Startup Finance

If you want to grow your Facebook page audience, then you’ve arrived at the right place. Before you skip ahead to the tips though, I want you to consider the following:



  1. Why do you want to grow your Facebook page?

  2. And what kind of audience do you want to attract?


The reason I’m asking is because so many companies become obsessed with growing their social media channels without any real idea as to why.


Mostly it tends to boil down to the perception of credibility. I mean how can anyone doubt your company if it has over 50,000 likes?


If that was true though, surely I’d have put myself through the misery of watching The Twilight Saga long before it reached 44 million likes on Facebook?


Then there’s the marketing angle. Surely if you grow a page to 50,000 likes you’ll have a massive audience of potential customers to sell your products and services to? Well, that all depends on the type of audience you’ve gained.


You could probably grow a Facebook page to 50,000 likes by posting Homer Simpson quotes every day for a year. But how will that audience react when you suddenly start promoting your new software product? Not very well I’d imagine because that product has nothing to do with the Simpsons. 


But, what if you started posting links to official Simpsons merchandise on Amazon and cashed in on the sales commission as an affiliate? Now you’re talking.


The point is, if you’re going to put effort into growing a Facebook audience, make sure you are investing energy into attracting the right kind of audience for your end goal.


And finally, one last crucial point to remember is that some businesses will find it easier to grow a social following than others, and some will not grow at all.


For example, a fun and exciting business such as an outdoor sports company can generate a positive buzz online and tap into broad topics such as health and fitness. But good luck creating that same kind of positive social buzz if you sell coffins for a living, or if you operate in an industry that’s in rapid decline.


Now that lecture is over, let’s get on with the tips.


1. Inviting people that like your posts to like your page


This is simple but effective.


If someone likes one of your posts, you can invite them to like your page. Of course, it’s their choice as to whether they choose to accept the invite, but chances are good that if they were willing to like your post, they will be willing to like your page too.


The great thing about this feature is that you can go back through all your old posts and invite anyone that has ever taken the time to like your content.


2. Inviting people that like your comments to like your page


If you comment on your own posts, you can invite anyone that likes your comment to also like your page. This creates the opportunity to double-down by creating a comment along with each post that will naturally gain more likes.


For example, you post a picture of a cute puppy that gains lots of likes. You then comment on the picture and say, “Everyone needs a cute puppy in their lives!” and people will also like your comment.


This works well because your comment will always be more visible than other comments because you’re the admin of your page.


3. Liking post comments on a competitor’s page


This is a bit of a cheeky one, but you can actually visit a competitor's Facebook page as your page and like the comments that people leave on their posts.


This tip plays on the fact that people are naturally curious, so when they see a notification of your page liking their comment, they may very well follow it back and like your page too.


Just be mindful that Facebook is watching, so don’t go on a liking rampage. Otherwise, you could land yourself with a temporary or permanent ban from using that Facebook feature.


Also, be mindful that the competitor won’t notified of your likes, but they could still figure out what you’re doing by checking their visitors’ comments – most likely resulting in a ban from their page.


4. Creating your own Facebook community


It’s possible to create a Facebook group and link it to your Facebook page. Once connected you can then invite people from your page to join the group.


Over time, with a little TLC, you can encourage this group to grow into a fully-fledged online community, opening up many potential opportunities.


For example, if you post in the group, all your members will receive a notification. This means you effectively can push out announcements to a captive audience.


You also have the freedom to give your group a name that can supplement your main brand. For example, your Facebook page could be “Smiths & Sons Plumbing”, but your group could be called “Plumbing tips for your home”.


The group and page can then work together in unison, with your group functioning as a community-driven resource, providing content that you can share to your main page. You can also promote your page and its services to your group.


5. Always upload videos directly to Facebook


Facebook will actively cap the reach of any YouTube videos that you share. So, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you have to upload the video directly to Facebook.


Aside from maximising your reach, there is the added advantage of Facebook auto-play, which starts playing your video (without sound) as soon as a Facebook user sees it.


This gives you a vital few seconds to capture the attention of someone before they scroll past. Use that time wisely.


6. Images perform better than text


It’s a well-known fact that the human eye can process images far faster than text – up to 60,000 times faster in fact. So, it should come as no surprise that images perform way better than text on Facebook, with memes reigning supreme.


