CHAPTER 4

Invite Your Customers to Be Your First Fans

You’ve started a Facebook page and a Twitter account for your company. You’ve put up a YouTube channel, started a blog, sharpened your LinkedIn profile, and you’ve even added a button on your website promoting your Facebook page. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to do to “join the conversation” with social media.

Yet up until now, the results have been dismal. You have a ridiculously low number of fans, considering the size of your business, and the only person you’re having a conversation with is yourself. (OK, maybe the guy in the cubicle next to you has joined in too.) But the promise of social media that you’ve heard so much about is far from being fulfilled. You don’t know what you’ve done wrong or what you need to do to get on the right track to social network success. Where are all of your Facebook fans? Why isn’t everyone giving you the like stamp of approval?

There’s no reason to worry. No matter the size of your organization, gaining lots of fans on Facebook, followers on Twitter, and subscribers on your blog and YouTube is far from automatic. The bad news is that you’re going to have to work for fans, friends, and followers, but the good news is that everyone else has to as well. There are international brands that spend millions of dollars in marketing each year with fewer than a thousand fans on Facebook and no official Twitter presence at all—so whatever situation you’re in right now, you’re in good company and still have time for improvement.

The Internet is nothing like it was 10 years ago, when people endlessly surfed the Web. Many people just don’t access information on the Web in that way anymore. If anything, users surf the Web using their own personalized Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn filters to look for relevant and recommended content. Moreover, people are increasingly accessing the Web through their smartphones and favorite mobile apps. What that means for you, as a company, is that whether you’re a huge brand or brand-new, people who don’t know your product or service already are unlikely to be your first Facebook fans or Twitter followers.

So who will become your first social media brand advocates? Your strongest assets are customers, staff, partners, and vendors. However, to leverage this goodwill, you have to ask them to support the company through social networking and tell them why they should. Explain the benefits of social networking to your current supporters. Tell them why it is imperative that your company move forward with social media initiatives. Describe the ways their actions will help your company in your marketing and advertising efforts, and make sure they understand how valuable their participation is in this process.

THE LIKE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE LINK

Ten years ago, if you built a website for your company, you didn’t expect thousands of strangers to just visit it, did you? Instead, you used other marketing initiatives and assets to direct people to your website and to publicize the website address or link wherever you could. Sometimes people checked it out, and if they were interested in your content and trusted you enough, maybe they even stayed a while or purchased your products and services. Or if other related companies found your content useful, it was possible that they would link your website to theirs, in exchange for you linking their website to yours. This linking took place in the hope of creating more “link value,” greater search engine optimization, and more website traffic. Today, however, the like is more important than the “link.” Getting people to your website may help them learn about your company and maybe even buy something, but getting them to like you on Facebook does two additional things that will contribute to your company’s long-term success.

First, when people use the like function, they subscribe to your updates, allowing you to have a conversation with them on Facebook forever, unless you erode their trust and they unsubscribe. Second, it introduces and endorses you to every one of the users’ friends. The average person on Facebook has 350 friends, so with every like, you’re exposing your brand to another 350 potential customers, or more. Can you imagine if every time one individual visited your website, she shared that fact with 350 of her friends? (“Hey ladies, I just visited this site. Check it out. It’s so great!”) The same phenomenon is true for followers on Twitter, subscribers on YouTube or your blog, and other social networking outlets, but the numbers aren’t as big as those on Facebook.

Simply put, the more likes the content receives, the more often it will be viewed, and the number of people seeing and accessing the content will grow over time. There are long-lasting effects of the like in Facebook search optimization: once you acquire a like on your page, any of that person’s friends will see this during future searches. So if you’re an attorney and one of your clients has liked you on Facebook, any time one of his friends searches for an attorney in the future and finds your page, your client’s testimonial (“Your friend John likes Bob the attorney”) will be right there waiting for him. If you represent a children’s car seat company, once one happy mommy customer likes your product on Facebook, her friends will quickly see her endorsement, and that will be more powerful than any impersonal advertisement.

HOW TO GET THE LIKE: DEVELOP YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION

Before you started reading this book, maybe you already understood the capabilities and importance of Facebook’s like function. The question you might have now, however, is how do you get people to actually like you on Facebook? No matter how well known your brand is currently, you’ll need to provide a value proposition to your customers, staff, vendors, and partners, some sort of benefit they will receive from becoming your fans. In other words, don’t just tell them to like you. Tell them what’s in it for them, and tell them in a way that’s about them, not you.

