We all have Facebook pages for our businesses. For me it's my shop front. The majority of my orders come through my page and recently I have seen an increase in orders from my website. The reason for this is because none of us own our pages, Facebook does.
The reason I am writing this is to share with you about what I know and understand about page likes. When it comes to likes, it's really really important to remember, it's all about quality not quantity. I remember when I started Paws, I shared my page with EVERYONE. All my family and friends. They then shared etc on and my page Likes built quickly. I thought wow that's just great, that will make me look popular and everyone will want to buy from me. It doesn't work this way, it really is counter productive and can have a real negative impact on your page. So much so, it may mean your page is seen even less.
I don't profess to know everything about Facebook or Digital Marketing. Just when I think I understand how they do stuff, they change it. Now trying to explain the whole science of what goes on, in the background when it comes to your page would take forever and a day. So I am going to try and keep this as simple as possible.
It’s important not to crowd your page with ‘likes’ that are not going to help your business grow and provide an income. I have just seen a post on a group asking for likes on their business page. It's something I see a lot. Dog groomers, liking other dog grooming pages. Don't get me wrong it's great to see solidarity in the groups. What you have to remember is, Carol the dog groomer isn't going to book Karen the dog groomer to groom her labra-cocka-doodle is she?
I used to be a part of the ‘you like my page and I will like yours’ when I first started my business. Until I learnt about the qualitiy V quantity formula Facebook uses and understanding that most of my likes were blocking my page being seen, by people who were my customers and potential customers.
Think of it like this if you had a bag of green balls, which are your friends, family and other businesses just like your own. Then you have red balls which are customers who actually buy from you. The rule of thumb is Facebook, will on average show your page to around 2-3% to all the people who like your page. So if you have more green balls than red balls in that 2-3 percent then you’re reaching no one and you’ll probably find your orders are taking a hit. This includes existing customers and new customers. You can increase this percentage, but that's a whole different subject.
Social media is a fickle thing and to those who just don't get it sometimes it can be a daunting place. I come from a background in sales (double glazing, advertising, mobile phones) as well as office management and admin. Having my own business was always a dream for me, but social media is a whole new learning curve when it comes to advertising your own business. Paws will be celebrating its 6th birthday this year and all I know is I must be doing something right.
1 comment
100% This – its a minefield trying to figure this out sometimes. And as you say, you just feel like you are getting the hang of it and it all changes!