While I appreciate your attempt to be socially engaging with your brand you haven’t really done anything to be socially engaging. Indulge me for a moment.
As I am sure you already know, its all the rage these days to build an engaging Facebook page if you plan to cultivate a following and rightfully so. Taking advantage of the tools that are out there to help you create a fancy Facebook page makes sense for your company and your fans. But whatever you do, don’t leave your fans stranded on your page with nowhere to go or nothing to engage in.
Let us use Flip Burger here in Atlanta as our case in point and let me add this as a disclaimer, I love this restaurant. Seriously, they are amazing if you are looking for an incredible burger and shake but lets break down their Facebook page for a minute.
When you visit the page you see this wonderful image of one of their killer milkshakes prompting you to like their page and “sign up and join the conversation”. Ok, sounds good right? Click on that “like” button notice NOTHING happening? I’m stranded on their Facebook page with nothing to do, I was ready to sign up and join the conversation. Hell, it doesn’t even take me to their wall, I’m stuck looking at this picture of a milkshake. I liked the page and nothing happened, what gives? This is a missed opportunity for Flip Burger; at the very least they could have captured my information once I clicked that like button. After all I was ready to sign up.
So what am I rambling about?
What I am referring to is what I call “Fan Gating” your page. Creating an image, similar to the one you see on the Flip Burger page that is designed to prompt a user to click that magical little like button. Once that user clicks “Like”, that image should be replaced or “turn over” to display some sort of exclusive engaging content for that new fan. What we are doing is saying to our potential fans, “hey like us and check out something really cool” or “like our page and we will give you an exclusive coupon to redeem”. In the case of Flip Burger, according to their “sign up and join the conversation” message, that page should of flipped over and displayed some sort of sign up form. It could be a sign up for a mailing list, a coupon, a giveaway or really anything else they would like to offer. This way at the very least they are capturing that users information for future marketing efforts.
Here is the Flip Burger page:
http://www.facebook.com/flipburgerboutique
vs.
A proper fan gated page by The Milwaukee Motorcycle Clothing Company
http://www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeMotorcycleClothingCompany
As I said this is a missed marketing opportunity but nonetheless an awesome burger and shake, if you’re in Atlanta I suggest you get there, NOW.
10+ Years of SaaS 