Boston Celtics Reward their Facebook Fan Base for Growth

How do you make it a cool thing that you're social media following is growing? (When it doesn't even sound cool to ask that question?)

Let's try asking this a different way.... How can you get your fans to care about how big the following is? It's a tricky question, because you never want to come across as self-serving (look how big we are!) The answer lies in thinking about value for your community.

The Boston Celtics gives us a great road map to follow. Let's hit the Boston Celtics Facebook page, here, home of a 5.1 M fan base...

Check the post below, launched right after the Celtics passed the 5 Million size. As you'll see, they do two things: 1) they thank their fans for helping them grow by saying "Thank You." and 2) they back that up with a discount on Celtics gear.

I love this for many reasons. It is tied to a moment (hitting 5 Million fans) that could be replicated at future milestones. It is distributed through Facebook (not blasted everywhere), offering a reward for paying attention to their posts. And it offers value to a Celtics fan, but not much value to a non-Celtics fan. It'd be great to know how this worked - if it drove business for the Celtics... but it's a great map to follow.

How could this be better? What if it wasn't 15% off existing gear but rather special gear created only for Facebook fans? The only place you learn about it is here, in the Celtics Facebook page. And it's only around for a tight window of time. If fans came to expect hot new gear everytime a new milestone was hit, it could result in a lot of number watching!!!

Thanks for hanging with me. I'll be back Friday with more inspiration. As always, feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy