How much value does a Facebook Like have? I posted this comment on Facebook the other day regarding the influence a social media Facebook Like has---or basically, what is the financial value of a 'Like' as quoted by Heather Whaling, president of Geben Communications: Having a lot of 'likes' will not pay your rent or your mortgage. The bank doesn't accept 'likes' as collateral." Sooner you get familiar with the new Facebook page design, the bigger competitive advantage you can gain.
One of my Facebook friends took offense to the quote by saying "Likes have value." Yes they do have value, but how many marketers can substantively say that Facebook is generating an income sufficient enough to quit their day jobs, and work full time from home making an income off the social media network? Not many, there is only one Mark Zuckerberg. However, there are many webinars, whitepapers and special reports that can help assist marketers in how to make a Facebook Fan Page engaging and relevant enough that it generates leads which can lead to an outbound lead program that will create prospects from those leads. But, the key is, how many marketers are actually attending those professionally hosted webinars getting free and invaluable information so that they can learn how to do this? I can guarantee you that it is only a small percentage of the ones on Facebook. Social media tremendously expanded the potential of inbound marketing so HootSuite & HubSpot have paired to talk about the science of inbound marketing.
One way to do this is by integrating social media marketing with email marketing. Did you know that "without proper practices in place your social integration efforts may not be as profitable as they could be?" Yet, many marketers shoot blindly at a target of 900 million users (the amount of people who have Facebook accounts) hoping to get the attention of a few, then will hound them to death to make one or two sales. Why not, take the time, a week, a month, as long as it takes, get the best practices in place to do it right, and make a lifetime income? Facebook Likes do have power, they are very valuable, that's why NBC Olympics has a Facebook page with 159,494 likes -- you can bet most of these people, if not all of them will be watching the Olympics and using Facebook to comment about their likes, dislikes with the programming as well as their most memorable moment right on Facebook. Those Likes have a financial value tied to them because those people will be watching the Olympics, thus watching the commercials intertwined within the Olympics and making purchases of some of those advertised products (which when this occurs, advertisers make money and NBC can continue to charge for those ads.) This is a tangible metric that comes from social media marketing and the power of a Facebook Like. But, NBC did not just throw up a Fan Page and hope for people to Like it, they developed a marketing plan that had a beginning a middle and an ending, just like any book you might read.
The power of a Facebook Like lies in the behind the scenes planning of that Like. As a marketing professional, you want to work your marketing plan in reverse order, that is, know what it is you want your social media marketing campaign to accomplish, then figure out how to accomplish this goal, then learn which segment of your target market you will be focusing on. If you don't know who this is, or how to discover market segmentation, contact me for a private social media marketing consultation. However, if you choose to just throw marketing messages up on the wall hoping something sticks, then go right ahead. As my grandfather used to say, "keep throwing at the wind, one day you might hit something." The only problem with that theory is you can't pay your bills on hope.
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