Today’s post Tom the Agitator ”the chicken or the egg” poses the question as to whether using Facebook as opposed to typical customer driven incentive marketing makes customers loyal.
The study sited on his post shows that consumers who became Facebook fans of a cafe dessert business, purchased, visited, and spent higher average dollars at the cafe than other customers who were not FB fans. He asks the question. If customers were given some form of incentive card would they be just as loyal as those who did not have one? He thinks so. I honestly don’t know but coincidentally, just this past week, I did a test using FB advertising as a vehicle for gaining new fans, and customers.
In just one week, fans on the Designs by Lucinda Facebook page increased by %100. I’ve also seen an improvement of %50 more traffic on my website. Through Google Analytics I can see they are coming directly from Facebook. Fans are flooding my FB page with endorsements and praises of me (batting my eyelashes wildly right now) and my product as well. From my perspective it does not matter which is better or even if one creates a more loyal customer than another. What matters is that more people now know about my product and services, are sharing with friends, and I can continue to build relationships with them through a medium of social networking that I can not do with incentive loyal customer punch cards. I believe customer loyalty will come from the relationships that I nurture not the discounts I offer.
I urge all non profits to create a presence on FB and build a fan base. It provides an easy means of expression to educate an audience, promote events, brag about accomplishments, and ask for help. And it’s FREE! Hello?????
Happy Fundraising!
Lucinda
PS: If you aren’t a FB fan of mine you can become one now.