Consider the following two different calls to action:

Like us on Facebook now at FB.com/LikeableLocal.

versus

Ask us your social media questions anytime at FB.com/LikeableLocal.

The first one is totally brand-centric. Why would you read that and decide to like our company unless you already knew us, loved us, and trusted us? The second call is consumer-centric, and it is likely to generate a lot more action, not only from people who already love us and trust us but also from casual, first-time customers and maybe even prospects. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about your customers. Whatever you can do to encourage activity on your Facebook page will in fact encourage likes, without actually asking for them. For instance, Oreo asks customers on the company’s packaging: “To dunk or not to dunk? Let us know at Facebook.com/Oreo.” The company is encouraging people to share their opinions. It is not just telling them to like Oreo’s online content—yet, more than 37 million people have liked the company on Facebook.

The value proposition might be different for each constituency. For example, you may want to invite your own staff to like your page with the incentive that they can post questions to the CEO, some of which will receive responses. For customers, however, you may invite them to access a discount.

By giving people a value proposition for joining you and then surrounding your customers with that value proposition, or others, at every opportunity, you’ll convert customers into fans, and that’s where things begin to get interesting.

Why should people like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter or LinkedIn? What’s in it for them that’s of value? How can you summarize that value in a short, easy-to-understand call to action? The answer is, it depends on your business or organization. Here are several real calls to action from clients to help you think about why people should like you:

  •   Share your feedback with us at FB.com/VerizonFiOS.

  •   Win prizes and join the conversation at FB.com/1800Flowers.

  •   Your medical questions answered at FB.com/KenRedcrossMD.

  •   Free support for quitting smoking at FB.com/NYCquits.

  •   Connect with other moms like you at FB.com/striderite.

  •   Get some at FB.com/NYCcondom.

It’s not about you. It’s about your customers (see Table 4.1). In the same way that the Web quickly became too big for you to tell people to visit your website without telling them why, Facebook is too big to tell people—even your customers—to like you without telling them why. It’s essential to develop that value proposition and then integrate it into your communications with customers and prospects.

TABLE 4.1 Top 10 Reasons Consumers Like Fan Pages on Facebook*

*Source: Based on a report from CoTweet and ExactTarget, cited in Paloma Vazquez, “Why Do People ‘Like’ a Company or Brand?” PSFK, November 1, 2010, PSFK.com/2010/11/why-do-people-like-a-company-or-brand.html.

Getting the like approval is essential for everyone, but it is even more important for smaller businesses and new organizations, which can utilize such free social media and word-of-mouth marketing to grow their fledgling companies. Don’t be afraid to ask anyone in your organization’s circle of influence to like you. Just don’t do it without creating value for whoever that audience is. You’re not going to get likes from anyone without giving him or her a valid reason. On the other hand, you’re also not going to get likes from anyone without reminding him or her to like you. Give them value and opportunity, and your vendors, partners, staff, and friends will join you.

Where Should You Tell Customers to Like You?

You should provide potential followers and fans with value propositions to like you in as many places as possible. Here are a number of places to consider integrating the call to action to your customers:

  1. On your website

  2. On every e-mail you send out as a company

  3. On every staff person’s e-mail signature

  4. On every business card you hand out

  5. On every brochure you print

  6. On every receipt you hand out

  7. On every piece of snail mail you send out

  8. On every inbound phone call to your company

  9. On every outbound phone call from your company

10. On all of your packaging (as in the Oreo example)

11. On all of your in-location signage

Some of these more antiquated techniques—snail mail and brochures, for example—are given new vitality and purpose both for you and your consumers if you can connect them directly to your online social network.

Text to Like

Most people don’t carry their computers around with them wherever they go, but just about everyone has their smartphone with them almost all the time. Facebook has a little-known “Text to Like” feature that’s powerful in converting anyone to like your page without being in front of a computer. Simply type “like [page name]” from anywhere in the United States, and send it to FBOOK (32665) from any mobile phone connected to your Facebook account, and you’ll like that page. Don’t believe me? Test it out right now—I don’t mind. Grab your phone and text “like LikeableLocal” to 32665. Then you’ll be able to ask our company any questions you have about social media or this book, and you’ll receive a quick response. (Thanks for the like!)

