Most small businesses have a Facebook page these days but very few take advantage of the power of the Facebook community. How can you expand your presence on Facebook, drive more traffic to your website, get some great press AND help a charity all at the same time? It’s a tall order but since Foster Web Marketing has done just that, I will explain how it’s done.
First, take a look at Facebook ads and price out how much a fan would cost. You can use sponsored stories or traditional pay-per-click ads but unless you are very savvy with PPC, you are going to spend way more than you need to. (Tip: Most people load up the “Interest” section so their potential audience is as large as possible. Don’t do this! The bigger your audience, the lower your click through rate and the more you will pay per click. Instead, create separate ads for each “interest” that you want to target.) In our case, each new fan was costing more than $5. Isn’t there a better way? YES!
Rather than waste money on Facebook ads, we decided to donate $1 for each new fan (and for every existing fan) to Love Without Boundaries, a charity that Ben Glass is deeply involved with. Right off the bat, we’ve reduced our cost-per-fan by 80% AND this money is going to a charity, rather than Mark Zuckerberg’s already deep pockets. This is something people are very willing to share with friends and the campaign quickly went viral. We’ve added over 400 fans in just a few days for a fraction of the cost of Facebook ads.
Now you may be thinking: “Why bother paying for fans that aren’t lawyers?” A very good point. But because Ben Glass is a lawyer and markets to other lawyers, he got hold of the message and encouraged his herd to get involved. Many of the fans we’ve added are indeed lawyers. And even if they all aren’t, their Facebooks friends could be. You never know where a viral message will go.
To check out how we are running the campaign, just go to www.HelpLWB.com or “Like” us in the box below. We are trying to raise $2,000 and every bit helps!
Image c/o tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
