22 Feb Facebook Marketing: Loosing Likes Affects Your Brand

The advent and proliferation of social media has been one of the most beneficial marketing tools for brands in recent years. With social media, brands are not only able to gain more widespread recognition, but they are also able to instantly interact with their followers.

One particular social media platform that has truly exceeded the popularity of other social media platforms is Facebook. When using Facebook marketing, there is also one feature that has allowed brands to prosper, and that is the “like” button.

While some brands view this feature to be a bit irrelevant, the truth is that this feature is still extremely useful. In light of this, there are a number of things to be aware of when it comes to Facebook “likes” on your brand’s page.

Get Your Brand Page Out There

The first and most important advantage that the Facebook “like” strategy poses for your brand is that it is the surest way to get your brand out there on social media. The reason behind this is that when someone “likes” your brand’s page, the “like” shows up on their friend’s news feeds.

As a result, those who see the featured post will also be inclined to visit your page and also like the page. The most people that do this, the more visibility your brand is going to get and at the end of the day, this visibility is the goal of every brand. The greater the visibility, the more brand awareness.

To further solidify how important the whole “like” scheme is, just consider the popularity of Facebook. According to Fast Company, despite not being as cool as it used to be, Facebook is still one of the most popular social media platforms for teens and it also remains very popular among adults.

Gauge Product Popularity

Another advantage of the Facebook “like” feature is that it is an easy way to gauge the popularity of potential or current products that you have on the market. For example, a number of brands have taken to featuring their products on their Facebook page and asking users to “like” the product if they would buy the product.

Another strategy that companies have employed is putting two products side-by-side and asking users which product they prefer to buy and to “like” the post if they would buy one of the products. With this type of system, you can also see which products will be more popular.

Once you find out the more popular product, you can conduct a stronger advertising campaign since it clearly is going to yield good results.

Engage Customers

Finally, another advantage of the whole “like” system, is that it is a wonderful way to engage customers in your brand. Instead of promoting products or your brand page, you can simply share information that is going to bring your brand closer to its target audience.The best way to achieve this goal is to post information that your user is going to find interest and relevant.

For instance, if your brand is a sports brand, then posting about sports teams and asking consumers who they think will win a certain game will surely enhance engagement on your page. This engagement will also be featured on your consumer’s news feeds, furthering your brand’s image online.

The Fake “Likes” Phenomenon

There has been a major phenomenon on Facebook, and that is the growth of many brands getting fake “likes.” What this means essentially is that a brand will involuntary have third party to visit its brand page and like the brand’s page.

For companies that are legitimate and do not buy into this type of marketing scheme, this poses a significant problem. The brand page with the fake likes has a high visibility because of the fake “likes,” but the content on the page is not necessarily popular. As a result, a brand can have thousands of fans and very little user and recognition.

When legitimate and strong brands are affected by this problem, what happens is that they run into logistical issues. In the marketing field, many brands rely upon Facebook and user activity on their Facebook page’s to determine the popularity of the brand and products on the brand’s page.

However, with the fake users, the data the brand is trying to gather is highly inaccurate. To make matters worse, Facebook does not have a feature that can allow brands to delete all of the fake users. This means that companies have many fake users and inaccurate data to deal with.

How to Organically Increase “Likes” on Facebook

Clearly, an inorganic increase in Facebook “likes” is not a good idea. What is a good idea is organically increasing “likes.” Fortunately, there are a number of ways that you can achieve this goal.

The easiest way to increase “likes” on your brand’s Facebook page in a natural manner is to offer your target audience incentive to visit your webpage. This incentive can be something like a coupon for a discount when purchasing something from your brand. With this discount method, you not only get more users visiting your page, but you will also surely get more people to “like” your page too.

Your  Blog

Another way to increase “likes” on your Facebook page is to feature your Facebook page on your brand’s blog or on a third party blog that is advertising for your brand. The great thing about blog posts is that you can incorporate nearly anything in a natural and friendly manner.

Website Header

In addition, you can also add a “like” button to the header of your website. This button should be next to the information that is most relevant to the user, such as login information. As a result, when your customer logs into their account, they’ll be directly faced with the option to show support for your brand.

Facebook “likes” are clearly not dead. While they can be difficult for a brand for a number of reasons, if you play the strategy right and you take the correct steps, you can ensure that your brand is naturally popular.