How to get more Facebook fans

I saw this promotion late last night as I logged onto Facebook and I thought it was worthy of sharing it with you. 

Everyone seems to want more Facebook fans…but really you actually want Facebook fans who know a little bit about you or are willing to try what you've got to offer.

That's what makes this Kraft Macaroni and Cheese promotion so smart.

 

On my NewsFeed page, I noticed this ad to the right.  It offered me a free box of Mac and Cheese (hello…cheesy explosion to boot!) if I'd become their fan. 

Now I will confess two things.  1) I really love Kraft's Mac and Cheese.  2)  I would have never even thought to fan their page without this free offer.  If the ad had simply said..please be our fan, I would have ignored it.

Lesson:  If there's not a very apparent "something in it for me" we don't go around fanning pages.

So, I clicked on the become a fan button and was taken to their fan page. 

I almost left because I could not see how to get my free coupon.

Lesson:  Be blatantly obvious and then some.  We are only going to look for about 5 seconds.

Fortunately, others had either been smarter or more persistent, so as I scanned the messages, someone had said – go to the third tab (wall, info and voila..free cheesy)

So I stuck with it long enough to click on the Get The Coupon button.

From there, I was taken to this capture screen where Kraft got the goods on me… my name, address (so they could mail me the coupon) and the holy grail — my e-mail address.

They also snagged a bit of demographics in the check boxes below.

Lesson:  If you're offering something of value, don't be afraid to ask for something of value in return.

I'm betting they scored a huge number of new fans.  And now for about the cost of a click, they are actually putting product in the new fan's hands.  Think of what most businesses pay to get a consumer to give their product a try.

Compare and contrast this effort — where Kraft not only gets you to sample their product but also gets your contact information and some demographics to the lady standing in the grocery store, handing you a little cup of the mac and cheese.

How would you rate the relative value?