2. Create Word-of-Mouth Advocates With Contests

Word-of-mouth advertising is a cost-effective and powerful way to move engaged fans up the ranks. Unfortunately, you can’t buy it — you have to earn it.

Contests are a great way to generate authentic word-of-mouth activity. Assuming you’ve already used Facebook ads to attract more high-value fans, then you can bet that many of your fans’ friends share similar interests.

Every time one of your fans interacts with or promotes your contest, they’re reaching pre-qualified leads for you by exposing your contest to their friends ― and this word-of-mouth advertising is completely free to you. It sounds easy, but most Facebook contests fail because they offer the wrong incentive.

Back to the running shoe store example, let’s say you hold a contest to give away an iPad. You whip your fans, and their friends, into a frenzy — everybody loves a high-tech giveaway. But when it comes time to promote that hot new running shoe, your conversion rates are disappointingly low. Why?

When you give away prizes that are extremely popular, like an iPad, but are completely unrelated to your niche, you attract a bunch of people who want to win something — not fans you can move up the ranks to super fan status. Instead, when designing giveaways and contests, choose specific prizes your ideal customer would want.

3. Grow Your Lead List While You Grow Your Fan Base

You might already have a welcome tab — a landing page for users who haven’t yet liked your company. At a minimum, welcome tabs need a call-to-action. Ask users to like the page, and then include a brief video or copy introducing your company and page.

Users go to your page because they want a solution to a problem, or an answer to a question — so give them one, in exchange for their name and email. Offer valuable content on your welcome tab that shows you’re an expert, such as a free tutorial or video series giveaway.

4. Convert With Calls-to-Action

Selling on Facebook is an art and a science. Most users are on the site for both personal and social reasons, so it’s a space where loud salesmanship rarely succeeds.

But providing targeted value will work — and the best way to do that is with content.

If you’re new to this, start small. Guide your fans to your best content with short CTAs, like:

• “Click Here” — Link to your latest blog post.
• “Watch This” — Link to an entertaining video.
• “Check This Out” — Post an interesting stat.

Every time a fan likes what’s on the other side of those links, you foster affinity and trust. You can then progress to more robust CTAs that focus on your brand’s specific services or products.

Good CTAs are content-rich, engaging, and promise something better outside of Facebook. This moves the relationship to your website, where you can convert fans to buyers using your existing sales funnel.

The Bottom Line

To turn potential fans into super fans, you need to start with the right kind of fans — those who are truly interested in what you have to offer. Then you can focus on generating buzz, nurturing your list and moving that relationship off of Facebook to the point of purchase.

If you consistently provide stellar content and real engagement, you’ll develop a core group of super fans to show up, bring their friends, and be your cheerleaders, come rain or shine. The only question is, can your brand afford not to have at least a few super fans among its ranks?