60% of consumers “Like” Facebook pages for special offers

Almost 60% of consumers will “Like” a Facebook page in order to access discounts or freebies, according to a new survey, but will “Unlike” a page if it fails to engage and excite its fans.

The Crossman Insights survey, by PR consultancy Crossman Communications, is based on the responses of 1,200 online Australians aged 18-64, who were asked about their Facebook usage.

More than 70% of respondents use Facebook, and more than half (55%) of these users have clicked “Like” on a company and/or brand page in the last three months.

The survey reveals 69% are compelled to “Like” a company or brand page if it puts them in the running to win something, while 58% will do it to receive discounted products or free samples.

However, almost one in five (17%) have clicked “Unlike” on an organisation’s page due to lack of relevance, too many updates causing a cluttered news feed, and boring content.

According to Jackie Crossman, managing director of Crossman Communications, there has never been a more opportune time for businesses to develop a sophisticated Facebook strategy.

Crossman says while Australians continue to display a high level of “curiosity and sincerity” when “loving up” company and brand pages on Facebook, they also have exacting standards.

“Businesses need to come up with innovative and clever ways to converse with their fan base – especially once a competition has ended – to drive higher levels of affiliation,” Crossman says.

Encouragingly, the survey findings highlight a genuine interest by consumers to interact with their favourite organisations and discover more about them.

More than half (55%) said they were fans of company Facebook pages because they wanted to learn about products and services, while 53% wanted to gain access to exclusive content.

A majority (53%) also wanted to follow the company’s news, and share contents of the page with their friends (51%).

Not surprisingly, those aged 18-34 lead the way in Facebook usage – 85% are active users and 53% access it through their smartphone, which is 22% higher than the total benchmark (31%).

This age group is also much more likely to interact with a company or brand page, and click “Like” on a friend’s link, photo or status update.

“The younger demographic are the biggest and most frequent Facebook users, accessing it through various mediums, but they are also the most fickle,” Crossman warns.

“They will hit the ‘Unlike’ button if a company or friend’s page is dull, or cluttering their news feed with too many posts.”

According to Crossman, marketers can only learn about the benefits and pitfalls of social media through experience, encouraging them to look at different approaches.