Guess what, business owners:
We’ve been doing Facebook likes all wrong.
When it comes to Facebook likes, a lot of us think it’s all about the numbers. But in reality, it’s a TERRIBLE idea for you to invite your friends (or your grandma!) to like your business Facebook page.
Here’s why.
I get these requests all the time: “So-and-so has invited you to like their page.” When you’re starting a Facebook page for your new business, I know it’s tempting to hit that little “Invite” button on the page. From there, you can easily invite all of your personal Facebook friends to like your page. Sounds perfect, right?
Wrong. Don’t do it!
If you’re a business owner (which, if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you are), you will probably want to run some Facebook ads at some point. Facebook ads are a great way for you to grow your email lists, direct people to your webinar, re-target visitors to your site to buy your awesome online course, etc.
Now, a little background info. There are a couple of different ways to run Facebook ads:
- You can target your Facebook fans. This means the ad runs to everyone who’s liked your Facebook page.
- You can target “cold traffic.” This means the ad runs to people who have never been exposed to your product.
Option #1 is less expensive than Option #2. The idea is that you Facebook page fans already like you: they already know your content and brand, so the possibility of their signing up for a webinar or buying your product is MUCH GREATER than it is for “cold traffic.”
As a result, it’s going to cost you less to advertise to those people than it will to advertise to “cold traffic.” For example, you might pay $1.50 per email address to get your Facebook fans on your email list, whereas you might pay $3 per email for cold traffic.
But here’s the thing: if your Facebook likes are diluted with a whole bunch of people who love you personally – including your grandma, aunt, mom, or best friend from high school – these people are not really your ideal client. They’re not really interested in your business, other than to give you a high five and cheer you on.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to filter your personal friends out and target your true business fans. That means that when you pay for a Facebook ad to go out to your “fans,” you’re paying money to advertise to people who won’t buy.
Simply put, you’re losing money.
You’re also confusing Facebook. The lack of engagement from your friends and family will tell Facebook's metrics that your fans don’t actually like your product!
The fact is, Mom and Grandma will probably like your Facebook page anyway, just to support you. But don’t invite them to. While it might be tempting to beef up your page likes by inviting friends and family, trust me: if you’re planning on running Facebook ads, it’s just not worth it.
I’m just getting started and haven’t shared my page with friends or family so I have no fans. Would you suggest I start with ads to increase page likes?
Hi Tina,
Not necessarily. It depends on what the end goal is and what the ROI would be. How does your business make money right now? One on one clients? Information products? Physical products?
I haven’t made any money yet. I am putting together my first information product and hope to launch a 5 day challenge later this month that will lead into my course launch.
I heard it’s cheaper to target ads to your Facebook fans and since I don’t have any, I was thinking that it might be beneficial to invest in ads that will get me some fans to target.