Do you want lots of Facebook likes or would you prefer to have quality over quantity? More and more often, my news feed on Facebook is full of requests to “like” Facebook pages, either by the owner of the page, or from friends and supporters of other businesses.

It’s the same on twitter, I see at least one Facebook page like request in my timeline without even scrolling. So, it got me thinking, is it more important to have large numbers of likes, or would it be more beneficial to have your target market like your page (let’s face it, as much as we would like to believe otherwise, not everyone on Facebook is our target market!?)

So here are my thoughts on both: Facebook Like quantity benefits: As a new presence on Facebook, I can see definite benefits to getting as many people as possible to like your Facebook page for business. Firstly, it’s broadcasting to everyone that you already know, what you are doing these days, which in turn can spark a conversation and engagement with potential customers.

Secondly, when setting up a Facebook page, you get the option to send the page request to up to 5000 email addresses (which can be imported via CSV file) so you can ask all of your existing customers and contacts (with whom you have not already connected on Facebook) to come and visit your page too.

That’s especially powerful when you’re encouraging existing customers to stop by to like your page, as they are more likely to engage with you on Facebook, and there is always the possibility of them writing a great testimonial for all to see. Additionally, human beings are very curious, so if one of your Facebook friends goes to like a page, it stands to reason that we might click through on that page to see what was of interest to our friends. So the message of your business does not just make it to your friends, but to their friends, and if they then go on to like your page, it’s then visible to friends of friends of friends. I can also see that a larger number of likes can provide your page (and therefore your business) with more credibility.

However, if you have thousands of likes, and you’re a business that targets your local area, I may question why you have so many likes, and it may even cross my mind that you’ve purchased likes (yes, there are people out there that do that!) If you get 25 likes, you get to secure your own Facebook URL – for example www.facebook.com/salesscene which is great, as it becomes far more visible in Google and easier to promote your page offline. If you get 30 likes, you can then see Facebook Insights, so I’m all for helping out pages just starting out, as I know how useful both of these are for marketing and measurement. HOWEVER….

Facebook Like quality benefits: If you are more likely to focus on getting likes from your target market, it means that they are more likely to visit your page on a regular basis (if you’re going for quantity over quality, you will get the likes, however, most will not return to your page again). People who return to your page on a regular basis are far more likely to become potential customers, as they are engaging with you, and they are seeing how you work, how you communicate, and the products and services that you offer.

Go and find out where your target market hang out (so if you’re a business in the wedding trade for example, go check out wedding pages on Facebook, and watch conversations, and engage with customers there – go gently though, no taking customers away from the competition on their own page, that’s just bad form). When commenting on those pages, be sure to tag your own page, so that it’s a gentle prompt for people to see where they can find you, don’t spam other pages, just make a friendly comment and tag your own page – if visitors to the original page want to find out more about your business, they are far more likely to come to your page and like it. This provides you with a much warmer lead than lots of likes that will never visit your page again.

Surely you set up your Facebook page for business to attract more actual paying customers right?

Want to learn how to get the most engagement on your Facebook page and attract your ideal audience for your programme/service/event? Contact us now to talk over your objectives and we can create a bespoke training session for you and your team. Call us on 01245 791969 or email [email protected]