How to increase your Facebook Fans – Part 1

Have you set up a facebook business page and you are wondering how you can get more fans? Well, I’ve tried and tested a few different ways with my facebook page and will share my thoughts on various methods over two blog posts.

1. Ensure that you have set up a business page that people can ‘like’. So many people are under the impression that they are doing the right thing setting up a ‘friend’ profile as a business.  Countless businesses have sent me friend requests and I won’t become friends with a business page as I don’t necessarily know who is ‘behind’ that business page all the time, whereas I would be very happy to ‘like’ their business page. Get it right from day one and set up a business page.

2. Ask your friends to ‘like’ your page. When you send the request, they will sporadically see a little box in their right side bar asking them to like your page and it seems to appear every now and then until they actually do like it.  Their friends will see it on their profile too or in their newsfeed and may like your page then too.

3. Ask a couple of good friends to share it on their page or recommend your page by linking to it and adding some words of recommendation.

4.  Set up a facebook widget in the sidebar of your blog (see our one in the right side bar), then those who read your blog posts and like them can like your page from there – this is an excellent method as if they are reading your blog, they are your target market. Facebook  provides you with another method of engaging with them.

5. Create interesting content and write some updates, linking to blog posts, uploading pictures or highlighting content of interest to your subject area. Don’t leave your page almost blank (this may sound silly but it is surprising how many businesses neglect to create content).

6. Interact with fans – do respond when fans write updates on your page. Have a strategy in place in case an irate customer writes on your page (decide beforehand how you would deal with it) but that is a very rare occurrence generally.  Remember to check your page daily and respond to any comments or questions left by fans.  It is surprising how many big brands have put money into television advertising and yet neglect to communicate with fans on their facebook page.  Chatting with fans on facebook has to be one of the easiest ways to build a relationship, create a community and encourage repeat business.

7. A Welcome Landing page – is this important? Yes and no, I personally think that good content on the main page is what is most important as well as good communication with your fans.  If you have a large brand, then an impressive landing page outlining what you do is imperative so visitors to your page can see what you sell at a glance.  You can use Pagemodo for a free landing page too. Do see Amanda’s post on how to make ‘Landing pages work for your business’ for her suggestions.

8.  Social media platforms such as facebook, blogging and twitter will bring you business – all it takes is some knowledge and application. See Niall Devitt’s recent case study of how a small Irish business grew using such platforms. As outlined by Niall, it is the interaction between business and customer and the generation of sales that really determines the success of a facebook page, not the number of likes.

Don’t beg for likes. If your content is good, the fans will come as people will recommend you. By all means, ask for them in the early days and then relax, if you follow many of the tips above, your facebook likes will grow steadily.

Part 2 will suggest some means of growing your fan numbers quite quickly, the debate however, is whether numbers equals sales.