One of the most popular (if not the most popular) social networks is Facebook. Admittedly, companies achieve the “engagement” they seek to communicate with their customers. But is Facebook certainly what businesses need to reach new customers?
Yesterday we participated in a meeting with a very important company in the local financial market. In many surveys, said client is always at the top of the market to which he is dedicated, and this is so because he invests many resources in internal technical improvements, image and new products. They focus a lot of effort on what people perceive of them and have achieved it effectively.
Due to the type of business to which the company for which I work is dedicated, clients usually request tools that allow them to create and understand the profile of those who follow them on social networks, in addition to creating strategies to attract new followers. But is that the right way? Why invest such strong resources in attracting new followers on social networks if most of these do not become buyers?
Among the first points we touched on at the meeting was precisely that. To our great surprise, said client has and uses tools to understand the profile of those who follow them on social networks and knows exactly what type of profile suits him. For additional information of who is reading, said client commented: “I am not very interested in the people who follow me on Facebook, those only make me lose money and do not hire any of my products. On the other hand, those on Twitter do. ”
In other words, said client is already clear that Facebook users will not necessarily use their products despite the fact that we develop “cool things” to attract their interest. This is because despite the massiveness of this network, many are low-income individuals with limited information on personal financial management or too young to have a job that provides them with enough resources to invest.
One of the tools that characterize Facebook are applications, widely used in our market to create digital campaigns. I develop such applications and I can confirm with certainty what the client said when we compare the number of visits against which they complete the entire process of using any application.
If we see these examples of applications that were successful in terms of number of visits, the numbers of those who completed all the steps and who shared end up being meager. These numbers are the result of a tool that we developed internally and have been refining to study how users use the contracted application:
Alcoholic drink A:
- Visitors 8,855
- 2,000 steps completed (22.6%)
- 856 shared (19.7%)
Vehicle Brand:
- Visitors 1,266
- 691 completed steps (54.6%)
- 231 shared (18.2%)
Financial market:
- Visitors 3,962
- 2,000 steps completed (50.5%)
- They shared 2,000 (50.5%)
Alcoholic drink B:
- Visitors 1,651
- 1,243 (75.3%) completed steps
- They shared 964 (58.4%)
The number of users who shared is taken from the total number of users who completed the steps to register in the application and used the “Share” button that we always put in a visible place.
As you can see, in percentage terms “Alcoholic drink B” was more successful than the others, however, it did not have the large number of visits that “Alcoholic drink A” did. Despite the success of “A’s” visits, the effect his campaign could have had was not as well stopped as one might think. What motivates the huge difference between those who visit the application versus those who register and complete the steps is nothing more than simple curiosity. That they have visited the application does not mean that they are interested in participating in it.
You can “paint villas and castles” to the client saying the numerical thickness, but the reality is different. All those visitors became “Like”, but how many of those participants will buy the products in question?
So, is Facebook the tool that companies’ marketing departments need to achieve the famous “engagement” they seek? In my opinion NO. The numbers confirm it and a customer with many resources at your disposal as well. Facebook is just another tool to establish communication with current clients, not to attract new clients.
Digital agencies, advertising agencies and marketing departments MUST refocus and study well the profile of those who target their campaigns to achieve the success that the client seeks and not numbers with fictitious successes like those in this sample.