Do you think if you ask someone to “like” you on Facebook, they’ll do it? Chances are some people will, but if you give someone an incentive to like you, you’ll have a better chance at grabbing that Facebooker’s attention.
There’s a reason you want people to like you, too: For marketers, a “like” is almost as powerful as an email address, said ecommerce platform provider MarketLive founder/chairman Ken Burke during a session at the NEMOA Spring Conference in Boston.
Burke showed examples of what some merchants are doing to get people to like them. Apparel merchant Jockey unlocks its Facebook page to nonfans when they choose to like them, and that means the customer can learn more about the company.
Sierra Trading Post does something a little more conventional: If you choose to like them, the discounted products merchant will give you a discount off your next purchase.
Kelly Goldsmith, ecommerce manager for women’s apparel merchant Title Nine, showed how using Facebook likes as a contest driver helped it get 8,300 new fans during the second quarter of 2010. The company gave away a $199 gift card to random people who decided to like them.
While the like is powerful, Burke added that the value of the Facebook fan may not be quite as valuable as the email address. Citing a recent study by Responsys, Burke said social media drives just 12% of the revenue that email marketing does.
But there’s a reason, Burke said: Social media is a two-way communication channel that merchants can use to talk with their customers, while email marketing is used largely just to drive sales.