{your ideal client} do you want 'likers' or true fans?
karen gunton
with the increasing popularity of facebook as a way for little businesses to promote their stuff the emphasis these days seems to be on gaining 'likers': those people who have clicked on that little like button on your facebook page.
these are questions i have seen recently:
- where can i promote my facebook page to get more people to like my page?
- how can i have a contest on facebook to get more people to like my page?
- i don’t want to be spam-ish but how else do i get more people to like my page?
in general people will like your page to:
- be polite
- be supportive
- return the like after you liked them
- hope that you will return the favour and like them back
- win a prize or help someone win a prize
- because they love your stuff
perhaps it is time we stop searching for likers and start focusing on true fans. you know, the ones who love your stuff and will actually buy what you’re selling? it is all fine and dandy to want 1000 likers for your page. but if none of them are buying your stuff, how is that working for you? perhaps instead you ought to try to find 100 true fans.
who are they?
close your eyes (yes, this is kind of a woo woo excercise, just go with me here!) and picture your ideal client. you know the one you love to work with. the one who buys anything you are selling. who passes your name on to others and comes back for more and more. maybe you have a client like this already or maybe this person hasn’t walked through your door yet. no matter, picture them as vividly as you can.
describe:
- appearance & manner
- likes & dislikes
- family & friends
- neighbourhood & social circles
- hobbies & interests
- values & desires
- finances & budget
- problems & needs
where do you find them?
look at your list of descriptors for that ideal client. based on those things, where are you going to find these people? where do they live? shop? eat? work? hang out? socialize? excercise? play? relax? now find your people in those places!
for instance: if your ideal client values one-of-a-kind custom handmade items, does not have children, and is health and environmentally conscious – hanging up flyers at the mcdonalds play area ain’t gonna work. just sayin’.
it’s the same on facebook. if your ideal client is a fan of a local fine art photographer, can you pair up with that photographer and get your thing in some of her shots? if your ideal client is a fan of a local bakery can you get your stuff displayed on the walls of that shop? become fans of the pages your clients hang out on and start chatting. network. make connections. be helpful.
how do you get them to like your page?
if your focus on getting likers is to draw people in with freebies, prizes and contests – those likers are not likely to buy something from you. they came for the free stuff. but if your focus is on SOLVING PROBLEMS those fans will buy what you are selling. look back at your description for the problems and needs of your ideal client. now solve that problem. meet that need. fill that gap.
if time is the problem (no time to shop, no time to cook, no time to clean, no time to plan a party...) show how you solve that problem. if the need is to have something unique and spectacular so that the client has bragging rights and is a trend setter – then show how you meet that need. if the client has been searching high and low for that one thing no one seems to be selling - find a way to get that thing for your client.
how do you demonstrate that you can solve their problems?
- share useful resources on your page – when you can help a person out they will love you forever
- ask questions and provide answers – generate conversation on your wall, chat about the things your fans have on their mind
- get reviews and testimonials – when someone tells you that you have helped them ask them to write a review on your reviews tab
- comment, connect, engage – when you see discussions happening on other pages, join in! make yourself known. start connecting with people.
in doing these things, if people then come on over to like your page, it will be because they are a true fan of you and your stuff!
quantity vs quality
don’t get me wrong, you need to promote your biz. so if you want to do reciprocal liking/shout outs as a way to get known, and that is working for you go for it. and perhaps all of those contests and promotions are part of your brand, part of the reason people love you and your stuff. if that is the case – keep at it. go be you!
but if you feel like you are struggling with increasing your numbers, or are finding that contests and giveaways aren’t getting you the results you hoped for, then maybe you need to change the way you think about the concept of ‘likers’ and change your tactics with your page. in the end, i think it is the quality of your fans, not the quantity of your likers, that matters most.
