Who needs those pesky Facebook fans? They’re always harassing your page with absurd comments and wall posts, asking for information they could easily find if they just emailed or called your business. Not to worry: there are some simple keys to making fans go on their merry way without engaging in the content you share on Facebook.
1. Post too often.
Only about 16% of your fans are likely to see any given status update. Some people try to make up for this by sending out extra posts, but Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm means these posts are usually reaching the same people that have regular engagement with your brand. With the exception being news services, brands that send too many posts can be perceived as irritating. In a survey of 1000 social media users, 73% had unliked brands they had previously been a fan of. The number one reason? Posting too frequently. Another survey of brands on Facebook found brands that posted 1-4 times a week had 71% more fan engagement than brands that posted 5 or more times a week. All signs point to extremely frequent posting being a highly efficient way to encourage those damn fans to bugger off sooner rather than later.
2. Beg for likes and shares
Everyone hates a Condescending Corporate Brand Page. If your content is original, interesting and relevant in its own right, fans will like and share organically. But of course, we can’t be having that nonsense. Posting irrelevant content and begging your fans to engage will make your brand look silly really fast, and have you shedding fans left and right.
3. Be unresponsive
One of the worst things about Facebook users is their sense of entitlement. They demand answers from worldwide brands and expect transparency. If you have a decent number of fans already, you may have noticed the volume of questions asked by fans increase over the past year: worldwide, the question epidemic is up 59%. At the moment, only 60% of those questions are being answered by brands, so if you can’t be bothered responding, know you’re not alone. Poor social media responsiveness is an easy way to disconnect those fans online. Can you believe some companies actually want to create opportunities for fans to ask even more questions? Woolworths, Sportsgirl and Julia Gillard have all run live Q&A sessions on their pages. Don’t try that sort of ridiculous move if you want to end up with more likes!
4. Don’t post enough.
Hold on, didn’t I just say posting often would be the surefire way to drive the fans away? Well, yeah. But Facebook pages attract fans best when used in moderation. A ghost town of a page offers no incentive for irksome potential customers to like your page.
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