What is Acquisition in Social Media? (Part 2)

by Jeff Foster

This is part 2 of a 4 part series from WebBizIdeas on the core steps you need to take to engage social media. You can download this special report that covers Acquisition Techniques in social media.

Acquisition – The things you do to acquire a fan, follower, subscriber, reader, etc.

It’s important to define what you acquisition strategy per social channel. Your acquisition strategy for Facebook, Your Blog, Twitter, or LinkedIn will each have its own strategy and pull points.

When amassing fans I always say go with quality over quantity. Your social presence should be an extension of your brand’s voice. To build that foundation, establish and invite your core customers.

Begin by communicating to your existing database and announcing your brand’s places of contact (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Etc.) via e-mail. In addition, link to your profiles and pages on your website at every opportunity.

At retail, include the URL on receipts and checkout counter cards. Provide an incentive for your current customers to “follow” your brand, such as exclusive content, discounts or sweepstakes.

Tell Them What They Get

A great illustration of this concept comes from a radio commercial I hear from time to time. This commercial is about a chain of weight loss centers. Towards the end of the commercial you hear the announcer say…

“you can now find us on Facebook and Twitter”.

What would be more effective and still fit within the space available is something along the lines of “find us on Facebook and Twitter for exclusive weight loss advice”.

It’s not enough to state that you can be found within social media—you have to go that extra step and clearly state the benefit someone gets for following you.

Segmentation

An important point when engaging within the social space is asking whether or not you need an inherent segmentation strategy.

For instance, Apple has an Itunes Facebook page and an AppStore Facebook page. When you segment out your product bases like this it allows you to easily craft messages and follow the three core steps we outline below.

It also does another very important thing. It allows your audience and customer to segment themselves out. If someone is just a fan of one of your products then they only care about that product. With Apple if you only care about Itunes and Music you join the Itunes page where you get special music related content. If you care about applications you join the AppStore Facebook page.

Key Questions for Acquisition:

Examples of Acquisition

The examples of acquisition strategies provided below contain main elements that drive obtaining an audience. Remember the most effective strategy for acquisition contains large elements of integration. You integrate you message, your drivers to content, and the key reason why someone should follow you.

Ford Went Social for Release of New Explorer

Ford Motor Company released the 2011 Ford Explorer to Fans of the Ford Explorer Facebook page. Starting mid-June Ford slowly released news, pictures, and content with the final reveal in July.  This was only available to Facebook fans. (htt). This campaign not only resulted in higher fan acquisition but received press throughout the media as well.

A Whole Strategy for Twitter

Wholefoods goes farther with Twitter and segmentation. They have a @WholeFoods where you get global updates, or three topical accounts @WFMCheese (about cheese), @WFMWineGuys (wine and beer experts), @WholeRecipes (an automated recipe feed).  They go beyond that as well each major metro area has it’s own twitter account such as Chicago at @WholeFoodsCHI but each store has it’s own Twitter account as well.

These are some great examples of acquisition in action. Come back tomorrow for part 2 of our 4 part series where we will discuss engagement, that’s where the money is truly made in social media.

Social Media Principals special report [pdf