Getting More Facebook Fan Page Likes – Patience or Push it?
Patience or push it?
How do you get new FANS?
I have a Facebook Fan Page and I like to have new fans join More In Media. It’s very exciting to see the little person icon light up when I go to my page and see that a new friend has joined MoreInMedia. Sometimes the number I see is greater than 1 and that’s awesome! Fans are great! They like your posts, they comment and they share – if they are happy with your content. 
Fans are the best!
How do you GET new fans?
Initially, I invited all of my personal friends to like my new Fan Page, and out of 150 friends, about 10% did so when asked the first time. (You can ask multiple times, but don’t overdo it!) That did not give me a whole lot of fans to start off with. Since my business was new, I had no existing clients to go ask to like my page, which is what I would have done if given the chance.
Next, I started ‘liking’ other social media pages and left a scrap on their wall. Again, I received some responses, but not a whole lot. I also liked local news pages and local businesses if I could find them. (read: Connecting locally through Social Media without the Yellow Pages if you have trouble locating local businesses like I did) Again, always leaving something on their wall to tell them I was there. Interacting with them got me some more likes along the way, but slow and steady, nothing crazy! This was the patience part…
From one of the new fans, I did receive an invite for a two week ‘like each others pages’ event : ’Pages Gone Wild’. The event was a bit confusing, since we didn’t know to like each other with our personal profile (which makes it count as a ‘like’) or with our Fan Page, but I joined on day two and got 177 new fans by the time the two weeks were up! Well worth my time – and work it was to go like everyone’s page! So I was pushing it now…
I’ve also tried (small-scale) promotions, contests, fundraisers and such, but with limited results. For those to be successful, you need a fan base of at least 1000 I believe.
Soon, I started blogging about social media and current social media issues. I post my new posts on my Fan Page as well as my personal profile. I joined several groups on Facebook, one being a ‘comment on your blog’ group, which has been great for my blog’s Google ranking. (Comments on your blog count for ranking!) I recently added a Facebook social plug-in to my website: the ‘Like Box’ and that’s been great as well. (Click it before you leave )
Since the beginning, I’ve been slowly building up my Fan Page presence and have received a steady 5-10 new likes/week of real people, real friends, real business contacts. Interaction is the key! But you need more patience…
How do you get NEW fans?
So what happened last night? I got impatient! While scanning my news feed, I found someone had liked Fan Page Promote. Once I clicked on the page and liked it, I was hooked. How else can you receive 30 new likes in an hour?! Real people, real business people, willing to become your fan if you become theirs.
How do YOU get new fans?
So my question to you is: how do you get new fans?
HOW do you get new fans?
Are there any tricks I don’t know about? Is it patience vs. pushing it? Are there pros and cons to doing either? Can you do both…?! … Does it matter HOW?
How DO you get new fans?
So: Does it matter HOW? NO. It doesn’t matter at all. With 700+ million people on Facebook, let’s get a piece of that pie. Being excited about soon having 400 Fans should not be tempered by the thought they are not ‘real’ likes. They are! Someone actually went to my Fan Page and left me a note. Maybe they only came and left in 10 seconds but, more probable, they looked around to pick up new ideas. You should do the same when you like someone’s page. Look at their images, their location, their product or service and see what you have in common. Cross-promotion is big on Facebook and that’s what you should aim to do! Doing is the key-element. Just watching your screen and hoping for a new fan is not going to get you any!
Image via Flickr by smemon87
So have patience and push it. Happy promoting and if you leave your Facebook Fan Page link in the comments below, we will become your fan!
About Dorien Morin-van Dam
Dorien is owner and social media marketer at More In Media. Dorien enjoys social media training, educating and consulting and is passionate about teaching social media to small business owners. In her spare time, Dorien manages five kids, two dogs and a husband. She runs marathons and loves to bake, travel and read.
June 13, 2011 blogging, connect locally, Facebook, Fan Page, Google, local, Screen Shot
I have got some likes from Pages gone wild & similar things. But most of those likes don’t come back. What has been very successful for me is the Facebook box on the front page of my website, which shows likes and the last few posts. That way people that are coming to my site from other means are finding me on Facebook too.
I’m more interested in getting likes and comments on individual posts than just plain liners on my page. I’m still refining my content trying to work out what gets people commenting – I’ll keep you posted…
Thanks Debbie! Yes, that like box on the website is big! Since my blog is my website, that is what works for me. I saw a really big spike in ‘Likes’ as soon as I put that box up. Please keep me posted on what you’re finding works for getting comments on your posts. Pictures and videos work well for me, as well as (very precisely timed) quotes!
