You may have noticed over the past couple of months that in addition to the number of likes on your page growing at a slower pace than before, the number of people commenting, liking, and sharing your Facebook page content has gone down. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to everyone. These are strategic decisions by Facebook because they want pages to act more like people, and surprise, Facebook is in the business of making money just like you. So if your Facebook engagement has gone down, well, there are options available for you to pay for that engagement using things such as ads, sponsored stories, and promoted posts. But this post isn’t about those things. I want to tell you why people aren’t liking your page in the first place, because that is probably one of the most-asked questions I get. Here are things that I know for sure cause people to skip the like button and move on to other things.
1. You post infrequently – I believe that the sweet spot of the number of times to post to my Facebook pages is 3-4 times per day. The average life span of a post is between 4-8 hours, so I spread my posts out during the day. Some of you never post. Like ever. If someone visits your Facebook page and the last post you made was a month ago, then that’s a big disincentive to bother with you.
2. Your posts are boring – Now, this one I am sure some folks will argue with, but I believe it’s true. Don’t use your Facebook’s business page for doing business. Makes perfect sense, right? Well, I don’t really mean that you should NEVER talk about business because whatever business that you are in, people expect to see stuff about that. But you don’t have to pretend you are at an insurance seminar. (my apologies to insurance salesman) If people see posts that are interesting, humorous, informing, light-hearted, and ‘engaging’, they are more likely to click like.
3. You don’t care about them – Here we go with the touchy-feely stuff, right? But it’s true. If all you want is the like, just so you can build up your numbers, people will recognize that. If you show genuine interest in what your fans think, what they like, what they want to talk about… you’ll get more likes. People are generally vain and want to talk about themselves. Think of this as relationship building. Relationships take time to build, and it requires a whole bunch of stuff like being interested, mutual respect, and trust. So do it.
4. You sell, sell, sell – You wouldn’t think I would have to explain this, but I do. All the time. Do you like it when ‘that guy’ comes on TV and screams at you to buy that blender or that sham-wow? You don’t like it when the sales clerk bothers you when you are shopping, do you? So don’t do that. If all your post are things like…”today only, 15% off” or “buy 1 get 1 free this week” you’ll turn them off. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling your fans about those things, but if you haven’t ‘earned’ their friendship first, then it turns people off. Don’t try to sell anything and you’ll sell more. I guess the best analogy I can give you is Starbucks. Nobody ever asks you to buy anything they have sitting around the store, aside from which size latte you want. They set the atmosphere, they make you comfortable, and they leave you alone. And they sell a boatload of coffee. So sell like Starbucks.
5. You don’t ask for it – It’s amazing to me how many people have a Facebook page but they never tell anyone. I guess they just think that the masses will magically find them on Facebook. Does your website have a Facebook like button on it? Does your email signature have the link? When you buy ads, do you put your Facebook page link somewhere on it? Do your receipts have the link on it? What about your business cards? In sales it’s often said that you won’t get the sale unless you ask for it. So ask them for the like, then make sure that you don’t fall victim to #1 through #4 above.
