So you’ve got a Facebook page and added like buttons to your website. You’ve added calls to action for your customers to like you on Facebook everywhere; your other social profiles, email signatures, inbound welcome messages, stationary etc. But there could be one clever little method that you’ve missed; text to like.
Who can use Facebook’s text to like
Any customer who has their mobile linked to Facebook can use text messaging to like a page and any brand, celebrity, business or organisation with a fan page can have their page ‘liked’. The main caveat lays at the hands of the person liking as they must have their phone set up to work with this feature.
Thankfully setting things up is a doddle and there’s a good chance many people already have it enabled. To check go to the mobile tab in your Facebook settings to enable text messaging. This asks you to choose your network carrier and sends you a confirmation code which you input. At this stage your phone is ready to like via text message.
To like a page you must first know what it is called. Again this simply requires you to know the brands Facebook URL; ours is https://facebook.com/shootingstarmedia. In a business example you would ask your customers to text ‘Like shootingstarmedia’ to 62665 (spells FBOOK) which lets the sender like the page and receive a confirmation text.
How it can benefit your business
The scope for gaining likes using this method is massive and can be preplanned or a sporadic way to impress someone. Imagine asking a new business contact to like your page in this way, I’d sure be impressed.
This is a very natural, yet quirky, way to gain likes. Imagine adding ‘text like brandname’ to 62665 to a movie stub, announcing it at a sporting event, or asking people at a political rally to text to like your cause. It’ll be an instant reaction for your audience to ‘like’ which is way quicker than having to search for a brands page. This is a low barrier method to like the page so people will be more likely to do it (it may be novel to them too). You could even make your own template like the one above.
I recently went to watch Spiderman on Broadway during a trip to New York and they forbid photography in the theater. However, their marketing team had signage everywhere explaining that photos of the audience and performance would be added to their Facebook page. There wasn’t a call to action to like their page though and this would be a prime example of where to use text to like (text ‘like SpiderManOnBroadway’ to 62665 to see photos of this performance). The show has been seen by over 700,000 people – how many of them would have liked by text? We will never know (unless they read this post).
As a marketer you should be thinking of new ways to integrate mobile into your plan and this is a potential quick win. Would you consider using text to like for your business? Let us know your thoughts and questions.
January 24, 2013 - 12:51 pm
Brilliant idea Richard… now I’m thinking, how many bingo players actually would have this turned on? Not many which is a shame because it really is an interesting tool to get your brand out there and noticed.
January 24, 2013 - 1:15 pm
Thanks for your kind words Vikki. I think bingo, especially land based brands like Mecca and Gala, could make this work for them. I suppose approaching it with a two pronged approach (like our page or text to like) may be better. It could also prove fruitful to add this method to print and TV ads. Have you seen this being used at all?
January 24, 2013 - 2:27 pm
I’ve never seen it that’s what prompted me to comment. I think there’s a definite place for it especially in the entertainment industry, like you say text to see pictures of tonight etc. I’m going to give it a shot for Bingocams in our next newsletter and see what happens
January 24, 2013 - 2:31 pm
That’s fantastic, let us know how you get on.
February 7, 2013 - 9:29 am
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