Do you have the time to nurture “Superfans”?
The ideal fan for every social media marketing professional is what Moontoast so aptly calls a “Superfan.” These superfans are the customers who not only have liked your page, but have also granted you data permissions, purchased from you, and even led their friends to your page as well. Nurturing this type of fan should be part of your strategic Facebook marketing plan. But that’s easier said than done.
While these superfans are definitely the ideal, they don’t just magically find your page, and start advocating your brand no questions asked. As any social media marketer understands, this kind of brand loyalty only comes with a huge investment of time and effort.
In fact, social media marketing can be such a time suck that 43% of small business owners are spending at least 6 hours or more a week on social media, and 1/3 of these business owners say they want to spend less time on social media (Vertical Response).
5 shortcuts to save time and bring results
Here are just 5 shortcuts to help you save time on social media marketing, while maintaining a strategy that will still result in these superfans touting your name.
1. Recycle and Reuse
Image Link: http://easyasone.wordpress.com/tag/recycle/
According to the same Vertical Response survey cited above, respondents said finding and posting social media content takes the most time out of any other common social media task.
One way to cut down on this time is to reuse, recycle, and/or repurpose stellar content in various, creative ways. For example, if you recently recorded an awesome video to share with your social media followers, consider also turning the information from the video into a podcast, and taking the most informative piece of the video and turning it into a snappy photo graphic that your fans can quickly consume, and repurposing the video content into a blog post, etc.
If you are executing a brilliant idea in one medium, there is no reason why you can’t present that idea in various other formats as well. People respond differently to different types of content, so as you continue to repurpose, you will reach a wider and more varied audience, and you will save a lot of time that you would’ve spent finding and creating new content.
2. Let your fans do the engaging for you
One of the most beautiful things about social media is, if used right, it can act as a forum for people to communicate about what is important to them. Instead of posting about your brand all of the time, take the time to ask thought-provoking questions to your audience, and let them do the talking.
For example, Sam Baitz of Shield Funding runs a bad credit business loan company, and takes the time to ask questions on Facebook that are of interest to any small business owner.
When he posts these types of questions, he gets more likes, shares, and comments than when he simply posts an interesting statistic about small business loans. These thoughtful questions elicit helpful answers, and small business owners have a space to bounce ideas off one another—namely, your space.
Additionally, the more fans engage with your Facebook posts, the more opportunities they have to see, enjoy, and support your brand.
3. Be wise about your branding
There are thousands of ways to promote your brand, but with little time (and sometimes little budget), you have to focus on consistent and clever branding.
Your Facebook page should mirror your website. Use the same colors, fonts, and images to create synergy between your website and Facebook page. When your website and Facebook page mirror each other, it sparks a familiarity that makes customers feel comfortable.
This same principle applies to all of your social media outlets. Be consistent with your branding across social media channels, so followers who know and love you on Facebook can find you easily on Instagram or other networks. This applies to your logo, the “name” of your social handle and the way you position and message yourself across channels.
Starbucks, one of the best consumer marketing companies, does this very well, so their fans know they are following the true Starbucks on any social channel.
Source: Rival IQ Coffee Landscape
Other things you can do is create custom tabs on Facebook that showcase your products and services. Make who you are and what you are all about obvious. Do this by including custom images.
4. Take advantage of Facebook buttons
This shortcut is so simple, yet is often overlooked. If you want more engagement on your Facebook page, then it is vital to provide your followers with easy ways to get to your Facebook page. You can do this by adding Facebook buttons to your website, mobile site, and blog.
You can also link your other social media accounts back to your Facebook page. For example, if you have a Pinterest page, make sure you link your Facebook page. That way your Pinterest followers can easily find and follow you on Facebook as well.
If you are extra ambitious, you can even add a QR code that links to your Facebook page to your printed materials.
5. Monitor and measure your results
Most marketers would agree that all social followers are, in fact, social customers, and the reason for a business Facebook page is to get conversions. As such, it’s necessary to track your engagement, influence, likes, subscribers, or whatever metrics are most important in helping you reach your goals, in order to find out how to best reach your customers.
It’s common to assume you know what your customers want, but it’s a lot easier to follow the data in order to truly understand exactly what it is your customers need and want. Use Facebook Insights and other tools to really understand what content is driving the most engagement with your target audience. Also, don’t just look at your own content. Track and learn from the competition and what they are doing to attract and engage fans.
Facebook Most Engaging Posts – Rival IQ Retail Landscape
The more you monitor, track, and measure your results, the less time you will spend coming up with a social media strategy that works for your followers.
Implement these 5 shortcuts today!
If you are part of the 1/3 of business owners who would like to spend less time on social media, and I dare say, make sure the time you are spending is spent wisely, then start implementing these shortcuts into your Facebook strategic marketing today. Also, if you have any social media time savers that have worked for you, we would love to hear about them in the comments.
