TIPS & TRICKS: Keep your Fans and Users Coming Back for More

If  you've ever tried reaching out to your fan base or users on the web through any social media channel, you know how hard it can be to get their attention. It's even harder holding on to that attention once you've gotten it. One strategy that has proven itself to be highly effective within the social web is developing a routine. A routine is anything that can be established according to a schedule, and just like we all have our individual (and sometimes completely wacky) morning routines that we feel lost without, establishing some scheduled marketing elements can not only help to ensure that you keep on top of your social marketing activities but it can also help to increase your audience's trust and engagement because they become used to the routine and expect that on certain days, they will be interacting with your brand, like on "Fashion Fridays" or Monday giveaways.

A great example of this type of routine promotional effort can be found on the Facebook Fan page of Swell.com. Swell is an online-only retailer of clothing, gear, and other products for the surf industry. Every Wednesday, they use Wildfire's Social Media Marketing Platform to put out a sweepstakes called "Win it Wednesday!" where they give away cool but relatively inexpensive prizes such as a cute dress by Billabong or a trendy pair of board shorts. Swell's Facebook fan base, which is at over 4,500 people as of this blog post, has become used to this weekly routine, which Swell has been running for several months. Based on the steady fan growth that Swell has experienced as well as the comments that fans are posting on Swell's wall, "Win it Wednesdays" is proving to be a hit with fans and a highly effective strategy for Swell.

Your creativity is the limit on the type of outreach you could consider to run on a scheduled basis. It could be that the first of every month you giveaway a gift card, or every Friday you put up a new coupon to your store. You could be like Swell and set up your own Wednesday win-it, based on the product or service you are marketing.

Social media marketing outreach done around a routine doesn't need to be a big, complicated affair. We can see from the successful example at Swell, if you can promise your users that once a week, if they come back to your page and check in, there might be something awesome waiting for them (like those really cute sunglasses) you might be surprised with just how many of your fans begin to make their own routines of visiting and interacting with your Fan Page around the promotions you've created for them.