Companies have spent the past few years trying to amass Facebook fans for their products and services. Now they’re trying to figure out how to squeeze value out of them.
That’s prompting marketing companies to develop new offerings that seek out more detailed information about Facebook fans, with the aim of sending targeted messages, offers and promotions.
Merkle Inc., Lithium Technologies Inc. and other marketing companies are helping companies build applications for consumers to download on Facebook, which will allow customers to access a company’s loyalty program, what promotions they might qualify for and check their points. In exchange, the consumer gives the company permission to access their personal information like name, gender and email address on the social-networking site.
Knowing a person’s name allows the company to tap into its database of personal details about that Facebook user, such as purchase history, membership in that company’s loyalty program and more. Those details can then be used for personalized campaigns—and possibly spur more sales.
Lithium, which helps companies build their brand via social media, says that the applications it creates for companies like beauty retailer Sephora allow people to connect to their loyalty accounts. A Sephora Beauty Talk advice application, for instance, asks users to enter their email address in order to connect with their Sephora Beauty Insider loyalty program account when they ask questions or share beauty tips via the application. Sephora, which is part of luxury-goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, has more than 1.8 million fans on Facebook.
Walt Disney Co.‘s Disney Destinations has turned to Merkle, an independent customer relationship marketing agency, to figure out how to leverage information it knows about the millions of Facebook users who are fans of Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks based on other interactions with them, such as visits, phone calls and digital trip planning applications. On Facebook, Walt Disney World has more than 7.3 million fans, and Disneyland has more than 10.6 million fans.
“Understanding our guests’ past stays, favorite experiences and attractions, entertainment preferences and desires allows us to create the most magical vacations possible,” says Tom Boyles, senior vice president of global customer managed relationships at Disney Destinations. “Social media is adding to our core ‘Know me’ strategy” in a significant way, he adds.