Facebook Likes 101: How to Connect with Enthusiastic Followers

Facebook is the largest social media platform out there right now, with more than 2.27 billion monthly active users. There are so many users, so many members of your target audience, all right there to connect with.

And yet even with 2.27 billion monthly active users, you’re struggling to get any of them to actually like your Page.

Sound familiar? If it does, you’re far from alone. Getting followers in the form of Facebook likes on your Page is both important and challenging. Plenty of brands-- regardless of industry--struggle to grow their following on the platform, stunting their growth and potential.

This doesn’t have to be the case, however. In this post, we’re going to look at everything you need to know about Facebook likes, including whether they’re valuable (spoiler alert: they are), how to get more of them, and how to get the most out of the ones you have.

1. Organic Reach is Declining: Do Facebook Likes Still Matter?

Organic reach-- which essentially just means the number of people who see the posts you upload to your Page organically-- has been declining steadily for four years.

Gone are the days when each update a Page posted was shared in every followers’ feed. Current estimates put organic reach at around 2-6.5% on average, meaning that only 2-6.5% of your followers will see each post you share. For every 1,000 followers you have, only about 20-65 will have any given post popping up in their feed.

This leads us to the big question that I’ve seen floating around: if organic reach is declining so much, do Facebook likes even matter anymore?

Yes, of course Facebook likes still matter. And even though they’re technically less valuable than they were before, they do matter just as much. Declining reach makes it more difficult to get your content in someone’s feeds; having no followers pretty much makes it impossible unless you’re willing to shell out some cash for the ad system.

Having plenty of likes on your Page will make it easier for you to connect with your customers, and as an added bonus, it does give you some great social proof. People can see how many other users have liked your Page even in a quick preview.

2. The Importance of High-Quality, Relevant Likes

Facebook likes all matter, but they’re not all created equal. The declining organic reach is frustrating, but you do have a powerful solution to combat it the best you can: engagement.

If your content is frequently liked (or otherwise reacted to), shared, saved, or commented on, Facebook takes notice. Not only will the users regularly interacting with your content see more if it going forward, but your content will be deemed high-quality, and other users will likely see it, too.

As a result, finding the right people to follow your brand and like your Page is important. You really want to connect with audience members who are excited about what you’re doing and enthusiastic to interact with you.

This is one of the biggest reasons why buying likes is such a bad idea; they almost always come from bots which never engage with you, lowering your overall engagement rate and hurting you. Finding these audience members can be difficult, but it’s a lot easier with the right strategies in place.

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3. How to Get More Relevant, High Quality Facebook Likes

Relevant, high-quality Facebook likes from enthusiastic followers are the name of the game. Let’s discuss a few valuable strategies to help you find and connect with them.

Offer Exclusive Coupons

Most people only really care about coupons if they’re actually interested in purchasing from you at some point. Even though loss aversion plays a part in motivating people to spend money with discounts even if they never would have otherwise, people won’t care if they have no interest in purchasing period.

Offering coupons only on your Facebook Page is a surefire way to get more likes. Customers will always want to be in on it, and to know they aren’t missing anything.

You can utilize the Offers function on Facebook to create organic and paid coupons that have full terms of condition. Offer discounts in percentages or flat dollar amounts, and choose whether or not you’re open to people redeeming them online, in store or both.

If you’re offering exclusive coupon codes on Facebook, promote it everywhere. Mention it on your site, in your email, and on other social networks. If you’re running offers to get new followers, you won’t get results unless you tell non-followers to go check them out.

4. Choose a Pinned Post Strategically

Pinned posts on social media are powerful tools when you use them well. They’re one of the first things users see when they come to your Page, and they give you a chance to choose exactly what you want that to be.

Pinning posts about latest events or big news can promote both when needed, but for an evergreen pinned post, choose one that serves as a great introduction to your brand. This could be you graciously sharing a positive review about your business, or featuring a video that tells the story of your brand or why its mission is so important to you.

The goal with the pinned posts in this case is to give new users enough information about you that they feel compelled to like you so they can learn more. As long as you’ve chosen a post that’s doing that, you’re good.

When choosing a pinned post, try to choose a post with strong engagement already. This will make the impact that much more powerful, because other users will see all that social proof, and it will be a testament to why they should follow you.

Optimize for Search

Getting more Facebook likes means you need to get more people to come to your Page. Search visibility best practices will help with that.

