In a land of a million ‘likes’ how many marketers are paying attention to the new Facebook Questions tool and how it can be an integral part of your Facebook marketing efforts? Similar to a start up in Indianapolis (Form Spring) ‘Ask Question’ can a provide a way for businesses to engage with their fans on an intellectual level. Facebook addicts are waiting for someone to start a conversation, just ask them. What’s for lunch today? or How’s the weather? I’m sure they will have some sort of response for you front of mind when the time is right.
The Setup
There are currently 500 million active users on Facebook, with approximately half of them logging on to check their Facebook profiles multiple times on a daily basis. Imagine if you could reach out to all of them at one time. I’m not endorsing tampering nor spamming Facebook, but a simple request to Blackhatworld.com can get you a script to ask multiple people the same question at once. This eliminates the time it takes to target each specific page and to gain an overall level of customer engagement. Not only are the numbers strong, but the level of trust within circles of friends and acquaintances on Facebook is stronger than anywhere else on the Internet. Don’t act like you’re not clicking on the link to the new YouTube video your friend just posted.
The Format
The simplicity of the Questions format makes it very easy to navigate and you don’t get lost amongst hundreds of immediate responses that are usually far from relevant.
The questions you ask will be shown to people who have expressed interest in the particular topics you tag as well as to your friends and friends of friends. Ask relevant, trending topic questions, and be sure to always use applicable # tags. Users are able to hop between different questions within a topic and follow ones so that they receive a notification when there are any updates.
What Can You Do With This?
Because of the time it takes to develop a relationship with your Facebook fans, it’s important to keep them interested once you’re connected. I have noticed several businesses, large businesses in particular, who are scared in the beginning of their social media efforts, worried that only Facebook socialites succeed in this space. In my observations and experiences with the Question tool I have found that larger companies have been able to successfully engage with their customers without having that intruding, large corporation feel. Beneath are tips to start engaging your fans today.
- Ask a question! A suggestion would be: “I’m looking for some help with [insert your product or service], has anyone heard any good information about [insert your company]?” Or you could go with: “What suggestions do you have for [insert your company] to do for a company outing in [insert your city]?” This is a means to get your name out there, get visits to your page and in the end get followers who are potential customers.
- Answer a question! Since the asker and Questions can tag the queries under related topics, you can monitor questions being asked about subjects related to your business. Answer those questions while dropping your company name so searchers can link to your fan page and check out all the other ways you can help them succeed. Being known as a company that wants to help consumers make better choices goes a long way, particularly on Facebook where reputations are everything.
- DON’T mislead or bombard your fans. Nothing is worse than clicking on a link that redirects you to some lead generation mini site. It is important not to invade your fans privacy and SPAM them with your 25% off sale. Don’t forget your one click of the ‘hide’ button from being irrelevant.