The “Text to Like” feature has vast implications for any business with real-life physical locations, any product sold in stores, and any retail or restaurant locations or government services. Imagine if you’re waiting in line at a deli or a department store, and you see a note posted near the register that reads, “Text ‘Like OurStore’ to connect to us on Facebook, and get 20 percent off your next purchase.” As a customer, you are getting an incentive that makes this offer compelling, and it is likely you will probably check it out. As a marketer, consider how to integrate such marketing and advertising into your customers’ experience.

If you take a long view on such activity, the rewards are bountiful. By focusing on getting the like instead of making an immediate sale of a particular product, it’s true that you might not sell as much product to that customer as fast as you had wanted to. But with the power of Facebook’s social graph, you will create an average of 200 potential new customers for every user who likes you. If that customer comes back to you weeks later and brings a friend or two, isn’t that more valuable than a single, initial sale? More long-term opportunities are therefore created for marketers less focused on immediate sales and more focused on obtaining likes.

A NEW INTERNET SALES CYCLE IS BORN

A prolonged recession and an increased focus on, and ability to measure, every click on the Internet has led to the marketer’s obsession with driving subscriptions and sales through Web and e-mail marketing. But if you step back and consider the value of the like compared to the immediate sale, you’ll see that a long view will yield a better return.

E-commerce: Sales Now or Likes Now?

The typical e-commerce site features dozens, hundreds, or thousands of products for sale, many of which are often purchased as gifts. Every piece of text and graphics on such a site has been carefully optimized to drive as many clicks to the shopping cart as possible, attempting to maximize immediate sales. This strategy made sense before the arrival of the social Web, but what if that same e-commerce site were optimized for people to share what they liked by clicking the Like button on as many products or categories as possible? This function would create a permanent record of each visitor’s interests. Then, friends of the visitor could go to the site, see the exact products their friend indicated he liked, and they could then buy it for him for a birthday, holiday, or some other reason. As a company, you’d get fewer immediate sales, but you’d set yourself up to significantly increase your conversion rate (the percentage of website visitors who buy your products or take further actions) in the future.

Wouldn’t you be more likely to buy something online for your husband or your wife if you saw that he or she had already shown interest in it by liking it online?

Professional Services: Like as the New Referral

Websites for doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, and other service professionals are set up now to convince you to call them—to take action now. But what if these websites were set up to generate likes? If professionals took the time to say to all of their current clients, “If you are satisfied with our services and would like to let others know about your exceptional experience with our company, please like us on Facebook,” or “Ask us questions on our LinkedIn page,” these professionals would instantly begin creating a valuable network, not only growing their exposure but also building a clientele who highly trusts them.

Five years ago, if you wanted to find a lawyer or accountant, you might have done a Google search and found those practices that had spent money on search engine marketing so that their site would be the first to pop up on the screen. Now, to find a lawyer or accountant, you can do a Facebook or LinkedIn search of your trusted friends or colleagues and find a practice to which they have given their approval. Are you more likely to pick a lawyer or doctor at random online or rely on the recommendation of a friend?

Dr. Ed Zuckerberg and Aesthetic Family Dentistry (Even Dentists Can Be Likeable)

Edward Zuckerberg, DDS, is a practicing dentist, for many years based in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and now in Palo Alto, California. He also happens to be the father of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Facebook. Known as “Painless Dr. Z” by his patients, Dr. Zuckerberg is proof that anyone’s business can benefit from utilizing social media. Dentists have always relied on word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals to increase their business—today, social media allows this to happen much more passively and efficiently.

Let’s face it, most people don’t like going to the dentist (sorry, Dr. Z). If you’re anything like me, you consider a dentist appointment more like a tolerable, necessary evil than something you find the least bit enjoyable. Consequently, smart dentists everywhere have gone out of their way to make their practices as tolerable as possible, including friendly front office staff, bright colors on the walls, interesting magazines and other reading material, and toys for children’s visits. In addition to these things, which make the physical experience better, Dr. Zuckerberg has taken the steps necessary to make his practice more likeable on Facebook.

When you first walk into the office, you’ll see a sign saying, “Like us? Then Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/PainlessDrZ or text ‘like PainlessDrZ’ to 32665 to join the conversation.” This action alone is more effective than the actions taken by 99 percent of all dental practices in the world in driving likes. People sitting in the waiting room are a captive audience, and it’s the perfect opportunity to convert customers into online fans. However, the conversion opportunities don’t stop there.

