How do I get more likes on my Facebook page?
is probably the most common question that comes up in training sessions.
For most of us who are smaller businesses, and not international household names, getting our Facebook page out there can be hard work.
Of course the key is engagement not a numbers game, but still if no one like our page its pretty hard to get any engagement going.
So below I am going to share 7 top tips – and 2 things to definitely avoid.
Number one has to be…
Provide good content – Whatever else you do is pretty irrelevant if there is no good content on your page. So, what is good content? The answer to that starts with the question what do your audience want to read?
If someone has liked your page , unless it’s your mom, it’s a good guess that they want to read stuff related to what you do. Going off piste is ok once in a while but always consider what your customers and prospects want to see. Of course don’t only use the written word, images and videos are always very popular.
2. Tell people – Now you have something worth reading, tell people that you have a page.
How do you do that? There are a few ways…
- You can ask your existing customers to like your page and to leave comments and feedback.
- Add a facebook button to your website (your website person can help you with that if you don’t know how).
- You can add your facebook link to anything you send out – your newsletter, leaflets, your business cards, packaging, and of course your email signature.
- Facebook has the facility to invite your Facebook friends, which is useful as I’m sure many of your friends will be delighted to support you. But be mindful that Facebook doesn’t filter who has already liked your page and who hasn’t .
3. Get the timings right – Many people assume that if they post something on their Facebook page then their ‘fans’ will see it. That is not the case and the best way to ensure that the people that you want to see it, will see it, is to do some research and find out what time of day your fans and prospects are on Facebook. You can play with this and if you use your insights, though they are not a true science, they will give you a good idea what is working when.
This has never been easier to do. No longer do you have to battle with 3rd party scheduling apps, or sit at your computer at 11pm to catch your audience, you can now schedule your posts to go out when you want them to. Just use the scheduling tool below your posts.
Scheduling Tool
4. Be consistent – A page that has had no new content for weeks doesn’t look good and people will assume it is inactive. Equally a page that posts too often just gets annoying .Both of these may result in your page being unliked.
It is recommended that you post good content on your page at least 3 times a week and certainly no more than 3 times a day.
5. Adverts and Promoted Posts – With over a billion active Facebook users, Facebook adverts are a very inexpensive and effective way of growing your audience. You do not have to commit hundreds of pounds, in fact I would recommend starting with a very small amount, but the beauty of the advert is that you can target by:
- city
- country
- gender
- age
- relationship & family status
- birthday
- job role
- etc etc
And of course, because they are so inexpensive, you can experiment and have a number of ads with different wording running at the same time.
You will have also seen Boost Post, which lacks the benefit of targeting, but is equally inexpensive and worth playing with if you have a particularly good post to share.
- Boost Post Tool
6. Competitions – Now that Facebook have relaxed the rules so that you are no longer required to use a 3rd party app to run a competition, it is well worth having a go at running a competition on your page. People seem very willing to Like a page or leave a comment when there is a contest with a good prize. This of course gets people to spread the word about the contest to their friends and in so doing, spread the word about your brand.
Just take care to be seen to be fair, as disgruntled folk will talk and obviously do check Facebook’s own rules.
Competitions
7. Make use of your insights – Once you have 30 likes you get the gift of Insights, or statistics, added to your page, which you find in the admin section. The insights are not totally accurate so don’t use them as an exact science, but they are a good guide to what is happening on your page, and it is certainly worth taking a look at what is working and what isn’t over a given period, if for no other reason than it is pretty pointless posting things that no one is interested in, or no one has seen.
They also give you useful information about your fans.
Insights
And the Big Fat Don’ts….
1. Don’t be spammy… I recently had this posted on a number of pages that I manage: Please like and share my page and I will like yours!
Of course it is good to like other pages and comment on them, but the key is AUTHENTIC. The small business community will usually do a return Like if you are genuine. You can also send a private message to introduce yourself, but posting that on the wall is just spammy and wrong in so many ways. The proof of that is that the next day this guy still only had 3 likes.
2. Buying likes.. I have had a number of messages and email along these lines… Try out the 24/7 Free Live consultation they are very insightful and helped me get 7000 fans in 6 days.
7000 fans in 6 days. Impressive eh? I have never asked the cost, but I know that buying likes is not the way to go, as that is 7000 people (if they are people) who are very unlikely to ever engage with you and will probably unlike you as soon as they have been paid!
Growing your page organically with great customer engagement does require work, but if you want to sell your products and get people sharing your posts, it is the only way to go.
If you implement any of these please let me know how you get on, and if you would like to talk to me about any of this, feel free to email me or leave a message below.
Happy new likes.