How to keep your likes: give social media fans what they want

This article was originally published in Dutch in 2011 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.

Social media has become an indispensable part of the marketing communications mix for companies and organisations. When this article was written in 2011, more than 400 million people used Facebook every day, spending an average of 37 minutes per session, while Twitter (now X) averaged 23 minutes per session. Organisations were quick to set up profiles on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach their customers. But are they actually giving those customers what they want? Gain timely insight into the needs of your (potential) customers, or be prepared to lose them as ‘fans’ on social networks….

A mismatch

At the time, more than 75% of Dutch companies were already present on a social network or similar platform, hoping to build an engaged community of (potential) customers. ‘Likes’, ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ were collected eagerly. But how do you hold on to these ‘fans’ afterwards? To do that, you need to know what your customers want and give them good reasons to interact with your organisation. Again and again. And it is precisely here that the expectations of organisations and (potential) customers seemed to diverge, according to research reports published that year by IBM and ExactTarget: ‘The Meaning of Like’ and ‘The Social Breakup’.

‘Liking’ is not the same as being a ‘fan’

More than 50% of social network users said they were connected to a brand online. They also said they were more likely to buy a product from a brand they had a connection with than from one they did not. It is understandable, then, that companies want users to build a relationship with their brand through social media, and that on Facebook in particular the focus was on gathering ‘likes’.

That makes it all the more sobering to learn that a connection does not always guarantee success. 55% of Facebook users said they had ‘liked’ a brand at some point but then lost interest in its status updates. Half of all fans even said that a ‘like’ did not mean they were a real fan, because they never visited the Facebook page again after liking it. 71% of users said they would therefore become more selective about which brands they ‘liked’ in the future. So organisations have work to do to make sure the relationship with a new ‘fan’ or ‘follower’ keeps ‘working’, and that those fans continue to get what they expect from it. If no relevant brand experience is created during those first tentative days after the ‘like’, you may well lose them quickly.

A ‘like’ means something different for each age group

The reason someone ‘likes’ a Facebook page differs by age group. Younger users between 15 and 24 use the ‘like’ button to show who they are, or to promote a brand or an offer to their friends. Users aged 24 and over ‘like’ because they expect something in return, such as discount coupons, exclusive offers and events. The 35 to 51 age group in particular wants useful information or discounts, and won’t hesitate for a second to ‘unlike’ the Facebook page if these fail to materialise.

Reluctance to ‘like’

Users may be reluctant to ‘like’ a page from the outset. As an organisation, it is worth being aware of their reasons and taking them into account, so that the threshold for earning a quality ‘like’ stays as low as possible. The reasons for this reluctance were:

• They don’t want to be flooded with messages and adverts (54%)
• They don’t want to give organisations access to their data (45%)
• They don’t want messages from the organisations concerned appearing unasked in their friends’ news feeds (31%)
• They don’t want to be approached by organisations via Facebook (29%)
• They don’t see the point (23%)

Expectations after ‘liking’

What users expect after ‘liking’ a Facebook page:

• Access to exclusive information, events or sales offers (58%)
• Discount coupons and limited-time promotions (58%)
• Status updates from the organisation in the user’s news feed (47%)
• News, videos or photos uploaded by the organisation in the user’s news feed (39%)
• Offers or information about the organisation that can be shared with friends, family and colleagues (38%)

But even after a user has ‘liked’ an organisation, there is a chance they will ‘unlike’ it again if they get nothing out of the relationship. Some do this actively by removing the ‘like’ (43%), while others simply choose to ignore the organisation’s messages in their news feed (19%).

Reasons to ‘unlike’

Reasons for ‘unliking’ organisations or brands on Facebook:

• The organisation posts too many status updates (44%)
• Far too many marketing messages in the news feed (43%)
• The content is repetitive and becomes boring (38%)
• The reason for ‘liking’ was a one-off, for example to take advantage of a promotion (26%)
• Not enough offers (24%)
• Too many marketing messages aimed at the user (24%)
• The content was never relevant in the first place (19%)

