The greater the love, the greater the ‘likes’

A few weeks back, we took a look at the attributes of the businesses that were enjoying the most success on Facebook.

The first criterion mentioned was that of ‘passion products and services’. In other words, the ‘brands’ that inspired the kind of love and subsequent word-of-mouth that most business owners and brand managers strive for.

You know the ones – those that people rave about at parties, catch-ups and now on Facebook and the like.
Brands like Apple, Harley Davidson, Bose, Ferrari, Tiffany’s, Google, Yves St Laurent and your capital city’s most prestigious and usually expensive restaurants.

The customers of these brands adore these brands so much, they will fall over themselves to tell their friends about the latest purchase of (or in most cases second mortgage taken out to pay for) the beloved brand.

Marketers call this special relationship between customer and product ‘brand equity’.

Passion for smaller business too

Before some of you smaller business operators think that such household names don’t apply to you, think again.

Smaller business can still enjoy the kind of brand equity that these household names enjoy, albeit in smaller numbers.

And where there’s smoke there’s fire. If big brands can enjoy Facebook success, there is no reason that such a democratic, low cost promotional avenue can’t be equally accessed by smaller businesses.

Testing the passion theory

So this week I thought I’d put my theory to the test by conducting a random sample of just how popular the Facebook pages were of these brands compared to a number of equally renowned, but not so beloved brands.

First I picked a selection of eight products with renowned brand equity. Beside their names, the number of ‘likes’ their Facebook pages had earned.

Likes for businesses and other entities are like friends for the rest of us. Essentially people who want to both demonstrate they like you and want to receive your messages.

For such businesses, these likes are gold. Not only do they provide their brand with the prestige of being liked by so many Facebook users, they get to communicate their messages (or posts) to ‘likees’ for no cost at all.

It’s the kind of customer access and relationship that direct marketers drool over.

Much loved brands on Facebook

So the ‘passion’ brands, and their “likee” numbers are:

• Harley Davidson = 2,247,807
• Chanel = 3,386,043
• Louis Vitton = 56,483
• Lexus = 461,802
• Manchester United FC = 11,892,425
• Bose = 175,944
• iTunes = 12,328,203
• Tiffany’s = 868,699

TOTAL: 31,417,406

More than 31 million people. Roughly the populations of Morocco, Iraq or Uganda.

In itself, those figures for a global phenomenon of Facebook may not seem too impressive. But it needs to be remembered that the notion of businesses taking residence on Facebook is still a new development.

In fact, the ‘like’ capability has only been operational for just over two years.

Famous but less loved on Facebook

So now let’s look at some equally famous names that don’t enjoy the kind of brand equity of our first sample.

• Bank of England = 392
• Hong Kong Bank = 4
• General Electric = 12,703
• Royal Insurance = 26
• Royal Dutch Shell = 788
• Hyundai = 141,611
• Lloyds of London = 90
• Exxon Mobil = 1,856

TOTAL: 157,470

That’s roughly the population of Cairns or Townsville. I would imagine it’s less than the total number of employees of these international corporations.

My point is not to poke fun at the corporations who occupy the latter list (who in their right mind would dare?) but to illustrate just how much those brands that inspire love and passion perform against their equally famous, but less aspirational corporate cousins.

So what can smaller business operators learn from this?

A number of things spring to mind.

Facebook lessons for smaller business

First that if yours is not the kind of product that your customers get passionate about, you may not get a great return on investment.

Conversely if you are, then there are literally millions of people on Facebook waiting to befriend you.

That’s not to say that non-passion products can’t still participate, they simply need to be more creative. For example, associating yourself with the activity you assist, rather than the product itself.

For example, our oft used paper fastener example might associate itself with ‘Secretaries Day’ or something that will inspire interest not naturally inherent in the product.
Has your small business had success with Facebook? Tell us about it by commenting below.

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.