The Value of Active Fans
Having loads of fans on Facebook is great. It makes a statement when a brand or company has a six or, even better, seven-figure number of followers. Experts call this social proof. Proof that everyone can see: we are someone. People follow us. People like us.
However, this does not say anything about the reach of your own (non-sponsored) posts.
What is far more important than the number of fans is the actual interaction you have with them. Because, as all marketing and social media experts know, fans of a Facebook page do not by any means now see all content that is posted there. The reason for this is that in the past few years more and more content has been published on Facebook and user news streams have had to be prioritised. Since then the Facebook algorithm rates every individual piece of content in terms of its relevance for users.
If you wish to achieve maximum reach on Facebook without paying to boost your posts it is not the number of fans on your page that counts but the number of active fans who voluntarily share your content.
A good example of this is the video on our content idea “Der Mannschaft” (The All-in-One Player). This was published on two different Facebook pages – on the page of the Fußballgold publishing house and on the Bundesliga page. Fußballgold has less than 10,000 viewers. The Bundesliga has more than 2.5 million. Now guess what post generated the most views. It was in fact “Fußballgold”. The reason for this was “shared content”. The little community is more active and shared the ad almost 100 times.
This is logical; the Fußballgold readers are real fans of the publishing house and love its publications. The content was of greater relevance to them.
Apropos Relevanz: Eine gute Möglichkeit diese zu erzielen, ist News-Jacking. Greifen Sie ein aktuelles Thema auf und übersetzen Sie es auf Ihre Marke, Ihr Unternehmen. Allerdings müssen Sie schnell sein. Erinnern Sie sich an den Hype um Pokémon-Go? Die App wurde an einem Mittwoch gelauncht. Am gleichen Tag haben wir unserem Kunden Takko Fashion vorgeschlagen, eine echte Monsterjagd in ihren Filialen durchzuführen (das Takko-Maskottchen ist ein kleiner Drache).
Nur einen Tag später wurde die Aktion bereits auf der Takko-Facebook-Page kommuniziert und am darauf folgenden Tag in über 1.000 Filialen umgesetzt. Eine logistische Meisterleistung des Retailers. Der Lohn: Das Posting zur Monsterjagd hatte die höchste organische Reichweite in 2016. Die Kommentare zeigen, dass wir mit der Aktion den Nerv der Kunden getroffen haben. Dank des guten Timings.
The positive effect of shareable content is also shown by our campaign for the European Wing Tsun Organisation. This market-leader in self-defence offers Wing Tsun, a Chinese martial art, at over 1000 schools.
At the launch of the feature film “Ip Man 3” (Ip Man was a famous grand master of Wing Tsun in China) we initiated a cooperation between the film distributors and the association with a number of different measures. One of these was a video post on the association’s Facebook page that only had 5000 fans at that time.
Because the video (featuring the Wing Tsun grand master and the association logo in the closing credits) was highly relevant for the target group the video was shared 253 times and reached 100,000 people – twenty times as many fans as the actual page.
This makes the video the most successful posting on the association’s page. The key to its success: shareable content. The video interested the fans and they celebrated it.
For this reason, be critical when somebody presents the number of fans of a Facebook page, Instagram account or subscription numbers of a YouTube channel as the most important KPI. Ask for engagement figures and active fan numbers instead.
How to activate fans and followers? You will find a suggestion here.
