Entrepreneur: Why You're Not Getting Customers from Social Media

Entrepreneur.com contributor Karen Tiber Leland recently wrote about new research from the Freeman School's Daniel Mochon and Janet Schwartz that investigates the effect Facebook likes have on customer behavior.

"Most companies think that those social interactions will lead to more customer loyalty and more profitable customers," Mochon said. "That's not necessarily the case. Customers rarely post on a brand's page on their own and typically only see a fraction of a brand's Facebook content unless they are targeted with paid advertising."

The authors of the study proffered that advertising on Facebook is effective for the simple reason that it reaches more of a page’s followers. Since Facebook's algorithm sorts and sifts the content a user sees by their online pattern of preferences, not all posts get placed in a follower’s timeline — unless of course, the business has paid to have that post boosted. In other words, to make sure your followers find your post, you must advertise it to them.

"The results suggest that Facebook pages are most effective when they are used as a form of traditional advertising rather than as a platform for social interactions,” said Janet Schwartz, a co-author of the study.

To read the article in its entirety, visit Entrepreneur.com.