Oudney's Studios

You might wonder, is Facebook still worth the effort, especially if you don’t have a budget for Facebook ads? The short answer is absolutely.

You can still draw fans to your Facebook page to read and like your content. And with some extra effort, you can turn those likes into fans, and then turn those fans into customers. The advantage of attracting fans this way is that they’re more likely to fall into your target market, which means they’re also more likely to turn into customers. Here’s how to start.

1. Optimize your Facebook page: The first step to attracting more Facebook likes is to optimize your Facebook page. That starts with making sure you have completed all the key sections, not just the basics. Make sure you have a high-quality cover photo and profile picture that relate to your brand image. Ideally, these should have a consistent look across all of your social platforms so that you’re easy to recognize online.

Next, be sure to add all of your company’s contact information, including your web address, as well as a street address if you have a physical location that customers can visit. Then, fill in the other sections as much as you can, including the “About” page and the “Services” page, to tell people who you are and what you offer. It’s also a good idea to create a custom URL for your Facebook page. 

Investing this effort upfront will make your page easier to find on the web, and it ensures that people get the information they want when people find you on Facebook.

2. Promote your page online: Facebook is all about building community, so the best way to attract Facebook likes is to start is with your own community. But as Neil Patel points out, people can’t like your page if they don’t know you have one.

The good news is that your online community is bigger than you think. Add a Facebook link to your company’s web page and to other social sites like LinkedIn. Don’t forget to include a Facebook link at the bottom of your e-newsletters and e-mails, and make sure it’s on your business cards. And be bold and ask your other social media followers to join you on Facebook—they just might not have thought about it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to feel sales-y. 

Try an occasional tweet with a link to Facebook that says, “Follow us on Facebook too!”

3. Share content your fans—and their friends—want to read: We all know that high-quality content is critical. But it’s equally important to make sure that you share content that your audience wants to read, not just what you want them to read. How do you know what they want? It takes a bit of research, but it’s not too hard. The first place to look is your existing Facebook insights, which can show you which posts have performed the best. Take a cue from what works and start doing more of it.

You can also learn from others. Peek what your competitors are doing on their pages and see what posts are doing well, and consider how you can develop your own unique content around those themes.

When drafting your content, keep in mind that posts with images tend to perform better than text-only posts. Also, remember to post content regularly. Even if you go crazy one Sunday afternoon creating great material, don’t post it all at once! Develop a posting schedule and space them out. Don’t panic—posting regularly doesn’t mean you need to post every day. You decide what “regular” is—whether it’s daily, two or three times a week, weekly, or once a month. When your audience sees that you share new content at regular intervals, they’re more likely to visit your page regularly. And of course, you can use Postcron to easily schedule your Facebook posts.

4. Have human conversations: We also all know that social media is meant to be social, but this can also be easy to forget sometimes. You can put social into practice by proactively starting conversations on your Facebook page and participating in those discussions.

The easiest way to start a conversation is to post a question that asks your fans for their opinion on something. Are you designing a new product package? Post your top two choices and ask your followers which one they prefer. Even better, ask them what they like and don’t like about each one. Or invite fans to share stories or favourite moments related to your brand (and, of course, you should share your own first).

This does two things: It directly invites your fans to interact with you, and it brings a more human voice to your page—both things that generate better results.

5. Invite people to like your page: As your Facebook reach grows, people who don’t follow your page will still see—and hopefully, like—your posts because their friends have engaged with you first. Did you know you can invite people who like your posts to “like” your page? To do this, click on a post that people have engaged with. Then, click on the list of people who have reacted to that post. A new window will pop up with a list, along with a clickable button beside each person’s name that you can click to invite them to like your page.

6. Try video: Virtually all of the major social platforms are expanding the way they use video, and Facebook is no exception. And right now, the Facebook algorithm places a high value on video—especially live broadcasts. If you haven’t tried experimenting with video, now is a great time. How will this help attract likes? The research shows that engagement with video is high; as more people engage with your content, more people will see it.

You can try a Facebook Live video to introduce yourself or tell your company’s story or to host a Question/Answer session with an expert your audience would like to hear from. You could also use live video to launch a new product or service or to give your fans a behind-the-scenes look at how you work.

What tips have you used to attract more Facebook likes? Let us know in the comments below!