If you do social media right for your small business, your customers will become more loyal. If you do social media wrong, you will lose customers. But how do you know which category you fit into for certain?
We’ve been seeing a lot of situations where business owners are blasting their Facebook connections too frequently on Facebook with a pushy sales message, and it’s turning off customers. How do we know? Facebook provides outstanding Insights for Page administrators now, and one of the metrics you can monitor is the number of fans who have chosen to hide your posts from their News Feed. This means that you didn’t LOSE the fan, per se, except that you really did because they have hidden you from their view by removing you from their News Feed. This is bad…very bad.
Unsubscribes indicate that you were saying worthless stuff or being too annoying or in their face with your small business Facebook messages. Your business was basically spamming it’s Facebook connections. Think whatever you like about them, but their opinion matters and on Facebook they can do something about it – they click the “hide” button, and you’re outta there. Never to market directly to them again via their News Feed. Not cool.
So, what I recommend is taking a closer look at your Facebook Insights.
1. Go to the Insights, click on your Page name on the left hand side of the screen (it may default to your Page if you only administer one Page).
2. Then, right under your Page name on the left hand side two words will appear: Users and Interactions.
3. Click on “Interactions” and the top graph they show will be for “Daily Story Feedback.”
4. This graph shows the number of “likes,” “comments” and “unsubscribes” for each day.
5. If you see a spike in “unsubscribes” on a certain day, look to see what you posted on that day or around that day. And don’t do it anymore. If you see a steady stream of “unsubscribes,” that also is an unhealthy sign because you might need to re-think your Facebook strategy and messages overall.
However, if you only get a rare unsubscribe, congratulations, that is an indicator that you’re doing Facebook well, and is a sign of Facebook health – that can only lead to increased customer loyalty since they hear from you more often and in a more valuable and meaningful way.
If you do Facebook the right way, lukewarm customers will become fans. And existing fans become super fans as they follow – evangelists that spread the word and point new customers to your business through social media in droves. The personal relationship, access and frequent top-of-mind provided by Facebook and social media usage in general secures customer loyalty like nothing else can. Check those Facebook Insights and measure your own Facebook marketing health.
What are your Facebook Insights telling you? What other Insights do you find important for your business? Share with us in the comments section below.
