As many marketers out there are still trying to figure out social media and how to grow their fanbase on Facebook, we thought we would share this story with you.
In July 2009 Mr Tapio Junes started a group, or a "cause", on Facebook against drunk driving. With very little effort his cause had virally spread to reach 42.000 followers in March 2010.
Starting the spread
In July 2009 Mr Junes started by googling the web for facts and statistics about drunk driving. He posted these on his Facebook “Cause page”. Tapio sent a message to his friends in Facebook. The message was simply a comment about these facts, “Are you annoyed by this too?” The spreading really took off when he started posting news items, video clips and statistics about drunk driving. He never actually sent direct messages to the followers, he emphasises that catchy news on group’s Wall is enough to get followers work for the common purpose.
Maintaining the growth
On a typical day 20 to 60 new followers join the cause, and statistics in Facebook show that many of these instantly attract 1 to 2 additional new members. All Mr Junes does anymore is post a new news items and related videos on the group wall every now and then but the viral spread is continuing. As this is a topic that engages many people it has also spurred active commenting on the pages.
So, let’s summarize what we learned from this case:
1. Start the spread with a short core argument to existing contacts. Make sure it has some news value to make it interesting and credible
2. If possible, support your messages visually. Choose images that have a similar impact as your core argument.
3. Be active and give members a reason to be active and keep coming back: The best reason to be is frequent and interesting updates, so look for interesting sources and always introduce your material by describing links. A great method for writing relevant descriptions is to simply ask yourself “why am I posting this link”.
4. Let the group members take care of inviting people, this occurs if you manage to keep the pages interesting and up to date.
5. Don’t “spam” people with messages, people do not like huge amounts of messages from the group owner
6. Celebrate growth of the group by thanking when you reach milestone numbers!
PS. (For your reference, the Finnish Anti Drink driving group can be found in Facebook on: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/108740 )
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Friday, 26 March 2010
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Online viral surveys on Facebook
OR: How you turn 200 fans into a million responses at zero cost
We’re very excited to present a solution that will change online surveys forever. The new Facebook application from Webropol allows for viral spreading of surveys. This means you can harness the force of social media for product development, idea generation, feedback, and virtually any other kind of surveys. The application will help you turn 200 respondents into a million responses – at virtually no cost!
To be honest with you, even we think it’s quite a bold statement to say that you can somehow turn 200 people into a million responses. That’s why we start this blog post by putting our money where our mouth is.
Let’s say you have a modest Facebook fan base of 200 people and you send out a message with an online survey link attached. A response rate of 25% you will get you 50 responses. However a good result this is, it’s not using nearly the full potential of social media nor nearly reaching all 300 million Facebook users. What if you could somehow reach the friends of the respondents and the friends of those, and the friends of those...?
The force of viral spread
The average user of Facebook has 130 friends. This where the WEBROPOL application begins: when a person responds to a survey, she can show it on her news feed for her friends to see. When you factor in that 130 friends of each of the fifty who responded see the survey, you reach an additional 6500 pair of eyes. And if just a modest 5% of those take the sur vey, you have 375 responses more. Once again, the friends of those who responded see the survey in the news feed and answer. At just three steps from the original respondents, you could have tens of thousands responses.
Should your viral response rate hit as high as 20 per cent, you would get a staggering million answers with just three levels!
How does it work?
Using the WEBROPOL application is a no-brainer. You simply create a normal survey and paste its link into the application. Then you go to your Fan Page and send an update to fans. There you can even target the recipients based on location, age and gender. Just click ”send” and wait for the responses to drop in!
Free to use and no ads!
The WEBROPOL application is 100% ad-free: there are no annoying ads, no pop-ups and no intrusive messages. It’s also worth mentioning that no information is passed on to any 3rd party. The application is absolutely free to use and there are no separate licence fees or hidden charges.
If you you’re not using the Webropol online survey software yet, you can still create simple polls with the Facebook application. Then just click ”Polls” and send out a poll to your friends!
Try out the Facebook application right away!
Glossary & Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a Facebook Fan Page?
In Facebook’s own words, a Fan Page is ” a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories linking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As these friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.” It’s completely free to set up and operate a fan page even for commercial purposes!
Just to get an idea of different fan pages, have a look at these: Coca-Cola, Pringles, Nokia, Webropol.
