How to Grow Your Facebook Page

Some people ask the question “How many Facebook fans should I have?”, but the more interesting question is “how many people can I really connect with?”

If you want 10,000 followers on your Facebook page, what will you do with them once you have reached that number?

What kind of value will you provide to them?

How will you make the time they spend reading your Facebook updates worthwhile? After all, they are giving up a little bit of their time to read your post – don’t let them down!

There are many ways to get likes on your page.

You can buy them. Actually don’t do that! Really.
Just don’t.

I once worked on a page that have over 5,000 likes.
I was excited to jump in and bring new likes and
expand their reach. Unfortunately, it turned out that
the majority of those likes were bought by a
previous marketing team. Which meant that no
matter what I posted, the posts consistently reached
less than 20 people each…and sometimes as little as
five people. Facebook doesn’t make it easy to remove fake/bought likes, and short of investigating every single like individually, there was no way to clean up the page. Trust me when I say buying likes isn’t worth it.

You can use Facebook advertising which, when done correctly, can put your page in front of new people who might like your page. Facebook ads are the method that Facebook prefers – which is why they have continually slashed the organic reach of business pages. Advertising works for some businesses and not so well for others – depending on the product, the ad, the targeting, and some other factors.

However, before you go this route, make sure you’ve done three things. First, really understand your audience so you can properly target your ads. This way you’ll get the most out of your advertising run. Second, answer the questions I started this post with – otherwise you’ll be wasting your money. Third, figure out a way to track the conversions from your ad. There is really no point in advertising with Facebook if you aren’t also tracking its effectiveness.

100 unengaged fans will drag down your Facebook reach because they don't care about you or what you sell. I know that sounds harsh, but it is true. And that’s ok. I’m sure there are many brands you don’t really care about.

On the other hand, five "brand ambassadors" can be magic because they are passionate about you and want to share what you do/sell. Think about a brand/business you love and love to tell people about. That feeling of joy, happiness, and excitement? That’s what you want to cultivate in your fans.

Facebook makes liking pages easy. So easy it even suggests pages for users. But Facebook makes actually following the pages you have liked a little more challenging. Your job, as a page owner, is to bring value *every single time* one of your posts appears in the users feed. Every time. When you make your posts valuable to your reader, they will interact with them. The more they interact, the more your posts appear in their feed. If they share your post, then you can reach even further.

How do you grow your Facebook relationships? In the same way you grow in person relationships. By being a good human.

Put your desire for sales and Facebook likes aside for the moment. Reach out and connect with new people – because they are interesting and you want to connect with them. Join new groups and be generous with your time and knowledge. Look for other businesses to partner with – a multiple-item giveaway can benefit everyone involved. But be aware of Facebook’s giveaway rules and be aware that some of the people entering your giveaway are only after the free stuff.

Growing your numbers isn't nearly as important as growing your relationships. Make friends. Be good. Be generous. Be kind.

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