You may have seen this written up last week, when I was gone. But I thought it was worth repeating or posting for those who hadn’t seen it: according to Roost, on average, “only 15 percent of the average local business’ fans are actually in the city where the business is located.”
This is based on the Roost “Scorecard” analysis of approximately 800 SMB Facebook Pages. Below is mine, showing that 13% of my fans are in San Francisco — although it doesn’t matter where my fans/Like sources are as much as a local salon or dentist or bakery.
The implication is that 85% of fans are not relevant to the local SMB. The story is probably a bit more complicated, however.
More fans/Likes is apt to be beneficial generally. For example, someone outside San Francisco (but who visited) could alert me to a great local business even though they’re not local. But the larger point is well taken: SMBs may be expending effort toward fans who won’t buy anything from them. This implies some specific tactical approaches to generating fans/Likes through geotargeted and offline promotion (like in-store signage).
What would you take away from this Roost insight?
Related post: 58% of SMBs On Social Media Sites, Most Have Only Limited Engagement.
September 15th, 2011 at 10:49 am
[...] shows only 15% of Facebook fans are local (but we’re [...]