what do you think? do you worry about the 'numbers'? or do you focus on finding true fans? how do you find them? please add a comment, i would love to hear from you! =)
Reader Comments (21)
Incredible advice. You are 100% right about entrepreneurs putting emphasis on the social medium instead of the message. Real fans (on or off Facebook) are not just a metric. You have some wonderful ideas for demo/psychographic exercises here, and I love the emphasis on quality on quantity. Fantastic blog! :)
All the best,
Kat
Lol I meant "..on quality *not* quantity." Case and point, a true fan will read a blog post before having her morning coffee. Now that's a metric. ;)
thanks kat! there are so many talented and creative mums with great ideas for their biz who are using facebook pages to promote themselves, and i see them struggling - feeling like they don't have enough likers. i hope this can at least plant the seed that facebook likers aren't the real goal here! it is tough though when you compare yourself to what 'everyone else' is doing. =)
thanks for taking the time to comment, even before your morning coffee! =)
Fantastic advice! really enjoyed reading this thank you, I will be following your blog regularly. I agree 100% with the points you make! I am so happy that my likers numbers go up every day without needing to do constant shout-outs, and I feel that this can sometimes make 'likers' tire of our shout-out posts and they become repetitive. I think that we should be rewarding true fans with discounted prices on the odd occasion as a thank-you for their support and be happy in knowing that those who really love our pages do so because they like our product not because so-and-so asked them to like the page to win a prize!
Thanks again, Jess xx
thanks jess! i agree - i like the more organic, natural growth approach to facebook pages as well. it can feel discouraging sometimes when you see some of the big numbers that some pages have. but i'd prefer to spend my facebook time providing great stuff to my true fans, rather than tagging, shoutouts, and running comps. whatever works, of course, but it is nice to know i am not the only one thinking about this stuff! =)
Spot On!!!
Spot on! I started a new business this weekend and has been franctically trying all over to attract likes! Tonight I said to someone - "what is the point of all these likes" if nobody buys? A few of them I could see will never buy anything - due to various reasons - eg people who are obviously not in the demographic group who might be interested in my products, people at the other side of the world etc. I also checked on some of my "likes's" profiles - some have literally hundreds of sites/pages they like! Does not make me feel loved! Reminded me a bit of an internet dating scenario - he he - where people compete as to how many "fans" they have even though they might be totally unsuitable. The answer - start thinking of other ways of marketing outside of the FB domain.
absolutely karin! fb is good if you concentrate on attracting your right people to your page - you can engage with them, be helpful and real and fabulous. you can show them how you solve their problem. if you do those things well they will buy anything you are selling. but fb as a tool for 'blasting' your sales, scooping up likers like it is some sort of contest - i don't think that's going to get any of us anywhere!
I agree. What's the use of a lot of fans when they haven't even read about or open your link/website? I, myself has tried 'liking' something on facebook when I don't know exactly what that was. Lol. Likes might help, people might be familiar with whatever you have, but don't expect that these people are real fans. Maybe some of them, but not everyone.
Kenny
Shout Response
Thank you. I'm loving reading your blog posts about Facebook. This one is great and I just wish more people would read it and see it's importance. I recently got caught up it the "likers" race because i was having huge success fast! But after a few comments from "likers" about how a give away I was having wasn't "fair", I remembered that these aren't the people I want to have on my page. Your article has just brought it home to me even more.
I will definitely be seeking genuine fans from now on. Even though it can be harder, gee it's rewarding!
thanks for sharing your experience amy - i think we all get caught up in the 'facebook race' from time to time. while fb certainly can be a great marketing tool, it is just one of many tools we can use. if we focus on our clients and their needs instead of on the tools themselves we can make the tools work better for us! i wish you success in finding, focusing on and helping your true fans! =)
This a a fabulous article and something that I have been looking into myself in great detail of recent months. I totally agreee with the quality/quantity opinion. Many pages will have hundreds of likers, but alas not achieve the business that they were hoping. I recently was in discussion with a local business owner who was disheartened about a "liker competition" that she had been running for a prize and couldn't understand why people were "unliking her page" daily leading up to the promo. (The promo was a certain # liker will recieve a prize). While this idea may work sometimes, she really had a problem with the ones who were unliking the page leading up to the draw (that were clearly going to re-like it when the numbers were right), and took it very personally. I suggested to her that possibly she give a random draw gift to a client from her actual client list and reward someone who has purchased from her product line, rather than trying to gain new likers by the giveaway. I explained that her regualar clients clearly love her product and would be thrilled to recieve something for their loyalty, however this page /business owner did not see it the same way as I did, she could only concentrate on the "new likers" that she wanted. To me it just confirmed what you are saying now about the quality not quantity. I have decided to take my own advice and am now rewarding past clients as a way of saying thankyou. Thank you for sharing the article, it is very insightful and will be helpfull to so many new businesses. I will be sure to pass this article link on to all new clients looking for advice on marketing their pages. Judi.
