Fishing for Fans on Facebook

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A recent promotion was brought to my attention where a services firm was holding a giveaway of some really desirable items to build their company’s Facebook fan base on their Facebook Page. I had never seen this type of promotion before, but I guess it isn’t surprising that people are starting to fish for fans on Facebook for their Pages. A lot of fans means that a lot of people like your company and what your company offers, right?

Wrong. I’d be hesitant to use the number of fans – large or small – on a professional services company’s Facebook Page to measure how good a company might be. Why? Because not all companies are the type of businesses that people would fan. Think about it. Why do people fan a company’s Facebook Page anyway?

1. Because they are customers and like the product(s) or service(s) - but what if they are a very small, rural company with a small customer base. Does that mean that if they only have 100 fans they aren’t successful?

2. Because they like the people who run the company - but not everyone who runs a company puts themselves out there in the public eye so does this mean a company with a more quietly productive, behind-the-scenes team isn’t a good one?

3. Because they know the people involved with the company - but how do you discern who of the fans are really real-life friends or family members of the company team?

4. Because they want to define who they are by the companies/products/services they like.

But how valuable is it when people are fanning your company’s Facebook Page because they want to win a prize? If I were to see a small consulting firm – like Conversify, for example – with 500+ fans on Facebook, I’d actually be pretty suspect.

Why? Because we can’t realistically service 500 customers at this stage in our company. I’d venture to guess that over the 20+ years I’ve been doing consulting, I’ve probably had over 100 clients, but in any given year, maybe 15-20 tops. This year to date, we’ve worked with about 15 clients and probably will work with another 10-15 before year’s end. I haven’t asked them to fan our Facebook Page, but maybe I should ask if they’d be willing to do so. Even with an invitation, I would consider those legit fans.

I think there are many companies that do lend themselves to many fans such as any of the Web apps companies developing great tools via the Web. That’s scalable. Products companies that are national or international can realistically have a large fan base. But small services companies just aren’t the type of company to organically get a huge number of fans, and I don’t think that is a bad thing.

If you want a lot of fans on your Facebook Page, create a page for something that people want to rally around, support or align themselves with but that doesn’t mean give away valuable gifts as an incentive. Once the gifts are given away, what do you have? A lot of disinterested people who have no more reason to follow you unless you run another contest. Or they will “un-fan” you toot sweet.

Sure, there could be the arguement that even though you are getting a lot of empty fan connections because people are only fanning you to try to win a prize, the very act of them connecting with your company Page means that their friends on Facebook will see that action and might – just might – link over to your Page out of curiosity. And then a few of those people might – just might – need your services and contact you.

I say that’s a lot of work and wasted effort to reach people indirectly. And when they get to your Page and see an announcement that you’ve built your fan base by offering prizes – what then?

Having 500 or 1000 fans on Facebook should not be any company’s goal. Having meaningful connections with happy and loyal customers, interested potential customers and people willing to be evangelists for your company even without your prompting is far more valuable – even if those numbers are in the double digits.

Quality fans matter far more than quantity.

What do you think of promotional tactics to build up a Facebook fan base? Is it authentic? Sustainable? Desirable?