There was a period of time when just growing a Facebook Fan base was enough. Now companies are wanting to see a stronger ROI on their social media marketing spend. For retailers, it is all about monetizing Facebook Likes. The 2011 Social Commerce Study that looked at how shopping is directly influenced by social media, polled 1787 adult online shoppers in April 2011. According to the report, 42% percent of online consumers have “followed” a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer’s blog. More interesting though were the reasons consumers gave for following brands:

• 58% of respondents said they follow companies to find deals
• 49% of respondents said they want to keep up to date on products
• 39% of respondents said they want to find out about contests and events

Social media is clearly a great way to build a brand but companies should be monetizing Facebook Likes. According to the survey:

• 56% of Facebook users say they have clicked through to a retailer’s website because of a Facebook post and 35% would be likely to make a purchase directly from Facebook
• 67% of Twitter users say a post has spurred them to click through to a website and 32% would be likely to make a purchase directly from Twitter

What tools should retailers be using to address their existing and potential customers’ needs?

1) Engage your customers and potential customers:

• Contests
• Polls
• Quizzes
• Sweepstakes

2) Give your customers and potential customers reasons to return:

• Coupons
• Group buying

How should retailers be measuring their Return on Investment?

• Impressions (and here are four simple tools to help track impressions)
• Conversations
• Sales
• Profit after expenses

Tags: Facebook Likes, Facebook Strategy, marketing spend

This entry was posted on June 7, 2011 at 10:00 am06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Facebook by kevinedwardlong No Comments Yet