Kirsten Armleder| November 1, 2021
You’ve just created a Facebook Business Page, and you have zero likes or followers, which not only looks bad but can prevent some page features from being made available to you.
So, what do you do? Start inviting friends and family to Like your Page, right? Wrong! Resist the urge! This is perhaps the worst move you could make!
Why?
It comes down to the Facebook algorithm. You need to work with the algorithm, and having a Page comprised of Likes from your friends and family is not good for one simple fact: they are not your target customers.
Let’s face it, they’re probably just being nice
The more people who engage with your post the more Facebook “rewards you” by showing it to more people. When you invite your friends or family members, they’ll usually accept out of kindness, but it is unlikely they will engage with your content on a consistent basis – and if they don’t engage, your organic reach will be extremely low. Basically, nobody will see your posts.
If they do engage? Facebook will keep showing them your content.
So, if you’re mom or best friend is consistently engaging with your posts, they’re the ones who’ll keep seeing it, while your true targets – your customers – won’t get a chance to. You’ll be wasting what fractional organic reach you can get these days on the people least likely to buy your product or service.
It confuses the algorithm
Diluting your Page with Likes from friends and family will also confuse the algorithm, training it to recommend your Page to people with similar interests.
Sure, some friends you invite to Like your Page may truly be interested in your offerings, and you could benefit from them sharing your posts to their audiences, but where are they located? By inviting Likes from friends in another city or province, you could be training the algorithm to deliver your content to people far beyond your target market.
Likes are considered a vanity metric
While it does look impressive when a Page has thousands of Likes, Likes are considered a vanity metric. Likes are almost completely meaningless unless they are coming from your true customers, and there are far better ways to gauge your effectiveness on social media.
If you’re wondering what metrics to focus on, see our article, Facebook Advertising: 5 Key Metrics to Focus On.
Facebook is a marketing tool
If you are interested in leveraging the power of Facebook to raise awareness of your brand, get leads and grow your business, then you’ll want to run some Facebook ads.
There are many targeting options available to advertisers, and one includes targeting people who Like your Page and/or who have engaged with your content. If your Page is diluted with non-customers and it’s your mom who’s consistently engaging with your posts, these options are clearly out.
Unfortunately, there is no way to filter out when targeting people who Like and/or have engaged with your Page. But the good news is that you can have success on social media, even if you’ve already done the bad deed of inviting your friends and family.😉
One last word about Page Likes
Since January 2021, Facebook has been shifting away from Page Likes to Followers. The change has been rolled out to artists, public figures, and some business Pages. Facebook is likely testing the update before applying it to all Pages in the next round of changes.
