What’s the True Value of a Facebook Like?
A few days ago I received a request on my Facebook business page asking me to ‘like’ another business page. No problem, I get requests like this from time to time and have done the same, so I usually honor the request. This one however gave me pause because this request came from a business in California.
Now I could understand if this request was from a travel agent or a visitor’s bureau…I’m on the east coast and I may want to visit the west coast someday so it makes sense that they would target someone like me. But this request was from a business that builds homes in California. If this business had bothered to do any type of market research, they would have known that I was not their ideal customer: I have never visited the west coast, have no desire to visit the west coast and I already own my own home, so that got me to thinking about the true value of a ‘like’.
Is it so important to have a like that you target any and everyone just hoping to get that count up? Does it really matter if you have hundreds or thousands of ‘likes’ if most of those people are not in your target market and will never use your services or buy your products?
In the world of social media, it seems that some people are so caught up in having more: more likes, more followers, more page views, that it doesn’t matter who they are or how they get them just as long as they get them. But if you’re a business and those ‘likes’ aren’t converting into sales or building your brand, what exactly is the point?
I could say I have 1,000 Facebook likes (I don’t) but if the majority of those people are not in my target market and will never use my services, what have I gained from those ‘likes’? It might look impressive to have that number up on my page but unless that number is putting money in my pocket, it’s just a number on a screen.
Look having big numbers in social media is like an ego boost; a validation that what you’re doing matters and is important enough to have people ‘like’ what you do or follow you and if that’s all that matters to you, fine keep doing what you’re doing to get those numbers. But if you’re a business trying to make money then you really need to think about what the true value of a like is to you and focus on building quality rather than quantity.
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