May 18, 2011
OPEN Forum Message
Affordably Build Your Brand
FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.
Learn more
Featured Response
“”
De Lion
One of the things many Facebook-for-business users seem to crave is more fans or “Likes.” Frankly, more as a goal is what leads many businesses to doing silly things, aimed at attracting quantity, rather than logical things aimed at attracting targeted fans.
If you run a contest and all people have to do to win a nifty prize is click the Like button, you may indeed increase your number of fans, but mostly they will be people that want a nifty prize and that may not translate into the ultimate goal: more business.
The trick is to strike the right balance between promotion and awareness in an effort to attract the highest number of people to hit that Like button because they are interested in what you might share over time.
Below are five ways to do just that.
1. Gate some good stuff
There are number of ways to “gate” content for fans only. Effectively, this tactic allows you to hide content until someone becomes a fan. (This assumes that you’ve made your page public, which, well, that’s the point here isn’t it?)
Many marketers on Facebook have found that offering valuable, or even exclusive, content as an incentive to become a fan is a great way to attract people that want the content, rather than people that want a free movie pass or something. This way your Likes increase, but with the right people.
The Wildfire iframes app has a free fan gate function and is a great place to start
2. Subscribe and network
This one isn’t very technical, but frankly, that’s what makes it so powerful; it’s based on good old-fashioned networking. As a page admin you can Like other pages and have them show up on your page.
This is great way to promote your partners and gain access to relevant pages where you should be commenting, networking and participating as your page. If you're focused on pages that also target your ideal customer, you will leave lots of trails back to your page.
A word of caution here: Don’t simply go out and spam a bunch of pages. Add to the conversation and don’t sell–you would be amazed how responsive people are to those that offer insight over pitches.
3. Promote mobile
This one may have a limitation or two, but it’s certainly growing and has lots of potential when used in the right places. The biggest limitation is that, for now, Facebook users must activate a mobile device for use with Facebook before they can use this tactic.
Facebook has created a way for people to use SMS to interact with their pages, but they can also use this same tool to Like pages. Once someone activates a mobile device they can Like your page by simply sending a text to 32665 (FBOOK) with the words "nameofpagehere." For example, you can like my page by texting "like ducttapemarketing." (Hint.)
Since people have a mobile device at all times, I have found that I can get a room full of targeted folks to like my Facebook page by simply mentioning this tactic when I present to groups.
4. Use Facebook Badges
Facebook has lots of ways for you to integrate your page activity with your website or blog through Social plugins. They’ve even created a commenting system that you can use on your blog.
There are some attractive features that might draw people to use some of these tools, but there are some downsides as well. For most people, these plugins really slow down your site loading and can actually chase visitors away. The commenting system concerns me because it allows Facebook to own the comments on your blog.
I do however think the use of Facebook Badges is a good compromise. It allows you to grab some lightweight HTML code to paste in your webpages and blog widgets so you can promote your page without the drag of the other plugins.
5. Like button
Okay, I know I just kind of downplayed the use of Facebook’s Social plugins, but I make one exception.
Adding the Facebook Like button to your webpages and blog posts is a must. It’s so important, in fact, that I wrote a complete tutorial with video on how to add the Facebook Like Button to your site.
This functionality will slow your page load, as mentioned above, but is by far the best way to attract targeted Facebook fans that not only Like your page, but in doing so share their activity with their friends as well.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
De Lion 4 months ago
My favorite site to get free Likes is GetLikesEasy. It's a free Like Exchange site. Check it out. http://GetLikesEasy.com