How many people are on Facebook?
According to Facebook its users have on average 130 friends. The number of Facebook users amount to over 300 million spread world-wide. Every day more than 8 billion minutes are spent in Facebook. For more information, see the Facebook statistics page.
We’re very excited to present a solution that will change online surveys forever. The new Facebook application from Webropol allows for viral spreading of surveys. This means you can harness the force of social media for product development, idea generation, feedback, and virtually any other kind of surveys. The application will help you turn 200 respondents into a million responses – at virtually no cost!
To be honest with you, even we think it’s quite a bold statement to say that you can somehow turn 200 people into a million responses. That’s why we start this blog post by putting our money where our mouth is.
Let’s say you have a modest Facebook fan base of 200 people and you send out a message with an online survey link attached. A response rate of 25% you will get you 50 responses. However a good result this is, it’s not using nearly the full potential of social media nor nearly reaching all 300 million Facebook users. What if you could somehow reach the friends of the respondents and the friends of those, and the friends of those...?
The force of viral spread
The average user of Facebook has 130 friends. This where the WEBROPOL application begins: when a person responds to a survey, she can show it on her news feed for her friends to see. When you factor in that 130 friends of each of the fifty who responded see the survey, you reach an additional 6500 pair of eyes. And if just a modest 5% of those take the sur vey, you have 375 responses more. Once again, the friends of those who responded see the survey in the news feed and answer. At just three steps from the original respondents, you could have tens of thousands responses.
Should your viral response rate hit as high as 20 per cent, you would get a staggering million answers with just three levels!
How does it work?
Using the WEBROPOL application is a no-brainer. You simply create a normal survey and paste its link into the application. Then you go to your Fan Page and send an update to fans. There you can even target the recipients based on location, age and gender. Just click ”send” and wait for the responses to drop in!
Free to use and no ads!
The WEBROPOL application is 100% ad-free: there are no annoying ads, no pop-ups and no intrusive messages. It’s also worth mentioning that no information is passed on to any 3rd party. The application is absolutely free to use and there are no separate licence fees or hidden charges.
If you you’re not using the Webropol online survey software yet, you can still create simple polls with the Facebook application. Then just click ”Polls” and send out a poll to your friends!
Try out the Facebook application right away!
Glossary & Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a Facebook Fan Page?
In Facebook’s own words, a Fan Page is ” a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. When your fans interact with your Facebook Page, stories linking to your Page can go to their friends via News Feed. As these friends interact with your Page, News Feed keeps driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.” It’s completely free to set up and operate a fan page even for commercial purposes!
Just to get an idea of different fan pages, have a look at these: Coca-Cola, Pringles, Nokia, Webropol.
How many people are on Facebook?
According to Facebook its users have on average 130 friends. The number of Facebook users amount to over 300 million spread world-wide. Every day more than 8 billion minutes are spent in Facebook. For more information, see the Facebook statistics page.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Facebook in a business context: Case KSBKids
We are delighted to announce our first guest writer on the Webropol blog: Malene Hansen Stanley from KSB Kids. Her contribution is based on her acclaimed presentation at the social media seminar arranged by the National Business 2 Business Centre at the University of Warwick in June 2009.
Social Media and Facebook
by Malene Hansen Stanley, KSBKids
We are all in different places in our “online” journey; some struggle with basic websites, some of us are confused by the vast options available and some have been swept away with social media fever. I, like many others are still not 100% sure how social media can add to the bottom line, but I do think the opportunities are undeniable.
For www.KSBKids.com we have focused on Facebook. We sell children’s clothes and our prime target market is mothers. Many of whom have Facebook accounts.
Facebook has more than 300 million registered members; it grows at a rate of 250,000 new members a day and is among the 4th most trafficked websites. The fastest growing segment of users is the +25 years, professionals, in the workforce, - known to be loyal and repeat customers. Some argue that FB holds the key to this segment! Additionally, 53% of FB users have kids.
