The treacherous waters of social media are not for the faint hearted. It can be hard to stay afloat amongst the constant stream of information that Facebook provides; birthdays, events, pictures of babies and dogs… How can your brand fit into that?
Answer: By acquiring ‘Likes’. Once a user ‘Likes’ your page, your brand will slot nicely into that stream, and your posts, offers and other content will appear next to that picture of the dog asleep upside down.
But how can you keep those ‘Likes’? You need to keep users engaged so that your Facebook page is seen as useful and helpful, and not something that needs to be removed from the home page.
When someone ‘unfriends’ you, no matter who it is, there’s still a pang of disappointment. Most people ‘unfriend’ another user because they annoy them. And it’s the same for brands.
A recent study by Lab42 found 73% of social media users ‘unliked’ a brand because of the following reasons:
- Brands posted too frequently.
- The user stopped liking the brand.
- The user had a bad customer experience.
They also asked why users don’t ‘like’ brands on Facebook:
- 47% said brands clutter their newsfeed
- 36% of people don’t want to be contacted
- 30% of people were concered about their privacy
- 27% only wanted to post relevant things to their life.
Facebook users may even be put off from ‘liking’ your page. 22% of users are embarrassed to like certain brands, for fear it may tell their other friends. The top three products people are embarrassed about are:
- Adult novelty items
- Diet/weight loss products
- Health and wellness.
If your company falls into one of these categories, don’t worry. People obviously like your product – just give users the chance to hide that they’ve just liked your page. This can be done through the help centre on Facebook.
Of course, there are users that love brands on Facebook. In fact, 82% of people said Facebook was a good platform for interacting with brands. And of that, 50% of users found the brand’s Facebook page to be more helpful than the official website. So it’s definitely worth investing time and effort into.
There are still ways to encourage your existing ‘likers’ to stick around and to entice new ones to ‘Like’ your page:
- More giveaways
- Post less often
- Let the user hide that they like your brand
So now you know why people don’t stick around, and what users want from a Facebook page. Now you’ll need to learn how to implement this into your social media strategy.
Via: Social Media Today & Lab42
