For what it’s worth, I’m not a fan of the new “Like” on Facebook. I thought “Fan” worked just fine, but obviously no one asked me.

That said, how do you get more people to “like” your business Facebook page? Kind of how you get liked in any other endeavor.

You can buy “likes,” just like you can buy leads for a business, but I don’t recommend it. Generally those purchased leads are not motivated to engage with you. Without engagement, Facebook, like all social media outlets, falls apart. I know someone who bought 2,000 “likes.” None of them respond to any of her posts or updates. Nor do they buy from her. Not a good use of advertising money.

So if you aren’t going to buy them, how do you get them? Basically, by letting people know it’s out there. And no, I don’t mean constantly spamming us with the automated “Juli liked 1 to 1 Discovery of Facebook and thinks you should too.” It’s okay to send that out a few times, but be selective and respectful. If you’ve suddenly acquired a bunch of new friends, go ahead and send it just to them. Sending out the message once a year or so is okay, just in case we missed it the first time.

So how do you let us know otherwise? There are lots of easy ways.

1. Promote your Facebook page on Twitter or other social media avenues

Like with the automated Facebook message, don’t overdo it, but don’t keep it a secret either. One note. If you are promoting exactly the same content on Facebook and Twitter, don’t invite us to both. If you invite us on Twitter, make sure we’ll get added value by liking you on Facebook.

2. Get a vanity Facebook URL and add it to your email signature

In the early days of Facebook pages, the URLs were gobbledegook that would have looked like you were cussing in your email signature line. No longer. Now you can have a URL like http://www.facebook.com/1to1Discovery. That looks okay in an email.

3. Join another on-line community

Nope, I don’t mean join a LiveJournal community or Yahoo group and spam the heck out of the other members. But do join, build some relationships and then let people know about your Facebook page, if it has some relevance to the group.

4. Talk about it

Yes, word-of-mouth does work in social media. When you meet people at networking events, invite them to drop by your Facebook page. People you meet face to face will be some of your most loyal readers and responders.

Anyone else have ideas they’ve used successfully? Or ideas that completely bombed?

Tags: communication, e-marketing, Relationship building, social media

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 7:32 am and is filed under social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.