Reasons to stop following on Twitter

Twitter users were less inclined to stop following organisations or brands. Twitter offers easy access to people and brands and makes real-time communication possible. It also had the most clear-cut usage pattern of all social platforms: you either use it or you don’t. At the time, more than half of the people who had created a Twitter account no longer used it. Those who kept tweeting (and following), however, were among the most influential people on the internet. Active Twitter users turned out to be less quick to ‘leave’ a brand: 41% on Twitter, compared with 55% on Facebook. Probably because they are so focused on building relationships. But when a ‘break-up’ did happen, the reasons were:

• The content is repetitive and therefore becomes boring (52%)
• The timeline contains too many marketing messages (41%)
• The organisation posts too much (39%)
• The reason for ‘following’ was a one-off chance to benefit from a promotion (27%)
• Not enough offers (27%)
• Too many marketing-oriented messages (21%)
• No relevant or valuable content (20%)

What does the customer want?

It is hard to meet every user expectation, but it is important to find out what those expectations are first. The IBM study showed that there is a gap between what organisations think their customers or users want and what those people actually want. 65% of the companies surveyed saw social media as a new source of revenue. They believed users connected with them on social media in order to:

• Get information about new products (73%)
• Find general information (71%)
• Share an opinion about products or services (69%)

Companies named these as the least important reasons:

• Making purchases (60%)
• Discounts (60%)

Remarkably, these last two reasons were in fact the most important reasons for users to interact with companies:

• Discounts (61%)
• Making purchases (55%)
• Reading and writing reviews and ratings of products and services (53%)

Opportunities for social commerce

The findings of these studies suggested that social commerce could really take off, provided companies used social media well for this purpose. The appeal of attractive discounts, exclusive offers or events would outweigh the resistance prospects feel towards sharing privacy-sensitive data. Prospects were already using social media to find product recommendations, reviews and the opinions of friends, family and the wider crowd. At the very moment they have access to this information, the impulse to buy can be strong. Making it possible to complete that purchase straight away would then feel positive and convenient rather than intrusive. The ease and satisfaction of one-stop shopping would be hard to resist.

Examples of companies that were using Facebook successfully as a sales channel at the time included Delta Airlines, Zalando and 1-800 Flowers.

This is what Zalando and Delta customers found convenient back then: ordering without leaving the social media experience

The next step

The research results above show that when someone ‘likes’ your brand, the relationship with that prospect or customer on social media is only just beginning. Continuing to meet their expectations is what keeps the relationship alive.

The following findings and tips can help organisations offer added customer value and benefit from the power of social communities:

• Think like the customer. Know why they want to interact with your brand and adapt your content strategy accordingly.
• See social media as one of the channels within your marketing communications mix. Make sure your messages across the different channels fit together seamlessly.
• Set the right expectations, and then meet them.
• Remember that users connect with brands they trust and whose messages and actions feel ‘honest’. Keep that in mind with every message.
• If you don’t know what the customer wants: ask them! Start a dialogue and let customers help determine what content they need. You can gain insight by asking questions on social media, and through polls, digital suggestion boxes, surveys and market research. Let customers vote for their favourite ideas and product innovations.
• Stay connected with your customers by posting relevant and valuable content, but not too often! Find the frequency that best suits your services and your customers.
• Reward loyal customers or ‘fans’ for their loyalty. Make them feel special and offer them more than the average customer, so they have a reason to stay connected via social media. Think of discounts or events that are only announced on social media and that the ‘fan’ would otherwise miss.
• Encourage customers to interact with your brand. Ask questions and ask for feedback. This will increase engagement.
• Always keep in mind which message you are communicating through which (online or offline) channel or social network. Keep messages on Facebook ‘light’, to suit an environment where people are primarily there to interact with friends and family. On a business platform, adapt your tone of voice and content to that setting too.
• Make it easy for users to complete a transaction straight away if they want to.
• Don’t assume that ‘liking’ your brand means ‘fans’ are giving you permission to bombard them with marketing messages on social networks. That’s not why they are there! Handle any personal data you have been given with discretion. See Facebook as an opportunity to collect email addresses so you can build a deeper one-to-one relationship with ‘fans’, but only with their permission!
• Offer time-limited deals or discounts and prompt customers to take action.
• Keep providing new and surprising content on social media, so that returning customers keep coming back.

Maintaining the best possible relationship with your ‘fans’, ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ calls for customer insight and a well-matched content strategy within a cross-media concept. A fascinating challenge, but one that will lead to satisfied customers! Keep surprising them!