7 Tips for How to Get More Likes on Facebook

So you’ve broken into the wide world of Facebook by starting a Facebook business page, but you can’t figure out how to get more likes.

It’s a frustrating business, I know, but let me start by giving a warning, don’t fall into the all too tempting trap of buying Facebook likes. This will end up hurting your organic reach and therefore defeat the whole purpose of having a Facebook business page in the first place.

What should you do you ask? Great question! Read this post and I will show you 7 ways you can increase your Facebook likes.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Facebook Likes

Before we move forward I’d like to clarify why it is absolutely not a good idea to buy Facebook likes. To understand this let’s think about why you are on Facebook – you want to build a following of people who are interested in your brand in order to nurture a community that will hopefully buy your products or services.

What are bought Facebook likes? Usually they are phantom accounts created by companies that simply like pages at random. What that means is that these likes will not interact with you, they will not buy from you, they will not help you.

What will they do for you?

They will hurt your engagement rates both by not engaging with your content and by diluting the reach of your posts to your real fans. This decrease in engagement rates will hurt your EdgeRank as well, Facebook’s algorithm which determines what goes into users’ news feeds, further lowering your page’s organic reach.

So, I cannot stress enough, just because you don’t have as many Facebook likes on your page as you had hoped, don’t resort to buying likes.

So How Should You Get More Facebook Likes?

There are a number of great and effective ways to get good quality Facebook likes for your page that will actually help you towards your goal of engaged fans that want to buy from you.

1) Interact With People on Facebook

This is the easiest and most obvious place to start. In order to build up your following on Facebook, you have to be active, and build a presence for your brand’s page.

Start by inviting your friends and colleagues to like your page. Then join relevant Facebook groups, whether they be local business groups, or industry related groups, and begin posting. As people notice you, they will interact with you in return.

2) Post Engaging Content

In addition to just noticing you, you want people to want to interact with you. If you have a page people want to interact with, people will also want to like your Facebook page.  In order to achieve that you’re going to need to post engaging content. There are many types of posts you can try out that will help you with this like:

Asking a question is a great way to promote engagement, but only if you make sure that the question isn’t too complicated. Ask something light and easy like this:

Fill in the blank or create a photo caption posts get your fans to show their creativity. Everyone likes to show off a bit.

Use user generated content is amazing because it’s your way of giving your fans a shout out and shows that you care about them. User generated content is great for boosting brand loyalty, and it just so happens to be one of the most highly shared types of content which means increased exposure for your brand. (Take a look at this if you want to learn some user generated content best practices check out How to Use User Generated Content).

3) Host Competitions

Everyone likes a good competition, and because of that competitions have a lot of potential to go viral on Facebook. If you design a good competition it can result in a tremendous amount of traffic coming to your page, meaning it is a great way to get more likes on your Facebook page.

A few things you should do when creating a competition are:

• Make sure the competition is fun, whether because of the name and the design you use for it, or because of the competition itself, people like fun!
• Have a prize that people will actually want. No matter how cool your competition is, people won’t be overly interested in participating if the prize isn’t very good.
• Make the prize relevant to your industry, this way only people who fit the profile of your target customer will join the competition.

The people that join this competition are exactly the type of people that you want to interact with on Facebook.

As your competition gains steam, more and more people will find their way to your Facebook page, and like it too.

You can use a Facebook competition app like ShortStack to help host your competition.

4) Use Fan Gate Coupons

People are easily bribed, and coupons, very frequently are the bribe. Give someone a coupon to your store and they will most likely buy something, even if they weren’t necessarily thinking of making a purchase before. In fact, 83% of unplanned purchases are a result of coupons (Market Track).

You can actually use Fan Gated coupons in order to pull off a double bribe. The way these coupons work is that the coupon offer is shown to your Facebook page visitors. The visitor is then asked to like your page in exchange for receiving the coupon.

So you’re bribing them to like you on Facebook and to buy your products.

Fan Gated coupons are a great way of ensuring that the people who find your page due to your Facebook activity will also end up liking your page.

Update: Fan gating is no longer permitted by Facebook. Learn how to make up for the lost leads with these 5 Facebook Lead Generation Tools to Use in the Post Fan Gate Era.

