Facebook Marketing: How To Get Your First 1000 Likes Without Facebook Ads

Facebook

Harness the power of this proven step by step Facebook Marketing Strategy to grow your Facebook Page without using Facebook Ads.

Learn how to create an optimised Facebook page from scratch, create engaging posts and kick start your page likes using these 4 proven strategies.

Why Facebook?

3 reasons why Facebook is important for your business:

Over 1.5 billion people spend time sharing the most important parts of their lives on Facebook and this is where businesses can engage them in conversation.
Average Facebook user has 200 Friends. This social network enables a viral marketing effect that can grow your customer base much faster than traditional marketing.
Gather valuable marketing information. Use Facebook Insights to dig deeper into your fan base and create a detailed buyer persona. Info like demographic breakdowns and what specifically fans are interested are more readily available and accurate on Facebook than on YouTube, Google Analytics etc.

Facebook Marketing Strategy

A Facebook page is a representation of your business on Facebook.com.

Facebook Value Proposition

Before you get started, ask yourself: what are we really offering for our followers?

Social media should be a conversation. Aim to engage and not broadcast. If your posts and content don’t start conversations or at a minimum, add to conversations, then you’re doing it wrong.

Always keep this mind, it will help you achieve you goals on Facebook.

Facebook Marketing Goal

Facebook pages do not have friends. Fans “like” your page to see updates in their newsfeed. “Likes” therefore, are a great way to increase your exposure on Facebook.

Getting 1000 genuine and relevant “Likes” should be your initial goal.
Once you cross 1000 make strategies to achieve other goals (e.g. increase website traffic, leads, sales etc.
Once you cross 10,000 focus only on your goals and post reach.

Buying Page “Likes”

For businesses that are just starting out with social media, buying Page Likes can seem like a good idea. Find someone on Fiverr that guarantees you 5,000 “real” fans for five dollars and call it a day.

The main reason I recommend brands refrain from buying fans is because it could kill your organic visibility. The fake fans drive down the average engagement for your page, which means Facebook will be less likely to show your content to your real fans.

Instead, complete the 4 steps below to earn 1000 genuine and relevant page likes.

1. Create an Optimized Facebook Page in 8 Steps

Optimise your Facebook Page to appear higher in Google and Facebook search results.

Get started at www.facebook.com/pages/create

Page Type: While there are six options, most small businesses will only need to be concerned with two: “Company, Organization, or Institution” or “Local Business or Place.”
Page Category: Choose the appropriate category for your business.
Page Name & Username: Enter your business or brand name (& skip remaining steps)
Facebook Icon: Use a simple logo or symbolic representation of your business. Optimal size: 540 x 540 pixels.
Facebook Cover Photo: Make use of this prime real estate. It can be change for seasonal events or to drive call to actions. Get Sizes & Templates at Canva.com.
Page Description: Add in the “about” section on your page. Don’t sell, interact and connect. Include specific keywords and a call to action. e.g.“Welcome to Complete Digital Marketing Course Facebook Page! Like this page to connect with other students, share your success stories and receive updates about the best marketing strategies to grow your business.”
Apps & Tabs: Cross promote other social media, collect email sign ups, display blog posts, run competitions, customer support, sell your products.
Page Settings: No right or wrong settings. Should be based on your personal needs.

2. Use 9 Proven Post Formulas to Drive Engagement

Before you start driving people to your Page using the tactics in the next section, you’ll need to post 2-3 updates on your page for 2 reasons:

Give people a reason to like your page. Show the value and type of posts they can expect to receive in future.
Supercharge your brand’s social word-of-mouth. Every comment, “like,” and share you receive is another opportunity to reach a new audience.

Edgerank Newsfeed Algorithm

Due to the amount of content on Facebook, Facebook has a filtering system called EdgeRank which limits the content people see in their newsfeed.

Therefore, you need to be strategic about your posts. Use the post formulas below to creates posts that people will want to share with their friends.

