Ekalavya Bhattacharya

After being involved in running Facebook Fanpages for more than a year and after seeing a client’s page cross 500K, I thought I’d share some of the learnings….

• Please don’t be obsessed by the number of fans on your page. At the end of the day, that won’t matter. It might get you as an individual a better job, but the brand will only benefit from the way the fans engage with it.
• Have a content plan for your page.This is very important. Its the age old saying of ‘Content is King’ which is the basis of social media. Don’t expect UGC to drive the page. Content created by users will be the way they will engage with you.
• Have a long term plan. Think at least 6-12 months. Don’t expect miracles from agencies in 1-2 months. They’ll simply blow your money to advertise and get you numbers (fans) which you can show your boss. The numbers which will matter down the line will be what are your fans telling you and is this helping your business.
• Analytical angle - See what’s working. Maintain a record of posts which work. Posts which have got users to contribute should be noted. Note the posts which didn’t work or got negative (unexpected) responses. Avoid these mistakes in the future.
• Communication - Be real. Don’t push your brand 24/7. Figure out your TG and figure out their likes and dislikes. If your TG is Male 18-24…they are bound to love cricket and football. Celebrate with them when VVS Laxman guides India to a very very special victory. Mourn with them when their team loses in the Champions League finals. Join their daily conversations.
• Don’t keep questioning yourself - But why will anyone want to be a fan of my page? You’ll realise this somewhere down the line. Its not something which should bother you now. If your product has buyers, you’ll get ‘likers’.
• Advertise Smartly - Be sure you have a smart person / company handling your ad buys. Force yourself to get involved. Figure out Social Ads, Cost Per Action, Conversions from Banners, Conversions from Landing tabs etc.
  Most traditional digital media buying agencies will take you for a ride. Study which banners worked and which didn’t. Experiment around with small amounts by trying different copy but for major spends stick to what has worked. After spending a considerable amount, take a break for a week or 2. Study the organic growth in this period. See if your organic growth rate has increased because of your spends…
  If your organic growth rate hasn’t increased, it means your campaign failed.
• In the future, use your fan page to drive sales. If a 500k+ fan page is not increasing your sales…its #Fail. Get feedback from users. Engage them with interactive contests where they have to take pictures with your brand/product. Basics of influential marketing.
• Finally repeating point no. 1….
  Don’t be obsessed by the number of fans on your page.
  Years back when everyone had personal websites, they would proudly display a stat counter with the number of ‘hits’ their website got. No one does that anymore. Behaviour changes. Number of fans on your fan page won’t matter. Soon everyone will have 500K fans on their page….
  At that time the thing that will differentiate you from the rest will be your ‘Active Users’. Create evangelists…that’s what social media marketing is about.

For those of you who want to see a small case study of AXE (A brand I’ve worked on) can catch it here: AXE Angels Club - Case Study (Facebook)

You can reach me at - ekalavya.b@gmail.com