What Is Your Viral # On Facebook:

Everyone wants posts with lots of ‘likes’, ‘comments’ and ‘Shares’.  Everyone talks of viral, not sure what that really is, the definition says “to spread rapidly via the Internet, e-mail, or other media.”  Is there a specific number that people feel needs to be reached to feel that it has gone ‘viral’?

Then what is it that you can gain by going viral on Facebook?  More ‘likes’ I would think.  With most business Facebook pages being between 200 and 2,000, ‘likes’ what is the realistic chance of going ‘viral’ and what would your definition of going ‘viral’ be?

Average Facebook Viral Rate:

Median virality rate for Facebook Pages is 1.92%…  For most small businesses on Facebook taking advantage of your Facebook tools when a post seems to getting a higher virality rate makes a lot of sense.

Just over a week ago a post was made on the Butte Creek Mill Facebook Page, nothing really out of the ordinary, the recipe had a little more creativeness than some but for some reason people jumped on the post.   A lot of it has to do with the bamboo effect.

Having A Good Facebook Week:

FacebookA little history: Butte Creek Mill had just over 1,000 people that ‘liked the page, a typical post would garner 6 to 20 likes, a few comments, and maybe a share or two.

It was easy to see in the first hour this post was generating more action, so we spent $5 on a Facebook ad, went after people whose interest was being a foodie and ran it.  Here are the numbers right now.

So far, this post received 349 ‘likes’ 110 comments and 128 shares.  Only 3 of the comments were from the Butte Creek Mill, 102 were unique comments.

FacebookSince I’m a pedal to the metal kind of guy, to keep the trend going, it was about finding another creative recipe, and run the same $5 ad on Facebook as the day before with the new post. Then sit back and see what happens.

 

bcm-290x290This post received 199 ‘likes’ 47 comments and 160 shares!  We were able to see growth in the people who were liking the page–real time… Best part with the new likes, they are certainly the demographic.  I’ll get to that a little later in the blog.

We added a couple other creative posts over the next two days for momentum sake, with two posts that were still well above average from a ‘share’ aspect.  These two got nearly 100 shares between them, as well as over 100 ‘likes’

 

FacebookFacebookSo in less than a week and $20 in Facebook ads Butte Creek Mill had over 2,000 “people talking about it” and had increase their ‘likes’ from 1,014 to 1,258, had increased traffic to their website, more opt-ins to their e-mail and most importantly, sales!

 Facebook Demo Likes:

FacebookGetting back to the demo talk from above, A lot of people including myself from time to time will make what we call an engaging post.  It really has nothing to do with what it is that you do.  You can get good shares, likes and or comments and I’ll use what you see on the right as an example.

A mind game always works well.  You can get 72 quick shares which translates into a nice “talking about you” stat but what does the post really have to do with our business?  Not much, which is why people were entertained, it translated into engagement but not ‘likes’.  Butte Creek Mill on the other hand had posts that were very relevant to what Butte Creek Mill does and the chatter, shares etc leads to good quality likes that will continue to pay off in the long run for them.

Summary:

When you have a post that is relevant to what you do and seems to have a little more action and is getting a little more love, use your Facebook tools.  Use your promote tool, buy ads, and make the most out of a good relevant post to grow your Facebook base as well as your other platforms.  What’s viral? Well that’s like beauty, and up to the beholder, but if you run a business, viral means nothing without an ROI.

About the Author:

Mike Frey

Before co-founding Paradux Media Group, Mike spent more than 15 years in the world of marketing and advertising. While working with hundreds of locally owned businesses, he developed an appreciation for minimizing clients’ dollars while maximizing tangible results for those clients.

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1 Comment

  1. Sara on July 25, 2012 at 7:38 am

    Looks like images or creative posts would get the most response… I guess people like to get something different and unusual that keeps them interested for a while. Promotion can’t appear to be more important to the poster than the content and interest to the people reading though.

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