It’s never a bad time to reconsider your social marketing strategy. What works, what doesn’t. How you can do more for less.
But you can only learn so much from your own page or profile.
Thankfully, there are plenty of brands in the space to study. They may even be your competitors. The good news is they’ve already run tests for you – just look at their performance metrics. A social management tool like AgoraPulse will take care of it for you.
We’ll save you the work today, though. Over the past year, we’ve written about 5 successful Facebook pages that did very well in a variety of ways, and in this post you’ll find out why – so you can have the same success.
1. My Loire Valley
Facebook marketing works unusually well in the travel industry, and it’s not hard to see why. After all, that’s where your friends post their vacation photos, which is a kind of marketing in and of itself. It makes you want to take a holiday too.
My Loire Valley’s page, dedicated to the Loire Valley region of France, is doing pretty well. As of last month, it had more than 24,000 fans.
Even more impressive, those fans have a engagement rate of 370.5%. And My Loire Valley didn’t have to spend a dime to get that.
How did they do it?
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- Sharing fan user-generated content.
- Asking for fan input when posting updates.
- Sharing updates based on local real-time events.
- Marketing the valley’s beauty through key attractions and sights.
- Letting fans check and leave reviews.
My Loire Valley highlights some of the pictures its fans take, which drives engagement.
[Tweet “One way to out-engage bigger brands on Facebook is to simply post more often.”]
2. UPS
Posts that evoke strong emotion often do very well. They can even go viral.
UPS has taken full advantage of that by showcasing a few stories of its drivers acting in extraordinary heroic ways.
Generally, UPS Facebook posts are high-performing, with average engagement in the triple digits, and some, like this one below enjoy dramatic engagement significantly higher than anything else.
Thankfully, it’s not hard to write these posts. They just have:
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- A short introduction to the driver.
- The main points of the heroic story.
- A call-to-action to celebrate the story.
- A photo of the driver in uniform by a UPS truck.
UPS scores with both engagement and positive brand sentiment.
[Tweet “Don’t redirect your fans to your site or blog. Keep them on Facebook for higher engagement.”]
3. Walmart
Walmart holds the top spot on the Fortune 500 list. We expect them to do well in all kinds of marketing, Facebook included.
But it’s worth noting that they got nearly 16,000 comments on a single post and it didn’t cost them a cent.
It was for a launch party event for an upcoming video game, Battlefield 4. They asked their fans which city they’d like it to be in.
Here’s why it worked:
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- They picked a topic a lot of people are passionate about.
- They asked their fans for their opinion.
- They directly participated in the conversation.
- They kept the question simple to encourage feedback.
This post cost Walmart nothing but delivered an incredible return.
[Tweet “Don’t just ask your fans something. Comment too and you’ll get more engagement.”]
4. Nikon
Although not the herculean brand Walmart is, Nikon is still a major player.
And it’s a good one to take a look at for drawing in more fans. Because they’re getting 1,400 new ones every day.
The secret? User generated content. Nikon’s strategy includes:
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- Building “My Nikon World” – a Facebook app for their fans.
- Featuring their fans in their cover photos.
- Creating and posing challenges to their fans.
- Launching photo contests that come with a prize.
Cleary, it’s making an impact. Their rivals – like Canon and Olympus – only have fans in the hundreds of thousands whereas Nikon has them in the millions.
Nikon’s Facebook app is an exclusive benefit for their fans, which brings more in.
[Tweet “Consider a custom app for your fans. It’s a tangible benefit for liking your page.”]
5. Legendary Whitetails
Legendary Whitetails is a very niche brand. It markets hunting products to white-tail dear hunters.
And like all companies that operate in small markets, you’d expect the volume of their Facebook interactions to be low. But, it’s not. Legendary Whitetails gets close to 54,000 interactions a month.
And they do it by taking a very specific, very effective strategy. It involves:
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- Creating well-branded images.
- Working their logo into those images.
- Posting timely and fun content.
- Using only high-quality images of their products.
- Writing in the correct tone and voice.
Take a look at how Legendary Whitetails creates its branded Facebook images.
[Tweet “With niche brands, make sure you get the right voice. Small markets are more specific.”]
Ultimately, creating an exceptional Facebook page – and reaping all the benefits of one – is an ongoing process. Just like your creative, it has a limited shelf life. Inevitably, it’ll have to be updated.
So, watch the successful Facebook pages in your space. Watch your competitors. Learn from their successes and failures. It’ll reduce the time you’ll spend finding out how to revise your Facebook page, because you’ve already read a few recent case studies.
To that end, let us know what you do on your page. Leave a comment below!
