If your organization has a Facebook page I am guessing you are monitoring how many friends you have and how many folks have “liked” your page.  In an effort to learn more about Facebook trends and analytics I recently spent a few minutes (okay many many minutes) reading through Facebook’s Facebook and the Media.  This help section on Facebook can provide you with a ton of statistics about the activities and demographics of users sliced and diced in innumerable ways.  One word of caution – the Wall Street Journal published an article just today questioning the validity of some of Facebooks claims – this specifically on the value of Facebook ads – so buyer beware.  The phrase “Lies, dammed lies, and statistics” popularized by Mark Twain comes to mind.

However, what I really wanted to tell you about is what Facebook has to say about the value of a “liker” someone who likes your page.  The study they discuss looked at Facebook users that “liked” an article written by a news organization (talk about targeting your audience) and what the study revealed.  Likers are “are more engaged, active and connected than the average Facebook user. The average “liker” has 2.4x the amount of friends than that of a typical Facebook user. They are also more interested in exploring content they discover on Facebook — they click on 5.3x more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user.”

The article then makes some suggestions for how to up the number of likes your page receives.  They suggest that you optimize the placement of a like button by putting it near the most “engaging” content you have.  Then publish back – or be sure and post status updates regularly, ask questions of your audience and respond to comments made to your posts, thus creating a conversation, something we have talked about here before.  And use an Activity Feed or Recommendations plugin – an activity feed shows the most popular content from your site at the top of your page (based on number of comments and number of likes the content has received) this will help ensure your most engaging content if fully exploited.

Hosting a Live Event?  Use Live Stream to engage your supporters during the event –you and your participants can post status updates, photos etc in real time allowing everyone to share in the event.

While an exact ROI on Facebook liking isn’t clear yet – rest assured that one is coming.  Hopefully you will hear about here first. 

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Blog by Joyce