With the Facebook user community continuing to grow – 1.5b monthly users in Q4 2015 – it is a vitally important place to promote your business and the brand under which you trade. Promoting on Facebook is an easy way to reach people outside your business to attract them in. It is also an easy marketing platform through which to track engagement results including demographic information.
Here are numbers from this morning of people who like or follow the corporate page of the newsagency banner groups:
- newsXpress – 12,060.
- Nextra – 8,545.
- The Lucky Charm – 2,086.
- Newspower – 4.
These numbers are important as they speak to the base community easily reached by each of the groups when promoting offers and opportunities available in member businesses.
The numbers themselves need to be considered a springboard as plenty of Facebook users share posts they like to friends who, in turn, can share to their friends. In one recent promotion for which I have data the ripple effect reached an additional 15,000 people.
Note: I could only find one Newspower national page and it had not been updated since August last year. If anyone is aware of another page please let me know.
Who looks at a marketing groups Facebook page? As a member of Newspower I am not concerned that they do not have a good presence. Facebook is more successful when marketed locally which is when your individual store social media presence is important. What power does 12060 likes mean nationwide when the local woman’s clothes shop in my town has 17000! In saying that, the more likes the better for any group as the average person does not distinguish between them.
Plenty Christ based on the data I see.
Ok, but I do not see the reason for mentioning the other marketing brands apart from advertising for your company which you can do as its your blog. I still think that these are all very small numbers (esp Newspower!) for a national brand and as such should not have to much weight put on them.
Are you able to connect posts on the national website to sales in stores other than your own using statistics?
The main gist of the story though is correct in my opinion – I have invested in social media more that traditional media (whilst still saving money on marketing) and this has contributed to growth in the 2015 Christmas and now this BTS (best in 5 years already). A side benefit of this is that I am targeting non traditional Newsagency customers and this is where I am powering my growth.
I would recommend that if you have not started on social media or online you do asap. This is a process that is starting to pay dividends but it has taken time and education.
Agree with Chris on this one Mark, 22 thousand out of 23 Million residents…..you have to go to three decimal places to see a digit – and its a 1.
Says to me that not many (basically none) are listening to the corporate Facebook spiel. The interesting (or more relevant) comparison would be what sort of a percentage your business has in comparison to your captive population – then compare that to the 0.01% penetration of the nationals in the newsagent game.
Facebook is an important component of our marketing and has been for years. Although for mind its not the most cost effective, nor does it have the penetration of other media – especially in regional areas where pricing is more cost effective.
Chris and Hamish, the ‘gist’ of the post is the numbers do matter if you leverage them for sales in local stores. I have data tracking the success, for example, of a post about a product resulting in specific queries that then turned into revenue from shoppers who had not shopped with the businesses involved.
In one of my own newsagencies in the last seven days we have achieved $2,000 in revenue from shoppers who discovered us through Facebook and have never shopped with us. Yes, in the last seven days.
The key to Facebook success is not in volume. No, it is in quality.
I did not write the post to promote any one business. rather I wanted to highlight the importance of the platform and the different levels of numbers achieved by the groups.
The numbers are the numbers. What they mean to you is up to you.
Just hopped on Face book to have a look at all 4 and couldn’t even find them to like them . Type in Newpower or Newsxpress and it just comes up with individual newsagencies
Shaun you must be doing something wrong because in each case if you type in the name of the group they come up first.
Might be my settings , but typed in newsxpress and the first one that pops up is Newsxpress Gatton
You have to use a capital X for newsXpress.
Worked it out , had to clear my search history
Facebook/Instagram is hands down the most powerful marketing I have and whilst we are not in a location as busy as Mark it still generates us thousands of dollars in sales every year for a minimal, trackable expenditure. I source very unique products/brands for my store and have had people drive over 2 hours to buy particular items as I was the only store stocking them and I reached them with Facebook.
If I was attached to a group I’d be very interested in their Facebook as people identify with ‘brands’ and that’s what you are aligning yourself with when you pay the fees.
I’d note that more around two thirds of our Facebook generated sales come from distances far away from the shop, often interstate. When it comes to online related sales, there are no borders, there is no local area.
Yep, have to agree with Mark and Stacey the power and each of FB is amazing and easily the best value marketing out there today. For the Hobby side of the business I have a FB page with about 1350 likes and as soon as kits or games come in I announce their arrival on the page. Good example is a new line of kits I’ve imported from China. Arrived Tuesday. up on FB Tuesday afternoon, have sold over $1000 worth since then, some to as far away as WA (I’m in Brisbane), and attracted alot more likes so have expanded the audience. The next big thing I’m working on is changing my website and getting a direct sales path straight off of FB via using Shopify.