In Nielsen’s State of the Media: 2011 Consumer Usage Report, I learned that 29% of all pages a person views online are Facebook pages. With so many people spending so much time on this social media outlet, companies are turning to Facebook as a valuable tool for both gaining new customers and engaging loyal ones.
At Flint Group, we’ve been working with many of our clients to harness the power of Facebook, from traditional ads to interactive contests and check-in deals. We’d like to share some highlights from the last few months.
SunButter Facebook ads
SunButter is a sunflower seed spread—a great nut-free alternative to peanut butter. Flint Communications has been working with SunButter to create Facebook ads since 2009, and we’ve seen great success with a recent campaign featuring multiple ads geared toward specific audiences.
Our goal was to help SunButter increase its fan base and spread awareness of its products to moms, school administrators, those with nut allergies, and people who eat special diets where SunButter fits in, such as gluten-free or paleo. Here’s a sample of the creative work:
Some of the ads link to the “like” tab of SunButter’s Facebook page, while others go directly to the SunButter products page, the SunButter schools page, a Facebook landing page about paleo eating or the SunButter blog.
The ads were displayed about 1.7 million times from January 23 to February 12. During this period, 2,900 people clicked on one of the ads, and SunButter gained more than 1,700 likes—that’s almost a 30 percent increase in less than a month! (They’re trying not to let it go to their heads.)
The Facebook ads have allowed SunButter to interact with customers and prospects, sharing recipes, nutritional information and other product news. SunButter is quick to admit the Facebook conversations and customer input have provided valuable insights and helped steer the company’s operations and other communications.
maurices Facebook contest
maurices is a long-time WestmorelandFlint client. The young women’s fashion retailer came to us on a Monday morning, asking if we could help them launch a contest on the maurices Facebook page. “Sure, sounds fun,” we thought. Then came the caveat—it had to launch that Thursday, as in 3 days from the time we first heard of the project. How’s that for a wake-up call on Monday morning?
Up for the challenge, our social media team got to work, setting up the contest using Wildfire, a social media marketing platform that specializes in user-friendly promotion techniques.
The contest was part of maurices Hometown Sound, a band search for the best up-and-coming artist in the country. maurices partnered with Evanescence, its newest Hometown Sound partner artist, to give away a weekend filled with maurices shopping and VIP access to the band’s hometown concert in Little Rock, Ark. We named the contest maurices + Evanescence rock ‘n shop weekend.
The contest instructions were simple: users were required to “like” maurices and then tell us and show us what maurices outfit they would wear to an Evanescence concert. maurices announced the contest on their Facebook page on January 12.
Our digital strategists also generated Facebook and Twitter posts for the band to post on the Evanescence Facebook page, encouraging their fans to “like” maurices and enter the contest.
In the five days the promotion ran, maurices received more than 1,200 entries and gained more than 8,700 fans.
Duluth International Airport Facebook contest
You know the song, “Make new friends but keep the old?” Well, the same goes for Facebook friends. It’s easy to get caught up in getting more fans and lose sight of the ones we already have.
When the Duluth International Airport came to WestmorelandFlint for help in advertising new travel routes, we helped create a Facebook contest to spark engagement with their existing fan base.
The contest theme was “Choose your own adventure,” where entrants chose a destination (Florida or Arizona) and then showed and told us what they would do in that destination if they won the tickets.
The contest ran from January 9 to February 10, during which time we received over 400 submissions—representing nearly 20 percent of he airport’s Facebook fan base. Three winners won tickets on Allegiant to the destination of their choice.
The contest not only announced the new routes in an interactive way, it also engaged the airport’s fans and gave them a reason to stay connected with the airport’s Facebook page.
West Acres Black Friday check-in deal
According to Nielsen’s State of the Media: 2011 Consumer Usage Report, 37 percent of social media users access social media from their mobile phone. Another Nielsen Report revealed that Facebook is the second most popular website visited by smartphone users (second only to Google).
With so many people using their mobile phone to access social media, and Facebook in particular, Flint Communications partnered with West Acres to help the Fargo, N.D., shopping center attract customers at midnight on Black Friday.
The promotion premise was simple: shoppers were invited to use Facebook check-in deals to check in to West Acres starting at 11:30 p.m. on November 24, 2011. The first 100 people to check in on their smartphone would receive a $20 mall card.
We advertised the promotion with signage in West Acres, a newspaper insert, an announcement on West Acres website, and Facebook updates. Here’s a look at the insert that appeared in Fargo’s newspaper, The Forum, on Thanksgiving Day.
The 100 mall cards were claimed in just 3 minutes! Check out the scene below.
The Facebook check-in deal gave mall shoppers incentive to start their Black Friday shopping at West Acres, rather than a competitor. The shopping center broke their record of Black Friday shoppers by about 4,000, topping out around 80,000.
Merchants were thrilled with the around 7 percent increase in mall traffic, and they were also pleased that West Acres was experimenting with and investing in new technology, like Facebook check-in deals, to support their tenants. In sum, Black Friday 2011 at West Acres consisted of both happy shoppers, and happy merchants.
Facebook for business: What about you?
What about your business? What questions do you have about using Facebook to generate awareness, sales, or loyalty? Ask me in the comments!
