Building Momentum on Facebook

It goes without saying that Facebook is the most powerful social networking platform in the world. In fact, Facebook will soon have 1/7 of the world's population using its service, which equates to approximately one billion people. I often get clients who want to rise above the noise on Facebook and start using the network to help build interest in their brand.

MusicCityNetworks' digital strategy cilent, Riff Rockit, is a children's entertainer with a unique take on the "kindie rock" genre. When Riff first signed on with us, he had no Facebook page, which meant we had the challenging task of building his online presence from scratch.

We quickly realized we would need to do a bit of Facebook advertising in order to get people to know Riff Rockit even existed. We were approved a small but workable monthly budget to spend on Facebook ads. We set them up such that the ads would lead people to Riff's page where he would have posted comments on his music and lyrics, shared interesting parenting articles online and more. Press releases about Riff Rockit were also added to the page by utlizing the "notes" tab.

The idea behind adding features to the page was to make it appear busy so there would already be traffic, noise, discussion and fans on the day the album would launch. A busy Facebook page for Riff would allow parents to feel like they were joining an already budding community and cause, not starting it themselves. It's easier for fans to join something when they see others already interested, as opposed to joining a movement as the "first follower". 

Riff Rockit's debut album is set to drop January 24th. Riff's Facebook page is already up to 1,236 Likes, and counting. His management team was very excited to reach that number, especially considering the album has yet to release. Additionally, those who continue to find Riff on Facebook as they hear about the release will be coming to an already active community to join and will feel that desire to be involved in an already established .

Facebook pages tend to grow exponentially, though getting that first start can be challenging. The first 100 Likes for Riff took many weeks and was hard to do; the first 1,000 Likes took six months. Once we reached that benchmark though, we then employed another strategy by setting up an album giveaway for people who shared Riff's Facebook page with their friends. The promotion is still underway, but in just a few short days, his Likes have grown from 1,000 to over 1,200. Such exponential growth can occur simply by friends seeing their friends Like a page.

We look forward to Riff's community growing by leaps and bounds this year with the release of his album and a much anticipated early summer release of Riff's new DVD. Stay tuned to hear more about Riff's growing success and the digital strategies we put in place to make it all happen.