10 Sure Fire Ways to Boost Your

Facebook Following Today I‟m writing about the Facebook following that I had growing like gangbusters. Or so I thought… I recently started noticing that the growth of my following had slowed. This is not good for me. I mean, I am a Social Media Marketer! I am supposed to be setting the example, right? If you have noticed a slowdown in your following, take a look at what kinds of activity you‟ve had on your page lately.

If you‟re like me and have become a little lazy in your Facebook activities, try these:

1. Get with your peers. Connecting with other businesses in your area that have similar customers as your business is a great way to cross promote each other‟s Facebook pages. A good example of this would be a preschool and a children‟s clothing store or a gym and a health/nutrition store.

2. Share original content with your fans. Including images of your products or clients receiving your services go a long way with people. Images are so extremely social networking friendly. Pin these images to Pinterest with a link back to your Facebook page. See how much traffic you will get. If you haven‟t used Pinterest yet, you should! Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media networks out there. Trust me, your customers are on their!

3. Tagging Posts on your personal page gives another avenue for more exposure. Business page posts are showing up less and less in the News Feed. Try tagging your business page in your posts to your personal page every once in a while. Take caution here and don‟t flood your friends with your business. There is a fine line here and many make the mistake of crossing it and not only losing the like, but possibly the friend too.

Here‟s how to tag your page in a post:

Start by typing your status update on your personal page. Include a reference to your page, add an @ and name of your page. Your page name should automatically show up in a drop down. Select it and hit post. Now when someone mouse‟s over your page name, it shows a pop-up of your page with a like button.

4. Link your Profile to your Page. Hopefully this is something that you‟ve already

done and can skip right ahead to #5, right? Wink, wink… Well, if for some reason you haven‟t done this yet, do it now! (yelling voice) When you list where you work and it‟s not accurately linked to their Facebook Page, a strange “Community Page” is created with that same name and it has a suitcase icon. Then people start liking that Community Page rather than your real Facebook Page. It can be very confusing to a prospective client, looking to „check you out‟ before they decide to contact you. All you need to do is to delete the Community Page from your Work and Education section in your About area (click Edit in the About section), click the X next to the incorrect employer to delete and then add in the correct Facebook Page. Once you start typing a drop down will appear, just select your business page.

5. Add your social links to your email signature. Adding your social links, including Facebook to your signature keeps your „places‟ as I like to refer to them, up front in all your communications. If you use gmail there is a cool little program wisestamp.com where you create your signature and the program connects it to your gmail account for all emails you send. If you use an email client like Outlook or Windows Mail, you can also add a signature.

6. Comment on other pages as your page. Find and Like other pages that are complimentary to your business. Your clients are probably interacting there too. Acting as your page, Like and Comment on postings of pages that your customers are likely on. It can take a little time to figure out the pages that you want to interact with, but once you get the hang of it, it should be something you include in your social networking activities.

7. Post a Poll or run a contest on your page. Polls are fun and can work a dual purpose. A poll is a good way of finding out what products or services your audience likes or would like to see you offer. Contests are great, doesn‟t everyone love a good contest? Well, I do… Contests are free to run, but must be run through a Facebook App. Running a contest with a like-gate on your contest app also gives you the ability to make sure people like your Page before they enter.

8. Add a QR code to your business card. QR codes a free and easy to make. I use the Google Chrome app, QR Code Generator. Another is qrstuff.com. Just enter the URL of your page and a QR is created for you to save or copy and use wherever you like. Other places for QR codes are on newsletters, emails, posters and flyers. Always remember to give a good call to action or no one will know what to do with it!

9. Use Facebook Ads. They can be intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can have great success with them. Sponsored Stories are a good starting point. They are easy to do and cost very little as compared to other ad options. This will advertise your Page to friends of your current fans and give social proof in the ad by showing that the user‟s friend likes your Page.

You can also use the Facebook targeting features to narrow your audience to just the right people you‟re looking for to Like and interact with your page. Like I said, they are super easy to create and you can also put a limit on your budget so you don‟t wipe out your marketing budget all in one ad! From your page, click on Advertise Your Page in the column on the right. Then choose Get More Likes. The second section is for the Sponsored Stories ads. Complete the Choose Your Audience section and then set your budget for this ad in the Campaign Pricing and Schedule section. Click Place Order and you‟re on your way!

10. Add social icons and Like boxes to your website. Don‟t be scared! They‟re easier to create than you think… Just go to your page and edit your page by clicking the Edit Page button at the top and Update Info. From the menu on the left select Resources and then Use Social Plugins. There are many ways to get here; this is just the one that I use.

These are just some suggestions, as there are many other things you can be doing to get more interaction on your page. Use your Insights area to learn about which of your

activities are getting more Likes and do more of that activity. If you need more help with your page, please feel free to contact me. Shelley Owens Virtual Marketing Assistant http://www.sociallyshelley.com