Closing the Action Gap on Facebook

I know you feel it too: the huge disconnect in how marketers use social media to meet business objectives, and how everyday people like you and me use social media.

Here’s the disconnect:

We don’t use Facebook to buy things, and we don’t use Facebook to follow the latest news from consumer brands. We use it to connect with our friends! Same thing goes for Twitter, although Twitter is also about discovering cool stuff.

The first step in bridging this gap is to understand and appreciate what people are naturally willing to do on sites like Facebook. In other words, understanding and appreciating the ladder of engagement will help you create a social media plan that makes sense for both parties.

How Oceana Closes the Action Gap

A great example of of an org that seems to effectively bridge this gap is Oceana. They have a custom app on their Facebook Page (shown above) that allows Facebook users to show their support against seismic testing.

A Facebook user simply has to click once to share their profile pic along with the other Facebook users who have previously signed the petition. On the back-end Oceana is acquiring user emails, and then messaging these people about donating or taking other actions.

Meaningful Facebook Actions

ActionSprout is a Facebook application that allows nonprofits to engage their supporters in more meaningful ways.

As you know, Facebook updates by default have three choices: like, comment, and/or share. Action sprout creates actions that are just as easy but more meaningful to your supporters.

For example someone can “Sign” a petition or “Support” a project. The benefit of using a tool like ActionSprout is that Facebook users will more likely take these types of actions which allow them to more easily join your email list. And again, from there you can use email marketing which is a more effective venue to ask for donations.

How have you closed the action gap?