I received some interesting data today from Dessert Gallery (DG), a Houston-based cafe chain about their recent Facebook fan page campaign.
Utpal Dholakia, associate professor of management at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, and Emily Durham, a Jones School alumna and founder of Restaurant Connections, a Houston?based restaurant consultancy surveyed customers of Dessert Gallery (DG).
The study, based on surveys of more than 1,700 respondents over a three-month period, found that compared with typical Dessert Gallery customers, the company’s Facebook fans:
- Made 36 percent more visits to DG’s stores each month.
- Spent 45 percent more of their eating-out dollars at DG.
- Spent 33 percent more at DG’s stores.
- Had 14 percent higher emotional attachment to the DG brand.
- Had 41 percent greater psychological loyalty toward DG.
This is one of the few Facebook fan page studies that I have seen for small businesses. It would seem to indicate that Facebook fan pages can increase sales, word-of-mouth marketing and customer loyalty significantly among a subset of their customers.
The study will be featured in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review.
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That’s fascinating! I haven’t seen this kind of data before.
From running a Facebook Fan Page for an independent school here in Stockholm I can they do promote brand loyality because our “fans” are typically students that are applying to the school. We’re using the site to teach them to think that this is their school already.
I’ll look forward to the HBR when it comes out for the fully story.
Hi Jon
This is the first time I have ever seen data on a Facebook Fan Page which is prompted me to publish it. Glad that you liked it
David
This is great! I think every business with a page should establish goals, or “success metrics” that they can track after a month or more of efforts on Facebook. The results should demonstrate the effects of interaction and conversations on Facebook.
If you just engage and don’t make an effort to identify results, you will eventually lose momentum.
This information clearly shows that the Facebook page of the cafe was aiming to increase business, and they did!
Thanks for sharing.
I had just established a facebook fanpage and I didn’t know that one can really do this. Like Analisa said, I will surely set out my goals from my facebook fanpage, then we’ll see if it will be effective for me. A big thank you for sharing this.
So we’re to be impressed that “brand champions” of DG consume and purchase more than the non-FB fans? This is so NBN (NOt Big News). All this tells me is that FB-fans of DG are more enthusiastic and buy more DG than regular customers – so what – that’s expected? PS: There’s no real (validated) data that shows FB drives sales, per se. If it’s used as a media vehicle – to promote, sell and create awareness, it should be measured like all the other media choices….
I am excited to say that I have a facebook account set up for my business as well. My family owns a bar in Moscow, Idaho, although I dont have exact numbers like this case study does, I have definetly seen improvemnet as a direct result of my social media marketing compaign.
I have used this account to post nightly drink specials, keep a current list of upcoming events that I can update at any time, as well as talk to the cutomers to recieve feedback on my establishment. The supporters of my business continues to grow and I owe a thanks to facebook.