Earlier this week I wrote a post discussing the question that so many marketers are asking: How do you monetize social networking? Well, in this month’s Harvard Business Review, Utpal M. Dholakia, an associate professor of marketing at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, describes an experiment he did with local Houston-based bakery Dessert Gallery on Facebook. Yummmmm!! (Ok, it wasn’t a taste test.)
Professor Dholakia discusses how he used Dessert Gallery customer survey responses to determine whether or not promoting the bakery chain on Facebook caused great interaction with customers and, ultimately, greater income. According to the article, people who replied to the survey and who had also become Facebook fans with the bakery wound up being Dessert Gallery’s best customers. “Though they spent the same amount of money per visit, they increased their store visits per month after becoming Facebook fans and generated more positive word of mouth than nonfans. They went to DG 20% more often than nonfans and gave the store the highest share of their overall dining-out dollars. They were the most likely to recommend DG to friends.”
Using a net promoter score, Professor Dholakia was able to identify Dessert Gallery’s most valuable customers. This gives the bakery the information it needs to know which customers will be the greatest return on their marketing investment. While the article points out that further surveying is needed to determine whether this response continues and can lead to long-term decision making, it does show how connecting with customers where they can be talking about your product can absolutely lead to greater business success.
Sure, being on Facebook and any other social network is an investment of time, but it’s also free. That tastes good to me!