Make It “Like” This
I think the process of becoming of a fan, or “Liking” a brand on Facebook is too simplistic. While I understand making processes simpler is of value (as opposed to more complex), I think the “Liking” process can be tweaked to enhance the segmentation of fans (or is it “likers?” - so awkward!) by adding one additional step before becoming a fan.
The additional step I recommend for Facebook to implement deals with segmenting who fans are. For example, you can simply click “Like” followed by “Be a Fan of [insert name]” or you’ll be able to click “Like” followed by a step to insert another code or answer another question. The ability of the second step will allow brands to have fans sign up who will either have a certain code to insert (maybe for a secret promotion) or a question to answer before becoming a fan.
To give an example, we’ll look at Starbucks, a brand that has a pretty tight grasp on social media. They have just over 2 million fans for the Frappuccino drink alone! While Facebook will show you where these sugar loving fans live by region, it won’t show you fans by location. So if the Starbucks in Union Square (on 17th St. & Union Square West) wants to know who considers that store their “home Starbucks location,” allowing the person to tell you upon becoming a fan is a huge help for Starbucks. Once the Facebook user answers the question of their home location they will be placed into a micro fan page for that location while still maintaining their fan ship for the overall brand. So there may be 2,000,000 Frappuccino lovers, but only 1,531 of them enjoy the drink at the Union Square West location.
With that information, Starbucks will be able to engage with certain individuals based on their location. If they want to run an in-store promotion in certain locations but not in others, telling their 900,000+ followers on Twitter isn’t effective, but telling their local fans on the micro pages will be effective.
Location is not the only way the second step can be used, but it is perhaps one of the more important segmentation factors for tons of brands, especially national or global brands. The micro pages created as a result will allow fans to connect and communicate on a more local level to rival the location based service, foursquare.
