If you build it, will they come? Not really. A popular social media myth is if you build a presence on a social networking site, someone will find you and come. While a straggler here and there might find you and follow you, the results and growth will be painfully slow unless you tell someone about it and spread the word however here’s where things get tricky. I’m all about promotion, learning about new pages, etc if it’s tastefully done. Lately, I’ve been peeved with an overwhelming amount of spam, friends begging me to like their page via messenger, or watching them desperately spread the same link almost everywhere just to get to the next hundred mark. It’s a little pathetic so I thought I’d share some alternative tips.
Connect with other page managers: what’s your page about? Food? Deals? Reviews? Perhaps, there’s a restaurant you can connect with that’s also looking to grow a following? Talk them about cross promotion and sharing each others posts for a while. You can leverage each others audience to discover new followers and become visible to a similar audience.
Share original content: Thanks to Google, Facebook’s new graph search feature, and upcoming changes to the Facebook news feed; content will be more relevant than ever. Don’t promote a page that doesn’t consistently supply fresh original thought provoking content. Are you too self promotional? Always sharing your content vs others? Good luck getting those followers to stick around. Try sharing a photo, mixing it up with a text post, sharing a video post, and then finding a blend that works.
Tag your page from your personal profile: make sure your friends know your page exists by sharing something interesting from your page onto your profile vs using the pesky invite link. If they like what’s being shared, they’ll notice where it’s coming from and like the page. We’re all curious creatures on Facebook, we can follow the bread crumbs you leave us. However make sure you only do this occasionally.
Link your profile to your page: your about section is the first place people go to learn more about you when they first add you as a friend of if they’re bored and stalking you, so give them some incentive to possibly find your page and like it. Add the page to your work history and list yourself as an employer or whatever suits your page content best – editor, entrepreneur, founder, etc.
Add your Facebook page to your email: Yes, people still email. Add your page to your signature and it will serve as a gentle reminder to anyone you email and perhaps get you a few followers.
Comment on other pages: When I say comment, I mean really take the time to study the pages you’re following and leave a thoughtful comment. Don’t spam them a link and tell them to follow just because you are, that’s tacky and no one should be forced to follow anyone. If your comment is sincere, it will be seen by the page owner and the audience, this good karma will get your farther than harassing them for a like.
Run a contest: We all love to win something and with platforms like Wildfire, Woobox, and Rafflecopter, it’s easy to set up a contest, link the app to a tab, and get it up and running. Most of these are free or charge a small monthly fee but they are legal ways of running a contest on Facebook and a quick way to grow an audience.
Add a like box to your website: This is kinda a no-brainer but there are several plugins that will allow you to quickly add a like box with faces that will run on the side of your page and serve as another gentle reminder for folks on your site to like your page.
Leverage other social networks: Tweet about the page, share the link on Google+, tag it in your YouTube videos, write about it in a blog post to introduce it to others, share that blog post, etc. Where else are you? Share the link and remember to also tell people why they should follow. Don’t just share the link because you need an “x” amount of followers to get to the next milestone; that doesn’t really motivate me or give me an incentive to like your page.
What other tips do you have to grow your Facebook following and what has worked for you? Share with us in the comments below.
