We all knows that A/B testing is a common occurrence in advertising and can help advertisers figure out which ad elicits a more favorable response in their target audiences. Now, advertisers are taking this process further - using multiple (sometimes thousands) of different ads presented on their Facebook page to figure out which one garners fares best, which is measured by how many likes it receives from fans of the page.
Attempting to assign monetary value to a Facebook like is another story, however. Eventbrite, an online event management service, delved a bit deeper into the process of monetizing online sharing and came up with a number (specific to Eventbrite) with an initial average DPS (Dollars per Share) of $2.53 per Facebook share, $1.34 per Facebook like and $0.80 per Tweet. As their study continued, they uncovered various items of interest, including that the type of event has an impact on the amount of shares and that higher sharing rates occurred once customers were on the order confirmation page of the ticket ordering process. The full results of the study can be found HERE.
EContentMag.com posits that Facebook likes are more about increasing brand awareness, not sales.
A Forrester report published in April by Mulpuru titled "Will Facebook Ever Drive eCommerce?" shows that only 3% of respondents had used Facebook to purchase products. For certain businesses, mostly those offering online games or virtual goods, Facebook as a source of ecommerce is plausible, but the social model will not work for most other companies. Mulpuru says that the only "reasonable figure" quantifying Facebook's monetary value would look at a "direct and tangible benefit that is tied back to sales."The article goes on to claim that the key purpose of Facebook fan pages is for listening - attempting to strengthen customer relationships with the brand by figuring out what it is they want and expect from the brand.
I've seen an increase in social media interaction between companies and their customers in the past year, and can only imagine that it will continue to become a larger and larger influence in building these relationships. It will be interesting to see if more companies can attempt to monetize their social media outlets and measure their Facebook effectiveness in terms of sales per like.
I wholeheartedly agree that companies are increasing their interest in social networking to boost brand awareness. I have seen actual goals created by several companies. One other increasing trend is that companies are formally coaching their sales and general employee population on how to use it for maximum branding/most favorable branding impacts. Also, non-profits have really stepped up their use of social networking for volunteer engagement and fundraising coordination.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's been interesting to see how non-profits are able to utilize this less expensive form (the only real cost is labor) of advertising. I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen more of an effort in this area.
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