Should You Be Growing Your Social Media Fanbase Or Monetizing It?

by aschmidt

Growing_or_monetizing_Facebook_fanbaseSocial media plays a crucial role in any marketing campaign, as it allows you to market your products and service in a fast and efficient manner. However, growing your fanbase can be a daunting task that takes years of hard work, and while some business owners choose to naturally grow their social media fanbase, others choose to monetize it. There’s a lot of ongoing debate on which technique is the most efficient one, so should you be growing your social media fanbase or monetizing it? (Answer: both. Here’s how.)

1. Answer Your Fans’ Questions

Not answering your fans’ questions is probably the biggest mistake you can make on social media as a business owner or online marketer. It shows lack of respect and professionalism toward those who actually take their time to ask you something, either because they want to find out more about what you have to offer, or because they are genuinely interested in placing an order. Either way, it is very important to take your time and offer them the information they need.

However, replying to their inquiries is not enough, as the timeframe also plays a vital role – the faster you reply, the better! Statistically speaking, people are up to 50 percent more likely to recommend your social media page to friends and relatives if they feel appreciated by you.

2. Post High-Quality Content

This is the number one best practice when it comes to social media – whether you’re monetizing or growing your fanbase. Drawing the attention of your followers is almost as difficult as converting them into customers, but before you can do either, you must post interesting, engaging and compelling content. This can take the form of content that the reader identifies with is educated by, or it can be an entertaining video, photo, etc.

Another form of high-quality content is a contest, and it’s one of the most popular ways to increase your fanbase and possibly monetize it. For example, you can launch a contest that encourages people to share an image with a discount code for a particular item you sell with their friends, then choose a grand prize winner from those who shared the discount image. You’re getting new followers who want to join the contest as well as new customers who want to use the discount code.

3. Use Paid Advertising on Facebook

Paid advertising generally has a negative connotation as it’s often associated with spamming and other bad marketing practices. But paid advertising is widely used on Facebook, and doesn’t come with the same bothersome effects.

Facebook conducts thorough research before it shows users advertisements and “Suggested Pages” depending on their likes and preferences or their queries. Facebook then suggests users to “Like” your page, and this suggested post will show up in their news feed for quite a while.

The great thing about this kind of advertising is the fact that this will only attract people who are truly interested in what you have to offer because, as mentioned above, Facebook only displays the recommended pages to those who are likely to be interested in them. This is your target market, and by increasing your social media fanbase with prospects from your target market, you can dramatically increase your sales.

4. Make It Worth Their While

Customer incentives have long played a crucial role in the advertising/marketing process. People are more likely to place an order or click the “Like” button on your Facebook page if you give them something – it doesn’t have to be much, but something of value and relevant to your product or service will work wonders.

5. Post Limited-Time Offers And Flash Sales

This is yet another great way to increase and monetize your fanbase. What makes flash sales and offers so useful is not just the fact that they stimulate your fans to spread the word about your business, and creates a sense of urgency that they’ll miss the deal if they don’t act now. Posting a flash sale that gets people a deep discount for number of hours and encouraging fans to share it will help your website traffic and sales skyrocket, as well as add new fans to your social media networks.

 

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