Driving engagement and results on Facebook #SMWLDN #WeAreSocial

On Wednesday morning I went to the breakfast briefing at with We Are Social at the ActionAid headquarters near Farringdon. Here’s what I learnt about Facebook:

Josh March- Conversocial

• The most successful Facebook campaigns were due to the engagement management rather than budget.
• Advertising just multiplies the effect of good management.
• Success is not just about the number of ‘likes’.
• Around 85% of all interactions with fan pages happens on the news feed.
• The most recent news feed contains all content.
• Facebook has an algorithm which selects content you’ll find most interesting.

(Explained further: Inside Facebook- News Feed Optimisation by Justin Smith)

• Lots of engagement means more visibility for your brand, but makes it more difficult to moderate.
• Photo albums get more attention from NFO because they add three photos at a time.

Case study: Tesco Clothing

• Aim: to raise awareness of Tesco’s clothing brand on Facebook amongst fashionistas and frugal individuals.
• Started with a blank canvas and without cross-promotional support from email, had to prove worth.
• Firstly, created a strategic plan for queries or customer service.
• Worked on a series of separate campaigns including Friday Frenzy.
• Friday Frenzy was a 50% off flash sale for 2 hours.
• This led to 40,000 new followers in one day and 9,515 interactions.
• Tesco extended its sale for those who couldn’t join in.
• Brand made a weeks profit in 2 hours.
• Martin Lewis blogged about it.
• Audience changed, no longer fashion focussed, more family focussed.
• Initial testing allowed them to tailor content.
• Audience loved giving opinions on products.
• It’s important to reward brand advocates, community leaders appear.
• Put fan features on the blog.
• Give out Facebook exclusive codes but be aware these will leak.
• Integrate themes on Facebook with other social media.
• Clothing At Tesco can track £1 million in sales from their Facebook page.
• Gained 10,000 new fans from first Facebook application.
• You have to focus on it daily.
• Each community is unique, you need to understand the theme and tone.
• Don’t over-incentivise people, use competitions when appropriate.
• It should be a conversational place not for one-way updates.

Case-study: Visit Britain

• Create self-sustaining content.
• Commitment is better than campaign.
• Make sure there’s a value exchange.
• The Love UK page aggregates checkins at tourist destinations and pulls them into a chart.
• They also held a ‘win a trip to the UK’ competition.
• Have 80/20 split of foreign to English users.
• Places leaderboard boosted their activity.
• Gained 60,000 followers in six months.
• Helps stimulate the travel market.
• The data available on check-ins is currently minimal.