Study Shows That Facebook Fans Become Valuable Customers

How effective are Facebook Fan Pages ? Are they actually generating customers and leads for your business?

Dessert Gallery , a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain, experimented with a Facebook Fan Page to measure how helpful the popular social media site really is. They set up a "sweet" Fan Page and updated it regularly with pictures, contests, reviews and other items designed to interact with their customers. Three months later, they surveyed over 13,000 customers on shopping behavior and store evaluations and received a significantly higher and more positive response from those customers who became Facebook fans.

In fact, the study found that compared with typical Dessert Gallery (DG) customers, the company's Facebook fans:

• Made 36% more visits to DG's stores each month
• Spent 45% more of their eating-out dollars at DG
• Spent 33% more at DG's stores
• Had 14% higher emotional attachment to the DG brand
• Had 41% greater psychological loyalty toward DG

Creating a Facebook Business Page helped the bakery chain reach a wider range of people and connect with them on a more personal level. More people felt inclined to visit and spend more money, and a large portion of customers felt increased loyalty to the brand.

Here are 5 key takeaways from Dessert Gallery's example:

1. Use Facebook and other social media sites to establish an online presence , reaching a larger audience and attracting potential customers, prospects, vendors and even media .

2. Engage with your community for free and easily post up-to-date information about promotions, new products, upcoming events, etc.

3. Strengthen customer relations by interacting with customers directly on a social level as opposed to a business level.

4. Listen to customers' feedback. Customers are more likely to share reviews about products/services as well as good or bad experiences online, so utilize the information presented for your company's benefit.

5. Keep expenses low by building a Facebook Fan Page for free. Take advantage of low-cost, online resources instead of spending money on direct mail and paper advertisements.