By Linda Bustos
Consumers follow brands on social because they presumably want to hear from them — Twitter’s own study found 52% of consumers want to be notified of special offers and 51% want to stay on top of brand news. 44% want to learn about new products, and 30% want access to exclusive content.
But it ain’t easy reaching Facebook Page fans organically in their News Feeds. Competing with their friends’ selfies, promoted posts, cat videos and Trending News is hard enough, while Facebook’s algorithm allegedly continues to bury Page posts.
NFO (News Feed Optimization) is a moving target, but a new addition Facebook’s News Feed controls enables users to select friends and Pages to see first in their Feeds.
Users can already opt-in to “Get Notifications” from any friend or Page, and it’s not known how many take advantage of this feature, if for nothing other than lack of awareness. Notifications can also become quite cluttered, especially if a user is active posting, commenting on many threads, attending a lot of events, etc.
The new promoted News Feed feature offers better visibility than notifications, but may go un-leveraged without a bit of evangelism from brands and retailers.
As an ecommerce marketer, you want your fans to opt-in to this feature. How can you max your chances of hitting the News Feed 100% of the time?
Signal vs Noise
Less filler, more killer. You want to entice your existing fans as well as new to “susbcribe” to your content. This means each post has to deliver value. Look over your timeline and think about what content is “unmissable,” and which is ho-hum.
Remember, new Likers may scan the last few posts to gauge whether your content in interesting enough. There’s no room for B-grade posts! Consider exclusive Facebook-only offers and content, and be sure to label it as such.
Use a Cover Photo Call-to-Action
Your Cover Photo is real estate you can use to communicate any message, but many brands and retailers use simple images.
What if White House Black Market’s Cover Photo was designed to promote this opt-in?
If you’re going to use this approach, be sure to include a the value prop on why one should opt-in, such as exclusive deals or content.
Evangelize by Email
Brands and retailers commonly request social following on website boilerplate and in email. These are additional areas where customers can be informed of the option to “never miss a post” by selecting “See First” in Newsfeed settings.
Consider sharing “how to” in the occasional social post, post-sale confirmation or even shipping inserts.
As with CVV2 credit card fields, it’s best for usability to show visual instructions.
Can you measure success?
Unfortunately there’s no way to view when or which followers add you to See First or Get Notifications – this is a spray-and-pray tactic. Organic post reach may increase if you have a number of followers ensuring your posts always make their Feed.
You can’t expect the majority of your followers to take this action, but for the motivated brand fangirls and fanboys that do, ensuring they never miss your Facebook content is win-win. This tactic is about maximizing your social opportunities with those that are most connected to your business.
Via:: Get Elastic eCommerce