Dr. Zuckerberg’s e-mail appointment reminders include a call to action to ask questions about your upcoming visit on Facebook, and new patients are invited by phone to “get to know us better before you come in by checking out our bios on our Facebook page.” These techniques lead to patients feeling more comfortable on their first visit, but they also lead to more likes.

So far, more than 60,000 people have liked Dr. Z on Facebook—which has led to more than two dozen new patients. I had a Facebook friend whom I don’t know that well send me the following message: “Saw you like Dr. Zuckerberg. Is he a good dentist?” To which I replied, “Yes!”

She became a patient the next week of the world’s most likeable dentist.

Another likeable dental practice is Aesthetic Family Dentistry in Port Jervis, New York. Dr. Seth Horn and his team encourage patients to like their Facebook page by sharing pictures of their patients on their Facebook wall. Almost every patient who comes in for an appointment gets his or her picture taken with various props. At the end of the appointment, the patient gets an FB business card that says, “Tag your photo on FB.com/AestheticFamilyDentistry.”

Aesthetic Family Dentistry went from having just a few likes to having over 350 likes in a matter of just two months. Although they haven’t quite caught up with Mark Zuckerberg’s dad, for a small practice, that is great organic progress. Parents especially love tagging their kids in the dentist’s chair with a giant foam thumb (Figure 4.1), and now the practice has nearly all their clientele as Facebook connections. Think about how much easier it is for this practice to stay top of mind with their patients on a daily basis.

 

FIGURE 4.1 Happy Patient in Her Likeable Dentist’s Chair

WHAT IF YOU DON’T CONVERT YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS?

There is a risk in focusing on converting your current customers to fans. Seasoned Internet marketers will argue that there’s no guaranteed ROI on generating likes from your consumers or prospects. They will also claim that by focusing on generating more likes on Facebook, you’re inherently decreasing your immediate sales.

Every time someone clicks Like, they’ll say, that’s one less click on buy now. This may be true, and you may see a dip initially in online conversions when you first shift some of your marketing strategy to gaining likes as compared to buy nows, but you don’t really have a choice. If you want to grow a social presence, you have to take the time and energy to attract the low-hanging fruit: your current customers and other people who know you. From there, you’ll gain other fans and followers who are likely to eventually buy from you. But you have to start with your current customers.

Uno E-mail from Uno Pizzeria & Grill Leads to 100,000 Fans

Uno Pizzeria & Grill is a large chain of family-friendly restaurants throughout the country but concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest. Known best for its deep-dish pizza, Uno serves up a wide variety of lunch and dinner foods to many thousands of people each week. Uno had been on Facebook for longer than a year, but up until September 2010, it had just 30,000 people who had liked it on Facebook. That’s a decent number to be sure, but considering how many customers they serve and how many fans competitors like Chili’s and Applebee’s had, it was a number Uno Pizzeria & Grill wanted to increase dramatically.

The company had placed a call to action to like Uno both on its website and at the bottom of every weekly e-mail it sent out to a large subscriber list. But Uno believed that a dedicated e-mail with a strong value proposition to its customers would drive action much more significantly than simply requesting to be liked by current fans. The company decided to offer a free appetizer to all fans if it reached 100,000 fans—more than tripling a number that had grown organically over the course of an entire year.

Instead of offering a coupon or call to action to visit a location or book a group or make a reservation, the company’s weekly e-mail told recipients only to do the following: “Like us on Facebook to earn a free appetizer. Share this with your friends, and when we hit 100,000 fans, everyone will win a free appetizer on us.”

Within 24 hours of the e-mail message going out, Uno Pizzeria & Grill had gained more than 10,000 new fans, and within three months, it had reached its goal of 100,000. It didn’t get as many sales from that one e-mail as it usually did, but that didn’t matter for long. Many thousands of people enjoyed their free appetizer at Uno—and most of them stayed for dinner and dessert, far outpacing the sales lift that the e-mail message usually created. Uno e-mail, uno big return.

THE ROAD TO LIKEABLE SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS IS PAVED BY YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS

Once your current customers have liked you, you can begin to earn momentum using content, ads, promotions, and the organic virality of the social graph. But until that happens, you’ll be listening and talking in a vacuum. Don’t just tell your customers to like you. Tell them why they should like you. Make it about them, not about you, and you’ll get the likes and follows you’re craving to grow your social media network and sales overall.