Facebook Wants You to ‘Spam your Fans’ for marketing
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Thu, Feb 03, 2011
Up until now one of the greatest bugbears for marketers using Facebook was the inability to link it to other existing databases of contacts, specifically those in their email inbox.
On a practical level, this means maintaining two separate platforms of communication with two sets of people that can be sent the same messages. Typically messages or links will be posted to the Facebook fan page while a separate email is generated to send to contacts in the email database.
Facebook’s latest tool, launched last December, Tell your Fans, circumvents this problem. The software works with Outlook, Constant Contact and various other email programs and very basically provides a link between the Facebook page and external email contacts.
By clicking on Tell your Fans, the Facebook tool gives the user the option to upload a contact list, i.e. the list of contacts in their email account. Once this list appears on screen, users can easily see which contacts are not a fan of the business’s Facebook page and which users are not members of Facebook.
At this point, it is possible to click on all those contacts the user wishes to invite to become fans of Facebook page. Those contacts that are not members of Facebook will be sent an invitation.
Without question, this tool is the potentially the most effective way to grow a business’s fan base on Facebook with relevant contacts that are likely to be existing customers. If a company is going to the trouble of regularly updating the business Facbook page and keep those fans informed, there is no reason why existing contacts shouldn’t benefit from this.
That said, the temptation to exploit the tool is always there. As with other Facebook tools, the advice here is to work at a steady pace, ensuring that the invites are going to people who will value them.
If you would like more information on how closed loop marketing can benefit your business, contact a member of SiliconCloud today.
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