5) Use Facebook Ads to Get More Likes

Facebook ads can be set up to achieve a number of different goals, one of which is gaining likes.

These ads can be an extremely efficient way of building your Facebook community. For example, one of our clients went from 170 likes to 16,000 in a matter of a few months just by using Facebook ads.

When creating you ad you should be sure to utilize Facebook’s targeting options in order to pinpoint your exact target customer:

1. Figure out who your target customer is.
2. If you are targeting a specific location (which is probably a good idea even if you’re not running a local business) then set your target location. The reason it is important to target by location is, first to narrow the target audience, and second because it enables you to appeal to specific cultural references or mention place names which can add a personal touch to your ad.
3. Use the targeting options such as age, gender, interests, and occupation to best reach your target audience.

For example, if you were to own an outdoor furniture company based in New Jersey, you might want to target your ad like this:

Here are a few best practices for making Facebook ads:

• Use bright, eye-catching images in order to draw attention to your ad.
• Compose a powerful call to action by using action words, asking a question, creating a sense of urgency, making an offer, or anything else you can think of that would draw attention and encourage action
• Make sure that it is clear what the user will get for clicking on the ad. For example:

For more on creating Facebook ads read 6 Steps to Successful Facebook Ads.

How to Get More Facebook Likes From Your Website

That’s right, you read the heading correctly. You don’t need to rely solely on Facebook to help you get more likes, you can actually get people to like your Facebook page straight from your website.

You might be asking yourself, but if they’re on my website, why do I need them to like my Facebook page? They’ve already gotten to the end goal – your website. The answer – retention! If you get site visitors to engage with you on Facebook, then you have a much better chance of converting them into repeat customers.

So how do you do it?

1) Add a Like Box to Your Site

A like box is a box that you can add to your website that will give your visitors the option to like your Facebook page. In addition, it also shows how many likes you have, and a few of the profile pictures of people who have liked your page.

This benefits your site, because it boosts your trustworthiness by adding social proof, and it benefits your Facebook page, because it gives you another channel from which to gain likes.

Click Here if you want a Like Box for your website.

2) Use a Coupon Pop on Your Site

We discussed earlier how much people like coupons, well, I thought I’d back that up with a fun statistic, 42% of fans like a business page in order to get coupons (Syncapse).

By using StoreYa’s Coupon Pop you can accomplish something similar to the fan gated coupon on Facebook. Basically, the Coupon Pop pops up a screen to your site visitors which offers them a coupon in exchange for following one of your social profiles or leaving an email address.

If you are looking to build your Facebook presence then you can set it so the only option is for them to like your page:

Our merchants have seen tremendous growth when using the Coupon Pop. Just check out these stats if you’re not convinced:

• Their Facebook communities have on average increased by 25% per month
• 1 out of every 3 purchases came from a Coupon Pop coupon plus a 30% sales boost

The Coupon Pop has other great benefits for your business as well:

• Increase fans and followers on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• Grow your email list immediately
• Boost your SEO, because customers that see the Coupon Pop, on average, visit 2.5 times more pages. This increases time on site and product discovery
• It translates into any language
• It is very easy to use and set up. There is no coding or design knowledge necessary to use it.

When you do create a Coupon Pop be sure to follow these best practices:

• Match the color and design of your pop up with that of your website
• Get creative with the copy of your pop up and use strong action words
• Give a deadline in order to encourage action
• Explain the benefit the user will get for redeeming the coupon and joining your community
• For more on how to create an effective Coupon Pop check out Getting Creative With Coupon Pop

Here’s a great example of a Coupon Pop in action:

Click Here if you want to add a Coupon Pop to your website.

Now it’s Your Turn

So now you know, DON’T buy Facebook likes, because it will hurt you far more than it will help.

What you should do is boost your Facebook activity in order to increase your likes by interacting with relevant people, consistently posting engaging content, hosting competitions, attracting new fans with Facebook ads, and like gating your content with a Fan Gate.

You can also get more Facebook likes from outside of Facebook by installing a Like Box and a Coupon Pop on your website.

If you have any other methods that you use to get more Facebook likes we’d love to hear them! Please leave any questions or comments below.

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