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Last week we finished up the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program and while some people may or may not have reached the 3,000 fan target, the real question is: does the number of fans really matter? Last night I was watching a video of Seth Godin where he says “it’s worthless to have lots and lots of friends on Facebook.” With so many people selling the importance of having fans, followers, and friends though, how could Seth Godin, a thought leader in marketing, make such an assertion?
It’s Relationship Marketing
Seth has a valid point. If you don’t build valuable relationships with people, do those relationships really matter? I have numerous friends on Facebook that have found me through this blog but for those that have never spoken to me, the relationship really doesn’t matter much because we have nothing to discuss. In my “5 Phases of the Facebook Sales Funnel” article, I highlighted how Facebook is a platform for relationship marketing.
However day after day, we look at the Facebook pages leaderboard to see who is the new company to surpass one million fans. Can you use that distribution for promoting discounts? Most definitely! Will it drive sales? Seth Godin doesn’t think so but for Dell, the company was able to generate $1 million in sales from their Twitter usage. For a company with $61 billion in annual sales, does that really matter? Your guess is as good as mine.
Cocktail Parties Are Good For Selling Cocktails
Will 3,000, 12,000, or 1 million fans alone make your business more successful? Honestly, I doubt it. Social media is like a cocktail party and while it’s cool to be popular at cocktail parties, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up making more money. There’s a good chance however that you’ll end up getting drunk. The opportunity is to interact with fans that previously would have had no way of getting in touch or for those passionate (or angry) customers to reach out to you directly.
You also have the opportunity to build real relationships with existing and future customers. However, if the only thing you want to keep track of is how many fans you have (or how many business cards you collected at a cocktail party), you probably aren’t going to build any sort of significant new business from leveraging these new technologies. These new platforms (Facebook Pages, Twitter, etc) provide you with the opportunity to build real relationships, but if you don’t use them for that, your missing the point.
Do you agree/disagree? How important do you think a company’s number of followers or fans matters to generating business?
It’s worthless for someone trying to friend someone like Seth Godin because he doesn’t use the services. For someone trying to friend someone that actually uses these services there is the potential of real relationships to be built with those people. He’s right - you have to “earn the privilege of one day having that connection be worthwhile.” This only works on Social Networks if they are actually using those Social Networks (which not everyone does).
Great article and a common question. With my own staff we define 2 areas. PARTICIPATION and USAGE. We concentrate on using our budgeted time to either focus on one of these 2 actions. Participation through individual engagement such as a comment, like or message. USAGE through building followers from links, notes, photo’s or general content.
Excellent post Nick. My favorite part: “Social media is like a cocktail party and while it’s cool to be popular at cocktail parties, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up making more money. There’s a good chance however that you’ll end up getting drunk.”
That part couldn’t be more true. We’re so obsessed with numbers, yet ignore converting those numbers into relationships. I wish everyone shared your opinion on this topic; then maybe we could finally evaluate people and companies based on quality of content and conversations instead of popularity.
Great article. It’s a shame how most people don’t understand the POWER of social media or even how to use it and most importantly, how it can benefit your business for the long haul. Building relationships is key… that’s why it’s called “SOCIAL” networking!
Great article. It’s a shame how many people don’t understand the POWER of social media….let alone how to use it. Social networking can benefit your business for the long haul. Building relationships is key… that’s why it’s called “SOCIAL” networking!
I guess it all goes back to purpose. My number one purpose on Facebook is building credibility among (second purpose) the most number of people possible. The debate of quality vs quantity should only become an issue once I begin maxing out my quantity. On a personal level, I’m nowhere near the 5K max friends on Facebook, so there’s little conflict.
I say “little conflict,” because there’s always the potential of losing a real friend’s quality content in all the superfluous news feed information I get from connections who may not be providing much value.
Good points here. On a side note he really looks like the guy from the 6 flags commercials! lol
From a nightclub promoters stand point numbers are good but your mostly ignored. What we have found @ Palm Beach House is the simple things such as replying to updates, posts, or simply saying hope your having a good day, or posting a Happy birthday has helped us to stay relevant in the area and convert these “Social Fans” into real life connections and think that is the difference….Creating these relationships in real life.
Relationships only work if you have a connection to your fans and friends on facebook. These relationship can produce leads, but I find you have to sometimes coax their interests with facebook only offers and other promotions.
Seth you’re a genius so I’m not about to begin arguing, but I think that Jesse has a good point. How can you understand a service like facebook without actually using it Seth?
p.s. 25 Free MP3 Downloads from emusic on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groundswell.media.productions
I think that the number of fans may be slightly insignificant but i look at it this way. all the fans that i have are support and are helping me and my company grow as a whole. the interaction between the consumer and the producer lets the producer know alot faster what the consumer wants. it also helps build a relationship letting the consumer know that the producers are actual humans and not money hungry blood sucking vampires a.k.a. corporate criminals lol.
i think the facebook fan page has really helped my website http://studiosixfive.com and it has really helped me get local/international exposure. right now we are still a young company in its ifancy but i am able to reach a broader market faster. i am able to update my fans/consumers on the fly.
another way i look at it is 1000 fans could mean 100 sales. and from those 100 sales it could mean another 100 sales. with a new tshirt line coming out in less than a week this is important to me. the people who are the fans now (i have less than 500 currently//just found your site am going to impliment your strategies) are the back bone, those are the ones that care.
Great article. On our FB page for our business we are more concerned with how to interact with fans and how to craft updates that a appeal to their interests related to our business. We would be thrilled if our fans and customers would tell us the kind of relevant information they are interested in.
I think you are talking only about making bussines out of facebook. We are talking here about a social network what was created for social purposes in the first place and not for bussiness purposes. I do not think many facebook friends like to be targeted by bussineses as they are not for that reason on facebook. So making business out of it will fail for that reason alone. Some people are only broadcasting thier status updates and are for that reason on facebook some others wants to create surface friendships some others wants to build constructive friendships. The chance of that success is greater when you find like minded friends with similar interests on facebook. I happen to manage to add evangelic christians to my account and we manage to set up deep discussions by now and then.
The best way of avoiding being targeted by advertisers on facebook is by using the firefox webbrowser and add the adblock plus application.
I am very interested in this question, but from a slightly different perspective. My wife is running for the California Assembly and has nearly 700 supporters on her FB campaign page. Her likely Democratic Party primary opponent has fewer than 20 supporters on his page.
While we have found FB to be extremely useful as a way of quickly and inexpensively contacting people and getting out news and information, we have no idea how or whether any of it will translate into votes.
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Her campaign FB page is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90628476440&ref=ts
I don’t agree wit Seth
I really don’t get him. Why does he speaks about relations? The man didn’t ask him about relations.
Is networking useful only for building relations? Or can it be used also for different goals?
I’m not Seth and I think so, and I also think Seth agrees. Am I wrong?
It’s amazing how hype becomes so difficult to separate from the facts. Marketing schmarketing lives on!