How much is that Facebook Fan worth anyway?
Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
Paul – While I agree that the actual value of a Facebook fan is virtually zero, I’m going to push back on your premise that those one-million fans are worthless, unless they’re monetized.
Those fans – at least those who return – are brand advocates. They add value to your Facebook presence by attracting friends who may not have paid attention to you without their connection.
Unless your product is completely worthless, some of those people are going to buy it because of the franchise you’ve created in their minds through your Facebook content.
I see Social Network marketing as similar to the legendary Coca-Cola executive who reportedly wanted the brand’s trademark red color everywhere, saying – “If it moves, sponsor it. If it doesn’t move, paint it red.”
@Jim – ok fair point – even at .02% of fans returning to your page is still something when you have a million fans (or more like coke) but on smaller sites that have 1000 or 10000 fans that number gets pretty small
But if we apply your legendary coke exec’s saying then there must be some value there – thanks for commenting Jim!
I’m with you on this one Paul. As I note in my own post on this: Like is a button. Commitment is a purchase. And brands the world over should be seeking to be intensely bought rather than just freely shared. http://markdisomma.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/volume-is-nothing-like-intensity/
I like that Mark – Like is a button / Commitment is a purchase! thanks for commenting!
Hi Paul, great article and I tend to agree with everything that you have to say here. Especially the f-commerce bit which like you rightly said is around the corner.
My hypothesis is that small marketeers are soon going to build their websites on Facebook itself and will not need to have a separate website of their own. And with f-commerce becoming a reality this will happen sooner than we can blink. So commerce, engagement, info sharing all can happen on the same platform and the targeting will only help them optimize their budgets.
I don’t know why brands focus so much energy on Facebook. FB is a tool that should be used to funnel traffic back to your website where you can monetize that traffic in someway (doesn’t need to be a sale).
I would argue that it’s nearly impossible to monetize a “fan” on Facebook. If you can get them to your website where you can grab their email in exchange for a free something, you know have something to work with, and something you own.
I see so many brands doing it backwards – “come see us on Facebook” in commercials and ads instead of putting their “dotcom” there. Why send traffic to a website you don’t own or control?
My opinion is Facebook Fans/Likes are worthless until you get them to your website/store.
@Sanjeev – I said the same thing on my blog a few years back (march 2009) and I got some very interesting comments
check it out here — https://pauldunay.com/with-facebook-pages-who-needs-website/
Phil – like I said – “The true value of a Facebook fan is Zero until you can monetize them”
An interesting take on Facebook fans… will Twitter followers be next, a cent per day per follower for example their only real value regardless of conversations they start, ideas they inspire or business they bring to your physical doorstep?
@Josh
I sense there will be more ways to “activate” a twitter fan in the future – just not sure we are there yet
thanks for commenting
This post hits close to home as the preliminary results of my Facebook marketing are coming back at about $3 to acquire a new fan, but to calculate what that fan is worth is obviously quite difficult. My friends organic herb business is averaging about 25 cents per new fan by comparison. I was shocked by how low the return rate of new fans was in your numbers. Makes me wonder if Facebook marketing will fall on its face once businesses figure out the ROI is very low….
@J – good questions J – with all the big brands piling into FB right now to do advertising – I dont think it will fail – they are very interested in getting a return so once that happens I am sure it will trickle down