebook page.
Armed with the knowledge of:
- what your customers value
- how they communicate
- when they're online
- how you can best serve them
... you'll be able to craft a much more specific & effective Facebook Marketing strategy.
Then you can create Facebook content & ad campaigns that offer true value & attract the right kind of fans.
Posting for the sake of posting has little value. Contests & promotions that are off target will miss the mark.
If you answer to the above questions, you will give yourself a roadmap for posting & offering promotions that truly "scratches the itch" of your best potential fans.
Yes, the RIGHT KIND of fans!
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