7 hacks to grow your facebook page
A small business has its own advantages and disadvantages.
One of the biggest drawbacks is the lack of funds and resources to spend on organic marketing techniques that will take quite long before they start producing results.
Small businesses need a healthy cash flow right from the word go.
They cannot wait for months to see some results.
When they are investing the time and money in a marketing strategy, they want to see quick results.
Precisely the reason many small businesses don’t invest on Search Engine Optimization or Social Media Marketing because it can take months before you start to see some returns.
It’s easy talking about quality content and being patient and persistent with your social media campaigns but as a business, it totally makes sense if you are looking for some quick ways (AKA Hacks) to grow your Facebook page.
So we’ve created this list of 7 tried and tested hacks that will bring maximum results in the least possible time.
Keep in mind that we are talking about the real likes from your target customers. If you are looking only for numbers, you can go and purchase thousands of followers for just $10 or $20 dollars but those are good for nothing. In fact, they will do more harm to your business.
Also, we’re all for playing it safe so we will not recommend using a black hat technique that involves a script or deceives users into clicking on the Like button.
Preparation:
Before we get down to those hacks, let’s see how to prepare your business page to get maximum results from the techniques mentioned below.
Invite your friends & Contacts to Like your Page:
It always stumps me to see a business page with 10 or 20 likes.
Facebook has more than 1.7 billion active users as of June 2016. More than half of US population is on Facebook. Surely, the owners will have friends and contacts who are using Facebook. There’s nothing wrong in sending them an invite and requesting them to ask their friends to like your page. Not only you will get your first batch of likes, your friends or family members are more likely to Like or comment on your posts that will boost your organic reach.
Populate your Page a little with good Content:
Before inviting your friends (and their friends) to like your Page, it’s important to have your content strategy in place. You don’t want to risk losing your first few likes due to an empty page with little or no content.
Invest a little on Facebook Ads:
I know that you’ll not be reading this post if you’ve had the budget to spend on FB advertisements. Still, I’ll advise spending a couple of hundred dollars to get some of your target customers to like your page. You can target your potential customers to precision and have 1000 likes or so will help when you are about to use one of the following hacks.
And let’s get started with the hacks.
1. Like Exchange:
Link exchange used to be a commonly used method in the early days of link building.
The technique is obsolete because Google devalued links from irrelevant websites or sites exchanging links with each other.
However, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using the same technique to get some free exposure on Facebook.
It’s simple.
However, you should better have around 500 – 1000 likes before starting (that’s why I suggested using FB Ads to get some Likes).
Search for businesses who are complimentary but not your direct competitors.
Make sure that their target audience is somewhat similar to yours.
A veterinary doctor can get in touch with a local pet shop. A caterer can join hands with a DJ. A car wash business can try it with an automotive repair shop.
Shortlist the ones having a similar number of followers or likes.
A Match Made in Heaven?
Look at the likes, comments, or shares on their posts to ensure that these likes are real.
Now get in touch with an offer to share each other’s business page with your followers.
The exchange will benefit both businesses.
2. Conduct AMAs:
Cameron, one of Jarvis founders, recently did an AMA session on Reddit.
AMA are received quite well in online communities, especially if you are targeting B2B audience.
AMA or interviews can serve another purpose. Invite influencer or power users from your industry for an interview or AMA session at your Facebook Page. If they agree, they are likely to share the event with their followers and your page will get some free exposure.
Again, your profile needs to have some following before you can convince any of these guys.
3. Post Content that Engages People:
The only legit way to hack Facebook to give your page more prominence and exposure are to improve engagement rate on your posts.
If your posts are getting a lot of likes, shares, or any other form of interaction, your post will be featured more in people’s newsfeeds.
Not to forget that when someone likes a post, their contacts will see that post in their feed.
So how do you post content that will get the desired response?
The easiest way is to find relevant content that is being shared a lot on Social Media and posting.
That’s something Jarvis can do in seconds.
Go to Discover section and type a keyword in the Search bar. Jarvis will give you the hottest and the most shared content on any given topic in seconds.
You can edit and add any of these posts to your library and it will be scheduled to go live at a specific time.
You will need a premium account for that but you can go for a free trial to see this feature in action.
Also make sure that you are trying different types of content (e.g. quotes, images, videos, links).
Again, Use Jarvis to create categories and post one from each of these categories one by one.
Go to Insights section to identify posts that worked the best and add similar stuff to your library in Jarvis.
Don’t fall for Clickbait or excessive posting because the Facebook algorithm can detect and take care of both.
Also remember that these posts will usually not convert or add to your bottom line. Your entire content strategy shouldn’t be based on the same type of content.
4. Strike while it’s Hot:
In other words, when someone likes your post, invite them to like your page straight away.
Facebook allows you to invite friends to like your page. You know that, right?
What you don’t know is that it also allows you to invite anyone who has liked your post to like your page.
Once you’ve started to post engaging content and your posts are getting a lot of likes, you should start sending invites to all of those people.
Click on the Like icon under the posts.
A new window will appear. You can simply click on the Invite button right next to people who have liked your post and it will send an invitation.
The invite button will not be there if they’ve already liked your page, so you don’t need to worry about irritating your existing fans.
5. Comment on other Pages as your Page:
Another built-in feature that you can use is to like and comment on other pages as your Page.
Find Facebook pages with a similar set of the audience as yours (shouldn’t be your competitors for obvious reasons).
Now like these pages and start commenting on these pages every once in awhile. Make sure that you are adding to the discussion and not posting spammy content from your business profile.
At the moment you cannot join or participate in a group with your business profile. However, you can create your own group if you want to use Facebook groups for promoting your business.
6. Cross Promote:
You don’t have to keep your Facebook page promotions to Facebook platform. Make sure that you are using other mediums to market your Facebook Page.
Share your Facebook Page on your visiting card along with your website or email address.
If you are a local, brick and mortar business, you can use signage or flyers to invite walk in customers to like your page.
Share Facebook page in your email signatures and also use a Facebook Page widget on your website.
Make sure that you are offering an incentive or benefit to all these users for liking your page.
For example, you can share special discounts with your page fans from time to time.
7. Pop Ups:
Pop-ups or Welcome Mat seems to be the rage these days.
Most businesses use them to get subscribers.
Hardly any business tries to work that hard for getting the followers on Facebook.
Building a fanbase on Facebook is more beneficial in many ways.
It’s much easier to reach and engage people through Social Media as compared to Email that has a measly open rate (~ 20%).
Use Popups or Welcome Mats on your website or blog to convert visitors into your Facebook fans.
Remember it takes at least 6 – 7 contacts before a sale is finalized. If you can get your site visitors to like your page, it’ll be easier for you to follow up and convince them into making a purchase.