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Likes Solidify Loyalty

In an increasingly competitive social media environment, you and your competitors swim in the same sea of messages, logos, and videos. Posting messages that engage your customers means you're creating frequent micro-connections on an emotional level. Many people don't even talk to their families as often as they interact with Facebook pages. By engaging them repeatedly, you create in them a habit of loyalty.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the West is not necessarily headed for an apocalypse of disloyalty. Job tenures are slightly higher than they were in the 1980s,5 divorce rates are lower than they were in the 1970s, and fewer married people are having affairs.6 If you want customer loyalty, people will not naturally resist it. Only invisibility or dissatisfaction lead to disloyalty. You can control your visibility and your quality.

Loyalty increases profitability by decreasing the cost of new customer acquisition. Customer loyalty comes from customer satisfaction. Companies with outstanding customer experiences outperform others by about 15% in people's willingness to buy more products, reluctance to switch, and likelihood of recommendations to others.7 But loyalty varies by industryโ€”customers are much more loyal to banks and supermarkets than they are to cinemas and hotels.8

Case studies are already emerging that demonstrate how Facebook marketers can increase customer loyalty. The Harvard Business Review published a study of how the Houston cafe and bakery chain Dessert Gallery found its best customers by getting them into its Facebook page and interacting with them. It harnessed the power of these superfans who were more loyal and evangelistic. Compared to the company's typical customers, these superfans were 41% more loyal, had a 14% higher emotional attachment, and spent 45% more of their dining-out dollars at Dessert Gallery.9

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