We’re thrilled to share a new case study based on our recent work with Intel. Intel is doing an outstanding job with their social media work on Facebook and we are proud to be part of their effort. For those interested in learning more about how Intel is leading the way, check out a recent panel discussion led by Ekaterina Walter, Social Media Strategist at Intel. The presentation shares some great tips on how to drive fan acquisition on Facebook, which also happens to be a key element of the case study below.

Intel Reaches Out To Their Community On Facebook
Back in October, Intel challenged Sprout to create a new Facebook fan page and application, with the goal of building a significant Intel community on Facebook. Sprout knew Intel had to deliver immediate value, which worked well with Intel’s concept of linking laptop pricing to fan acquisition. The result: the wildly popular “Fan Plan” campaign, which empowered Intel’s Facebook community to incrementally lower the price on three laptops with every new fan added. It reached hundreds of thousands of people and landed Intel over 24,000 new fans—in just two weeks.

The Challenge
Without a pre-existing community on Facebook to get a campaign rolling, Intel needed an integrated approach that included Facebook ads, a fan page, and an application that drove fan acquisition. Sprout’s role was to turn their concept—empowering fans to lower laptop prices—into an application that fully leveraged the viral power of the Facebook platform. Sprout ensured that visitors converted to fans and shared the Fan Plan with their friends through a combination of incentives and viral hooks.

Integrating an Engage App and Fan Page to Drive Virality
The Engage App that Sprout developed for the new Intel fan page was a powerful nexus of social media technologies, desire, and reward. Every time someone became a fan, the app lowered the price on three popular Intel laptop models. Fans were motivated to tell their friends about the Fan Plan in order to further drop prices. The Engage App enabled them to do so easily by letting them place an interactive experience into their friends’ Facebook Activity Streams. Those friends could then join the Fan Plan and share the experience with other friends right from their Stream. A countdown clock provided a sense of urgency and encouraged users to participate before the Cyber Monday deadline, when they could purchase the laptops at the lowest prices.

Delivering Value to the Stream
Sprout belongs to the select group of Facebook Preferred Developers partly because of their expertise in implementing campaigns that maximize relevance and in-stream presence in the face of increasing competition and ever more stringent Facebook relevancy algorithms. Sprout does this by dropping highly interactive content that outperforms simple images or video content right into the stream. Sprout made sure the Fan Plan content drove users to the Intel fan page for the latest laptop pricing because overall fan page traffic increases publish-to-stream relevancy. And because interaction rates in the Activity Stream are much higher than interaction rates in the display ads on the periphery of the page, this approach also helped reduce Intel’s reliance on the supporting ad buy.

The Numbers Say It All: 24,000 Fans in Two Weeks
Intel built a solid Facebook community in record time, and ensured the community’s engagement by delivering immediate value. Over 8% of fans shared the Fan Plan with an average of two to five friends, and 16% of Fan Plan application users purchased a laptop, making this campaign a huge success. Mashable agreed, citing the campaign as “a fan-friendly, brand-conscious initiative that not only actively and passively works to generate buzz around the Facebook Page, but also rewards customers for recruiting their friends.”* For their next campaign, Intel can leverage this existing fan base and rely even less on Facebook ads.