What Do Users Expect From Your Company’s Facebook Page?

By Rieva Lesonsky

Does your small business have a Facebook page? If so, new findings of a study by ExactTarget, Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Meaning of Like, has some interesting info about what users expect when they “like” your business on Facebook—and why they may not “like” you.

First of all, liking a business on Facebook doesn’t necessarily mean the person actually likes you, ExactTarget found. One-fourth of U.S. Facebook users surveyed said that companies should not interpret “like” to mean they are a fan or supporter of the business or brand.

What might be keeping users from liking your business on Facebook? Well, many users have negative expectations about what’s going to happen when they “like” a company on the site:

• More than half (54 percent) assume they will bombarded with messages or ads
• Nearly half (45 percent) believe companies will have access to their profile information
• Nearly one-third (31 percent) are worried that content from the business will be pushed into friends’ News Feeds
• 29 percent expect the company to contact them via Facebook

Essentially, Facebook users are worried about losing control or being overloaded with unwanted information. So what’s the good news? ExactTarget also looked at some of the positive expectations that users have after they “like” a company on Facebook:

• More than half (58 percent) expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales 58 percent expect to receive discounts or promotions
• 47 percent expect to see updates about the company or brand in their News Feed
• 36 percent expect the company to send them relevant, targeted information based on the details in their personal profile
• 24 percent expect to be contacted via other methods, such as email or Twitter

As you can see, some of the positive expectations are the same as the negative ones. In other words, some consumers think it’s a good thing that your company might contact them or see their personal profile details, while others fear it.

In general, ExactTarget found that younger consumers had fewer expectations, either positive or negative. Moreover, they typically “like” brands as a form of self-expression; they aren’t as motivated by perks or discounts. Older consumers, in contrast, are highly motivated by perks; in fact, they expect to receive something valuable in exchange for their “likes,” and will be disappointed if they don’t.

Understanding your customers’ expectations and falling in line with them can help your business be more successful at marketing via Facebook.

Image by Flickr user owenwbrown (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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