Ok, so what is the point in having 1,000 fans on a page if nobody is interacting. Doing the scammy you join my page I’ll join yours does you absolutely no good. Those people aren’t going to come and interact on your page or buy your services. The reason they liked is they hope to get numbers back on their page which is the same reason you liked theirs. Also, if you go like a ton of pages that you care less about in one of these gimmicks, you reach your max number. Which if you weren’t aware is 5,000 friends/likes/groups combined for your profile. Also, the TOS of Facebook say you should only have one profile, so you can’t just go create a second account to add more. I many friends that have reached the max number because of being well known and now have to remove pages/old friends in order to connect with newer ones.
Secondly, going to other local pages & leaving comments telling them about your page is another pretty bad idea. What you are doing here is basically spamming their wall with your advertisement. I get people all the time doing this on my Facebook page. I simply log in & delete those posts. If they do it multiple times I will block them.
The suggest to your page is one way to get friends to come and I’ve used that before just to get my first 25 likes and secure a custom URL. But after that I give up on it as many won’t do it.
So, what have I found to be successful? Well, #1 as mentioned the box on my sidebar does help some. But the increases from that is pretty minimal. Also, adding the Facebook like button won’t grow your page likes. All that does is share the link to your post onto a persons profile.
Here’s what works better: First, offer good content that those already on your page would be interested in. If you give them something compelling that makes them want to comment on, they will do so on your page and in essence do free advertising for you on their personal wall. Everytime they comment or like something, it shows up on their wall that they did something on your page. If their friends see that regularly, they will come over too and see what is happening. If you do this properly it will grow your page faster than any other way. I helped build a Facebook page using just this strategy to over 15,000 fans in just under a year. They were highly engaged & ready for action. We had a team of 3 of us that created really amazing content & offered up a new post every day on something amazing. It was a ton of work, but it definitely was worth it.
The second tip is to have conversations with your likes. Don’t just always push out content constantly and never take time to ask a question. People are more likely to respond if you ask them something than if you just try to jam things down their throat.
The third things is to not overwhelm them with stuff in a day. Facebook doesn’t act like Twitter. 3-4 posts a day there is sufficient. If you are updating every hour you are killing your edgerank on Facebook. You are better to have 3 posts with 3 comments on each than 20 posts with 1 comment on only 9 of them.
The last thing I’d suggest is to put out a little cash & run a Facebook ad. These can be done for virtually nothing & they are super effective if set up properly. They allow a budget as low as $1.00 a day. Pick a targeted group & set up an ad. This will bring consumers actually interested in your products/services. I’ll take 100 interested consumers instead of 600 who could care less about my page & ignore everything on it.
For me, my page that is currently at just over 1,600 fans has taken me about a 14 months to accomplish this. Personally I don’t really look at how many fans I have, I care more about how many notifications do I receive from people on my posts and how many impressions are those posts receiving.
Jeremy Blanton recently posted..Tracking Your Images Through Google Search By Image For Theft
Jeremy, you make some great points and I appreciate your very detailed feedback! Do you have any tips for using Facebook ads? I’ve tried it several times and did not yield many fans, so I think I might not be utilizing the service to my advantage. Thanks for taking the time to add value to my blog. I so appreciate it.
It’s all in the way you target & set them up. I’ve seen some run that get several million impressions for under $20! You have to target them & make them geared toward specific Niche groups.
Jeremy Blanton recently posted..Tracking Your Images Through Google Search By Image For Theft
Ok. I’m going to take another look at Facebook ads. Maybe do some research first
Thanks.
Jeremy, if you leave me your Facebook Fan Page info, I’d like to go check it out
I’ve never pushed Likes because it strikes me as being counter-productive. I’m participating in this ‘game’ because it’s well organized, has clear goals and milestones, and I respect the people running it. If I get more targeted Like-exchange, all the better! My Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/beautifullypractical
Susan Forsythe recently posted..Big Changes
Hi Susan!
Thanks for the huge compliment! We are thrilled to have so many people playing and most importantly, learning about the game of like. Glad you are on board.
Fondly, Dorien.
Hi Dorien!
I am so happy I came across this blog! It is very timely for me. I have been working on several pages that are really all still works in progress. One has been up for a while, another was posted fairly recently and the last one I just set up two days ago. Only one has a few ‘likes’ and I have been wondering how I could improve on that. I hope we could find a way to support each other. Thank you for sharing and opening the way for others to share ideas. My sites are:
https://www.facebook.com/designagreatlife
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Johya-Travel-Services/229484430556
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wedding-Planning-Online-For-Your-Dream-Wedding/187489841286072
Hyacinth
Hyacinth, I’ll happily go check them out. I hope you connected with me on Facebook as well!
Have a great day. Looking forward to some engagement!
~Dorien