This is one of the many reasons why I have been able to grow one of my own pages to over 10,000 likes in less than three months, purely by posting memes three times a day.


How to grow your facebook pages likes by thousands


7. Shorter posts get more engagement


Try to keep your Facebook posts between 40-60 characters. This is based on studies by people such as Jeff Bullas who discovered that Facebook posts with 80 characters or less got 88% more engagement than longer posts.


So, for best results keep your posts short and sweet.


8. Comment on external articles with Facebook comments


This is another cheeky one, but you can actually comment on articles online as your page. All you need to do is find articles related to your industry where potential customers might be commenting.


The first step is to consumer discretionary perform an advanced Google search for articles online that have the Facebook comment plugin installed. I’ve already done this for you here. You just need to replace the word “cats” with keywords related to your industry. For example, “bleeding a radiator” if you’re a plumber.


Then it’s a case of scrolling down to the bottom of relevant articles and leaving a comment that’s so good, people won’t be able to resist clicking through to your page – I’ll leave this part with you.


Just remember to click on the downward chevron next to the little icon of your profile picture to make sure you’re commenting as your page and not your personal profile.


Easy ways to get more likes on Facebook


9. Promote content away from your audience


Over time you may notice that the reach for your Facebook posts has dropped or stagnated, even though your overall page likes have increased. What’s going on?


Well, the culprit here is Facebook reach, which fluctuates based on the performance of your previous posts. So, if you post a few stinkers in a row, you may notice a drop in your reach, or conversely, a few high performing posts may have the opposite effect.


To get around a decrease in reach, you might be tempted to boost a post, but this is where you need to tread carefully because if you get it wrong, you may end up doing more harm than good.


Remember, a Facebook boost means you’re paying to thrust your content into people’s newsfeeds, whether they like it or not. And if someone that’s already becoming disengaged with your content sees your ad, it may prompt them to unfollow or unlike your page.


Facebook takes note of these negative events and factors them into the future reach potential of your content. And since your boost has the potential to reach a much wider audience than your current reach, there is the potential to create a snowball effect of negative signals.


Instead, you should take advantage of the option to promote a post away from your current audience. That way, you’re not running the risk of alienating your current audience if the post performs poorly. And if the post performs well, it usually results in more likes for your page.


The only time I would suggest boosting a post to your existing following is if you’ve got a high performing post that’s about to lose its steam – such as a post that did well, but is now a few days old.


Doing so can take high performing posts to the next level, such as this post of mine that was able to reach 1.2 million people despite my page only having a few thousand likes at the time.


Facebook page growth hacks


When you start hitting a higher reach the effect is cumulative, with greater reach potential available to your future posts and more engagement and likes pouring in as a result. Don’t be disappointed if your reach and engagement slowly returns to normal though, as not every post can go viral.


10. Understanding Facebook reach and why it’s so important


In theory, Facebook reach is pretty simple.


Let’s assume your Facebook page has 10 likes and each of those 10 people have 500 Facebook friends. Now let’s assume that those 10 people have shared one of your posts with their friends, which would give your post a potential reach of 5010 people.


Sounds great right? Except, it isn’t, because Facebook limits your potential reach.


To understand why think about your personal Facebook profile for a second.


Chances are that you’ve got a couple of hundred people in your friends' list, with half of them posting fairly regularly. Facebook knows that you haven’t got the time or patience to sift through 100 status updates each day, so they will only show you updates from the people you interact with the most.


Everyone else, such as Susan who posts selfies of her dogs every 15 minutes, will be filtered out.


Well, the same logic applies to your Facebook page. Facebook will only show your posts to the people that interact with your page the most.


So, you could have 100,000 likes, but your reach might only be a fraction of that due to low engagement from your fans. Or, the opposite could be true. You might have high engagement on a page with 100 likes, resulting in a reach of several hundred thousand. 


Privacy settings affect your reach too. Including the privacy settings of the people that like your page and the privacy settings of the friends, they share your content with.


Understanding how reach works is key to understanding how to positively influence it.


Do you have any suggestions?


Do you have any tips for Facebook page growth? Let us know in the comments. In the meantime though, thanks for reading and I wish you all the best in growing your own pages.


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