The KSBKids approach
We use FB to build our online profile, strengthen our “digital footprint” and to create brand awareness. In the long term social media can positively affect a company’s brand, which strengthens a behaviour that ultimately leads to sales. Our objectives for using FB include;
How to build your social media approach
Before deciding where to focus resources, you should identify meaningful communities, forums, etc. It is essential that you know where your customers spend time online, “fish where the fish are”. Don’t succumb to the temptation to “be hip” …. “I MUST be on Facebook” unless you have a strategic business rationale to accompany it! Consider aspects such as:
I always stress the importance of having a vision and a plan, but I do believe when using FB for business you have to adopt a trial and error approach. Have a strategy, but don’t wait until you have the perfect plan. Be transparent, honest and open with customers. They will appreciate it, but it does run counter to what we have been taught for decades … it defies our traditional idea of being professional.
As you create your vision and craft your message - listen to your community. Gather and digest customer ideas and comments, incorporate their intuitions into your thinking. This should not be a hardship duty, - your customers are your greatest ally!
You have to find your unique voice that sets your company apart and this can be a great challenge. Creating a FB fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication and planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, promote it and over-time the community will grow. The more content you create and the more you engage with fans, the more people you will be able to reach.
Be visible, commit, stay active and come from a place of content, - not a place of marketing. Be prepared that social media is slow and steady - it is frustrating! However, avoiding experimenting with the social web is a greater risk than experimenting with it and failing!
Malene Hansen Stanley
www.ksbkids.com
info@ksbkids.com
The writer is the entrepreneur and a mother of two and owns KSB Kids. You can learn more about KSBKids on Facebook and Twitter.
Social Media and Facebookby Malene Hansen Stanley, KSBKids
We are all in different places in our “online” journey; some struggle with basic websites, some of us are confused by the vast options available and some have been swept away with social media fever. I, like many others are still not 100% sure how social media can add to the bottom line, but I do think the opportunities are undeniable.
For www.KSBKids.com we have focused on Facebook. We sell children’s clothes and our prime target market is mothers. Many of whom have Facebook accounts.
Facebook has more than 300 million registered members; it grows at a rate of 250,000 new members a day and is among the 4th most trafficked websites. The fastest growing segment of users is the +25 years, professionals, in the workforce, - known to be loyal and repeat customers. Some argue that FB holds the key to this segment! Additionally, 53% of FB users have kids.
The KSBKids approach
We use FB to build our online profile, strengthen our “digital footprint” and to create brand awareness. In the long term social media can positively affect a company’s brand, which strengthens a behaviour that ultimately leads to sales. Our objectives for using FB include;
- Increase sales
- Drive visitors to our website, fan page and blog
- Get found by people searching for our product
- Connect and engage with current and potential customers
- Create a community around our business
- Use FB to promote other content that we create, e.g. blog
- Keep customers informed
- Conduct market research e.g. polls
How to build your social media approach
Before deciding where to focus resources, you should identify meaningful communities, forums, etc. It is essential that you know where your customers spend time online, “fish where the fish are”. Don’t succumb to the temptation to “be hip” …. “I MUST be on Facebook” unless you have a strategic business rationale to accompany it! Consider aspects such as:
- How it will FB affect your bottom line?
- Do you offer a product that is relevant to its users?
- Do you target your most active purchasers?
- Can you positively influence WOM?
- How can you create viral brand awareness?
- Will it provide valuable market research/feedback that will result in more sales?
I always stress the importance of having a vision and a plan, but I do believe when using FB for business you have to adopt a trial and error approach. Have a strategy, but don’t wait until you have the perfect plan. Be transparent, honest and open with customers. They will appreciate it, but it does run counter to what we have been taught for decades … it defies our traditional idea of being professional.
As you create your vision and craft your message - listen to your community. Gather and digest customer ideas and comments, incorporate their intuitions into your thinking. This should not be a hardship duty, - your customers are your greatest ally!
You have to find your unique voice that sets your company apart and this can be a great challenge. Creating a FB fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication and planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, promote it and over-time the community will grow. The more content you create and the more you engage with fans, the more people you will be able to reach.
Be visible, commit, stay active and come from a place of content, - not a place of marketing. Be prepared that social media is slow and steady - it is frustrating! However, avoiding experimenting with the social web is a greater risk than experimenting with it and failing!
Malene Hansen Stanley
www.ksbkids.com
info@ksbkids.com
The writer is the entrepreneur and a mother of two and owns KSB Kids. You can learn more about KSBKids on Facebook and Twitter.
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