9 Proven Facebook Posts Formulas That Will Drive Engagement

Caption This Photo. This is fun and simple post that is 90% visual. The only text needed it “Caption this!”. Find awesome photos using to share using Facebook search or Imgur.
Quotes. People love to share & Like quotes — especially whimsical or motivational quotes. Post a quote as text or as a photo update. Find quotes photos quotes to share on Pinterest or create your own branded post using Canva.
Native Video. Facebook loves video. Especially when it’s uploaded directly to Facebook (rather than a link to YouTube or Vimeo) or even better Facebook Live. Use video to discuss new topics, summarise a blog post or welcome people to your page. Reiterate call to actions in the post text.
Facebook Contest. Give people an incentive to like and share. Use a Facebook contest app like Gleam or Wishpond or simply ask people to compete an action on a post. e.g. “like and share to win”, “caption to win” Be sure to include details about the prize and closing date!
Questions. Questions are a great way to spark dialogue with fans. It is probably the easiest way and one of the best methods to get people to respond to your posts. Be sure to reply! (Who is attending [event]?, True or False: [fact], Today is [event]. How are you celebrating, What is for favourite [x]?)
Fill-in-the-Blanks. e.g. “If I had an unlimited marketing budget, I would ________”
Crowdsource For Answers. Rather than answering questions by yourself, why not get your fans to help others who are in need of tips and advice. Simply, update your page with questions from fans.
Remember when [old fad/tradition]? Nostalgia is a great way to engage people. Use simple texts posts or images to give people an opportunity to comment about their memories from that time period or how thankful they are now that a certain fashion has gone out of style. Page mentioned: Do You Remember?
Repost Your Popular Content. Share your Blog posts, Youtube Videos, Quora Answers, Instagram pics etc. that have already been successful on other platforms.

Bonus Tips

Like Similar Pages. Fill your newsfeed with competitors posts so you can see what types of post are getting engagement.
Pin Posts. Give important posts more exposure. It’s great for competitions or posts you want many people to see.
Best Time to Post. After you have made several posts, review Facebook insights to see the the best time to post to maximise engagement.

3. Start Getting Organic Likes Using These 10 Tactics

Build a foundation of genuine and relevant “likes” using these 10 free strategies:

Invite your Facebook friends on your personal profile to like the business page.
Add business page as a workplace on your personal profile.
Ask employees to business page as a workplace.
Share page on your personal profile (Hey friends, this is my new page, please like!)
Add a link to email signatures. The average person send over 4.6k emails per year. Take advantage of this prime real estate. e.g. “Join me on Facebook for news stories, entertainment and freebies!”. Add link to Mailchimp emails also.
Invite Gmail contacts to like your page (Gmail>Contacts>More>Export).
Invite Linkedin contacts to like your page (how to export linkedin contacts)
Invite email subscribers to like your page via Mailchimp or email provider.
Use Facebook Groups to get likes. Join 5 relevant groups. Comment as your personal profile. Like and comment on big threads and share links to your relevant business Facebook posts.
Add a Facebook Like Box to Your Website. Get code by entering page url here. Add to sidebar, contact us or thank you page.

4. Find Growth Opportunities in 5 Facebook Insight Reports

Think of Facebook Insights as your own personal Facebook advisor.

Consult Facebook Insights to find out which types of posts resonate with your audience …and then post these more often!

You don’t need to guess your way to success on Facebook.

5 Facebook Insights Report to Measure Your Success

Likes reveals the total number of people who have liked your page within a specific time range and also where the like happened (i.e. on page, page suggestions, mobile, desktop, etc.) You can also see a breakdown of paid vs. organic likes, as well as how many people “unliked” your page.
Reach is an important metric because it tells you how many people have seen your posts. You can also see some positive engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and shares.
Visits gives you a breakdown of which pages (tabs) were visited (i.e. timeline, likes tab, custom tabs, etc.) and also which referring sites (external) brought people to your Facebook page.
Posts analyzes your content based on post type, targeting, total reach, time of day, and engagement.
People shows you the demographics of your fan base. You can see things like gender, location, language, and compare people reached versus people engaged.