On the trail of a new currency for the digital economy

Dorota Zielińska

More fans = more visits. You know the rule – the more fans you have, the more people will see the posts on your timeline and most likely then visit your webpage? And do you know that even if this is true not everyone will see them? There is one indicator more important than the number of fans. 

The number of fans is a measure of how successful a fanpage is, being accessible and understandable to all. It is well positioned, visible and almost defines how attractive a page is. It is often more interesting to readers than the content it presents. The headlines of many trade articles talk about actual statistics relating to the size of accounts belonging to big brands and famous personalities. New promotional campaign records draw our attentions “X and Y close to a million Facebook fans (report)”, “X has over 60 million fans”, “Presidential elections – how candidates handle social media? Current statistics”. There are those which encourage quick successes “How to get 10,000 Facebook fans in a month (Case Study)”, “5 ways to get more Facebook fans. These are numbers which impress and make it seems like the number of fans is the Holy Grail of social media marketing. 

The number of fans as indicator of popularity? 

Seeing the page of an actor who has 30,000 fans some might think this is a weak performance, because “real” influencers have much bigger pages. Influencers who do not reach 100,000 fans fall into the category of small or micro performers, which is linked to the quality and value of contracts on offer. Some of the content we researched online makes it sound like a given truth that the number of fans is evidence of how popular a webpage is. A business page on Facebook which has 10,000 followers is meant to be more popular than one with a thousand fans, apparently leading to many additional benefits.

This is a good starting point for us to consider the character and function of social media in serving the private sector. Benefits represent a key to understanding social media the way they really are.  Their magic is in taking part. The collectivity of content releases advertising potential, which is essential for brands to thrive in the digital economy. Users are a marker of how strong a brand is, giving it merit through active involvement.  

Considering all this, is a thousand fans on Facebook a lot? Olga Tokarczuk – the Polish Nobel prize laureate – an award given for remarkable scientific, literary and humanitarian achievements – had up to 30,000 fans on Facebook before being awarded this prestigious prize. Now her page is liked by over 110,000 users, while her posts are frequently commented upon and shared. The posts are interesting in and of themselves, but the comments are also a source of interesting information. The Prószyński i S-ka profile is liked by 50,000 users, but few react to posts. Which of these brands is more valuable in terms of the digital currencies of trust and engagement? 

Number of fans as a sign of trust? 

Apparently, if you don’t understand the relationship between Facebook fans and business trust, you know nothing about digital marketing. In such moments, this widely quoted proof of effectiveness indicates that in today’s world a prosperous firm, website or blog should have a lot of fans on Facebook. But is this true? What do these numbers represent? 

The total number of fans of a page tells us how many times it has been liked, in net numbers, after we subtract those who have unliked it. Statistics relating to how a page is liked or unliked can be seen in the admin panel. More fans should mean more page visits. It should also mean a greater chance of displaying posts on the users’ timelines. This is however wishful thinking, because after Facebook algorithms were changed, only a small percentage (no more than 4%) will see a status update. If a profile is liked by 10,000 fans, a maximum of 300-400 fans will see the update. No more than 2% of them will react, meaning 6 to 8 persons. This means trying to get as many fans as possible makes no sense.  

This is why, seeing as the purchasing of fans is a debatable practice, the U.S. Department of State, which spent 630,000 US Dollars to increase the number of Facebook fans from 100,000 to 2 million between 2011-2012, reduced Facebook spending by 90% following an audit. Many factors were involved in making this decision, but the fact that the organic growth of a fanpage is impossible, based solely on fan numbers, was decisive. 

We should remember, when judging the aims of advertising activities on Facebook, that it is 

a commercial organisation designed to first and foremost generate profits. This is why Facebook is gradually limiting the organic reach of content posted on pages, meaning brands have no other choice than to pay for the promotion of their posts. And yet, spending money will not do much good, if the content is not engaging. The effectiveness of paying for extra Facebook reach is much larger if the promoted content is good enough to generate extensive interactions. While the full reach of posts with several interactions is on average only 2-3 times larger than organic reach, the total reach of posts which has over 5000 interactions is almost 90 times bigger than organic reach. This means that the effect of promoting posts is very much strengthened if the level of interaction is high. 

This must resound loudly enough. Organic reach is related to interactions, and not fan numbers. Engagement is a currency exchangeable for reach, fan numbers have no positive or negative influence upon it.  

Do fan numbers affect SEO?

The discussion about whether social media activities are also good for SEO has been going on for many years. Officially, Google does not acknowledge that social media is a ranking factor. However, many studies show that popular Facebook sites are more effective at searching than less popular sites. Defining popularity is the most important issue here. Surely, you have often searched for something under current discussion and obtained results from a few years ago at the beginning of the list, despite the fact that there are many more current sources. This happens because, among other reasons, older materials are well indexed, and have current comments, which confirms their credibility and popularity for Google. In this case, popularity is the same as engagement.

Catchy phrases and reality 

Advertising slogans which offer free fan packages or quick successes for little money are becoming commonplace. In search of visible increases, especially at the beginning of their Facebook activity, administrators use their personal accounts and invite all their friends to like a fanpage. People who are Facebook friends are more likely to like and interact with the fanpage, which temporarily increases the engagement rate. Ultimately, however, this is to the client’s detriment. Because the fanpage is intended to group customers, not friends of your advertising agency employees, who will never buy anything from you, right? So make sure the administrator has not invited all of their friends to like your business page on Facebook.

Many experts recommend placing the LIKE button on your website, which allows visitors to like the fanpage without visiting Facebook. Mechanical clicks and fans who don’t remember ever actually liking your a page are not income, but a waste of effort. Especially when advertising algorithms are attached to a fan page to identify the optimal customer type based on current fan data. If they decode the wrong customer characteristics, they will direct ads to the wrong target audience.

Are you still convinced that having a large number of Facebook fans is important to your website and business?

Nothing comes for free, but communication in social media, even despite the increasingly restrictive policies implemented by site providers, is cheaper than say television advertising, and easier to measure in terms of effectiveness, allowing you to engage the public. Publishing ads on social media is a natural way of developing communication for brands. Therefore, when planning sales channels, it is worth choosing the right communication formats at the brand discovery stage. Taking as a starting point the answer to the need for a properly profiled target group that will achieve two goals: reach and engagement. Intriguing content allows you to select the recipient because of their interests, gives time to “fixate” upon the subject and invites activity. The brand becomes more important, which prompts further steps, e.g. to provide data and direct contact.

Communication in social media is for those who are in it for long run 

The future belongs to organizations which understand that social media communication is not based on the frantic accumulation of likes and coverage, but those able to respond to the needs of customers and then to guide them on a decision-making journey towards a happy ending through analysis of behaviour, interests and participation.