Is there such a thing as *too* many Facebook followers?
For one of our clients, there was. They have a whopping 180,000+ followers on their Facebook Page, from all over the world. A hugely passionate and engaged audience that are all followers of the organisation.
So what is the problem?
Creating a content marketing strategy for such a broad audience was becoming a huge challenge for the organisation. They were having difficulty executing their marketing goals – which were along the lines of driving more foot traffic to their Melbourne locations, more attendees at their local events, and more volunteers participating in their programs.
When the average organic reach of a Facebook post is just 2% of your followers – how do you make sure that your post is breaking through the noise and reaching the right 2%?
The Solution:
Our client needed help to get their content marketing messages in front of their Melbourne followers. They didn’t want to cull their Facebook followers, or tell their global audience to unfollow them. They valued their audience and their global community – but the reality was that the people located outside of Melbourne were very unlikely to ever visit them.
PN Digital’s solution was to create a local Facebook community group.
There is huge opportunity in Facebook Groups at the moment – posts generally reach a much larger percentage of the audience organically, they are better for two-way communication with your audience, and data shows us that Facebook users are spending a lot more time in the ‘Groups’ section of the feed than they are in the normal feed.
A targeted Facebook Group also affords an organisation a lot more control over their audience – they are the gatekeepers of their Facebook Group and can decide who to accept into the group. If someone outside of the local community asks to join, they can politely send them a message letting them know that they should follow the Facebook Page instead of the Group.
The Outcome:
The Facebook Group is still young but is growing quickly. We have used a number of strategic methods to grow the group and get the word out amongst Melbourne community members.
Our content and marketing communications messages – which centre around local events, facilities, and news – are reaching the right people. We are seeing much higher levels of engagement from people who are located close enough to participate in these events and programs.
Posts on the main Facebook Page have also seen an increase in engagement, as they focus more on information and education relating to the wider community and are not specific to Melbourne followers.