Facebook has a pretty powerful search engine, and plenty of people are using it for that feature to discover new brands that meet their needs. Treat your on-platform content like you would a blog post you want to rank well in the search engines; consider keywords that users might be searching for, and place them in the description of your “About Me” or try to feature them in more posts.

As you’re showing up in more results, you can connect with more of your target audience and hopefully win them over enough to get those like buttons clicked.

5. Post Consistently

Have you ever landed on a brand’s Facebook Page for the first time and then saw that it was pretty much empty and been underwhelmed? It doesn’t seem like they’re taking it that seriously, and you see zero point in hitting that like button. If they don’t care, why should you?

This is something that happens commonly with small businesses. They’re waiting to get more followers to post regularly, but it prevents the Page from getting them.

Post consistently, at least three or four times a week. Share great, valuable and/or engaging content that’s well-written and relevant to your audience. Even if you aren’t getting a ton of social proof yet, users will see that your Page is active when they come across it and they’ll be much more likely to give you that coveted Facebook like.

6. Invite Your Friends

You have the ability to invite your Facebook friends to like your business Page as soon as it’s created, and this feature is helpful long after, too.

Some people don’t like to invite their personal friends to their professional Page, but this can be a missed opportunity. As long as you trust a friend to behave appropriately (not swearing, not trying to make you look bad because they think it’s funny, the works), invite them.

People you know from your personal life can be enthusiastic supporters, and will likely happily engage with your content when they see it in their feed. If you have clients or industry peers on your friends list, even better.

In addition to gaining more likes, having your personal network connected to your professional Page could help you out later on, too. If one of their friends asks for a recommendation and you’re a fit, they’ll easily be able to find and tag your Page. This can hopefully send some new business and new followers your way.

7. Leverage Your Email Network

Loyal followers in one location can easily be converted to loyal followers in another. Even if someone is already subscribed to your newsletter, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be following you on Facebook, too; you share different information in both places, and having multiple touch points to interact with your audience members is a plus.

Always include social follow buttons in every email campaign. This is easy enough to implement; most email softwares just require that you set this up once, and then can apply it to your email campaigns moving forward.

You should also have a single campaign where you invite email subscribers to follow you on Facebook, too. This should be the sole focus of the email campaign, though you can mention other social platforms, too. Mention the offers, the contests, or what exclusive content you’re sharing on Facebook that will make it worth their while for best results.

8. Mention Other Brands

Sometimes the best way to get some social media love is to dish it out first yourself. Create other posts talking about great things other brands are doing or how much you love their product or services. There’s no need to have a formal partnership; any brand that has an overlapping audience (either geographically or in terms of interest) can be a good fit.

Here’s how this strategy works. When you create complementary, wonderful content about another brand, most will be inclined to share it for the social proof and possibly say a few nice things about you, too. When they share it, their audience members will see it. This can get you in front of brand new audience members that puts you in great light, even though it doesn’t feel too promotional.

If you’re not sure which Pages to get started with, take a look at products or services that you use yourself or brands that you interact with regularly. If you had a good experience with them, it’s safe to give them a boost, and their other customers likely had a great experience, too.

9. How To Get the Most Out of the Facebook Likes You Have

As more and more people start to follow your Page, there are steps you can take to get the most out of every like that you get, extending the benefits on and off platform. These include:

Interact with your followers. Respond quickly to the private messages they send, and always like and/or respond to comments they post. This will keep them engaged and wanting to see more from you.
Use engagement-oriented strategies to build relationships and get more post likes or comments. Ask your followers questions, host a poll, and share user-generated content (UGC) to generate conversation on your Page.
Run some retargeting campaigns. If you really want to get the most out of your likes, run a retargeting campaign with your Facebook followers as the audience and show them exclusive sales in the hopes that they’ll convert.

Invite your followers to your events. Hosting an event, online or in-store? You can invite your followers to view and hopefully RSVP to the event, hopefully increasing attendance.

Conclusion

Getting more Facebook likes is a big priority for a lot of brands on Facebook, regardless of whether they have 100 followers or 100,000. When creating on strategies to get more likes, remember to prioritise those high-quality followers who will enthusiastically interact with you and your content on a more long-term basis. This will be essential to not only gaining more followers but to actually see an impact from them on your business.

Ana Gotter

Social Media Marketing Specialist

Ana is a strategic content marketer specialising in business, finance, and marketing writing, though she's worked across a range of industries. She works from her home in Orlando with her three dogs.