A little while ago I wrote about The Value of a Facebook Fan: An Empirical Review. The results shocked me (as I’m sure they shocked you) but recently I found an article on the Wall Street Journal that addressed the other side of the story—how much does a Facebook Fan Cost?
Quickly I would like to recap the Empirical review written on January 21st. In a few words: Synacapse discovered that each Facebook fan’s average value to a business is $136.38/year, a startling revelation. On the flip side, the article in the WSJ estimates that each Facebook Fan costs $1.07. This detailed study (11,000 Facebook ad campaigns were studied!) was conducted by Webtrends, a social marketing and analytics company. At this point, I think it’s worth taking a step back and looking at the big picture. Each fan is worth $136 but only costs $1.07; what an incredible difference between the costs in attaining and the value of a Facebook fan.
The WSJ article went on to bring up some interesting trends in social marketing that are especially important to business owners and to all of us here at Wavespot. According to Webtrends, between 2009 and 2010 the click-through rate (number of clicks on Facebook Ads) declined from 0.063% to 0.051% while the cost for posting ads went up from 17 cents/thousand in 2009 to 25 cents/thousand in 2010. Why the discrepancy? The article gives a few possible reasons for this scenario such as ineffective ads, or the fact that ads are bought at a higher cost because many of them are sold on an online auction. But whatever the case, experts like Justin Kistner (the senior manager of product marketing at Webtrends) predict that now and in the future, business with a large fan following will have a higher return on investments in the social sphere. His advice to business owners—Become active in the social marketing circles now!
We pick up where these experts left off; Wavespot has built a product that helps business owners target the right audience. The members, visitors and patrons of the business become linked with the Wavespot location through the Facebook fan page. We let the owner of the Wavespot WiFi build a lasting relationship with his or her customers that goes beyond short Facebook ads and gimmicks, with a fan page the owner can communicate frequently and meaningfully with their customers.
So come join us at Wavespot and see how we can give you a cheap and effective way to link to your community and drive sales using innovative marketing strategies.
