Ask Questions to Build Fan Relationships: Successful Facebook Marketing

Editor’s Note: Skellie is the director for the Envato Tuts+ network and drives the social media promotion for nine brands with over 100,000 Facebook fans. This article is an excerpt from her newest book, Successful Facebook Marketing, sold by Rockable Press.

Your goals with Facebook should not only be to get more Likes and more traffic. One of the first things people learn at Business School is that it costs much more time, energy, and often money to add a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Keeping your fans loyal and happy is just as important, if not more important, than finding new fans. For this reason, it’s important to use your Facebook Page to build more loyalty among your existing fans, and to gain a better understanding of them.

As I mentioned earlier, comments are one of the most useful ways fans can interact with your Facebook posts. Every time a fan leaves a comment it is shared on their profile and in their friends’ News Feeds. While you’re building brand loyalty and interacting directly with your audience, you’re also creating pathways for new fans to find your Page. For this reason, content that encourages discussion will be one of the best possible additions to your Facebook Page.

Ask Questions!

If you want to encourage discussion, sometimes the simplest path is best. Ask a question! You’ll see this kind of content on many Facebook Pages. There are lost of different types of questions you can ask.

To ask a question or poll, use the ‘Question’ link under your Page’s ‘Share’ options. If you like, you can convert your question into a poll by selecting ‘Add poll options.’

Create a Question on Facebook.

Questions about your brand, product, or service. Though these kinds of questions do stimulate discussion, they’re particularly useful for the insights they can give you about your audience. Here, you can see an example of a Page asking for feedback on how fans consume the website’s content, and how this could be improved.

Question about your business or brand.

Questions that are relevant to your audience. This operates on the basic social principle that people like to discuss the things they have in common. If you ran a blog about graphic design, for example, you’d be safe in betting your Facebook fans are interested in the topic. So why not post a general question or discussion point on graphic design?

The same approach can be applied to any Facebook Page. Here you can see an example of an expert in making money with blogs asking fans whether they sell eBooks through their blogs.

Ebooks question (by Darren Rowse/problogger)

Questions that are relevant to everyone. Facebook is, by its nature, a fun and informal platform. People are familiar with using it to chat with friends, organize their social calendar, and share bits of their everyday lives. Brands have been able to add a similar feel to their Facebook Pages by asking fun, informal questions that everyone can participate in. This can include questions like ‘What are you doing right now?’, ‘Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?’, and ‘What’s your favorite video game of all time?’

If the tone of your Page is usually quite formal, you may need to set up your question a little bit, or the change in tone could be too jarring. Try something like: ‘Fun question today: What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited?’ By making it clear that this informal question is a departure from your usual content style, fans will be more accepting of the change in tone.

If you’re still concerned about changing your tone too much, try saving these kinds of questions and discussions for the weekend. Fans may be much more receptive to a ‘Favorite movie?’ discussion point on a lazy Sunday afternoon than they’d be on a hectic Monday morning!

Who doesn't love pizza?

Want to learn more about successfully using Facebook to grow your business? Check out Skellie’s book, Successful Facebook Marketing! It’s available  from Rockable in three e-book formats, or in print on Amazon. All Rockable e-books come with a 100% satisfaction money back guarantee.