Thank you! I am one of those small business owners that gets discouraged because we don't have several hundred "likers" and have been trying to figure out what we can do. Our birthday is coming up and we were going to plan on some of those contests to increase numbers, but after reading your post, I totally agree. That isn't the point. We want people who are genuine fans who will come back and back.
Thanks!!!
Kirsten I agree with your post and understand that many business owners feel the same way. What is your business page? I will look it up and pass it on to others if you like. Kind Regards, Judi, Blue Bird Internet Marketing.
Thanks Judi! On facebook it's facebook.com/sproutshell. Our website is www.sproutshell.com. Looks like your business it quite handy. I'm going to have to look more into it.
@ judi - thank you for your thoughtful comments and for sharing that story. i have talked to many biz owners who are so focused on the number of likes, yet wonder why no one is buying anything from them. like any marketing strategy you need to have a purpose and a plan for your facebook page - if you don't know what to do with the likes you have then maybe focus on that rather than getting more! maybe by sharing info like this we can slowly change people's minds, one biz owner at a time! thanks for sharing this post on your page =)
@ kristin - am so glad you found some value in reading this post! i hope it sets your mind at ease - it is not the number of fans you have it is the kinds of fans you attract - you want the ones who are your 'right people', your true fans. contests & promos can still help you find them, just be sure you focus on the right people for your biz! good luck =)
This is excellent!
I just started my fb page 4 months ago and was asking for shoutouts to get likers but no buyers yet. Just one when I started and she was a long time friend. I've been thinking really hard and going through pages to find some advise on how to put your business out there and this is the best so far. I've just reached a hundred likers and was thinking of doing a giveaway then I thought if I do that then no one will buy. (But maybe I can still do that as a reward later on.) This has been giving me sleepless nights racking my brain to come up with a solution.
This article is very helpful and the comments as well. This has given me a clearer picture on how I should go about my business. Thank you!
you are very welcome sue - i am glad you found it helpful at just the right time. good luck with your page! =)
I agree with everything said in the blog and there are some very helpful business building tips there. However, I did do the 'go for the likers' thing for a short while: I am not sorry I did and I am no longer doing it! I feel that my page now has credibility to any new visitors, as long as I continue to post interesting content which provokes 'conversation' with my fans. What I look for when I visit a page new to me, is that the owner is posting regularly with interesting content and that the fans are responding. I know that most of my 'fans' will never engage with me or buy anything and I am currently losing as many fans as I gain - but the gains are keeping up with the losses and I feel that the new fans are there because they are interested. So, I think that there is a place for the 'tagging' mentality, up to a point - but don't think that it is going to build your sales! And, in the process I found a lot of pages of interest to my business that I do keep in touch with and that I repost from. I also vsit their pages when I am looking for inspiration for new content: 'liking' some of the pages they like gives me a new burst of energy!
thanks for sharing that elaine. there are certainly times where numbers help - the more fans you have the 'bigger' your biz can look. and the more you have the more likely you will get interaction (it is a percentages game really). it sounds like you have a solid idea of what you are doing with your fb page, and what your people like. that is the most important thing really, there is no right way there is just the way that works for your biz. =)
Thank you so much for writing this! I am business owner and am getting completely discouraged with my fb page. I truly enjoy what I do and some people just dont understand the hard work I put into my products. I wont give up but im definitely going to rethink a better solution to getting "real fans!" Thanks again! Ill be following your blog for more helpful advice :-)