Don't Buy Facebook Likes, Do This Instead

As a nonprofit organization, church, school, or political campaign just getting started online, it can be daunting to build an online following.

You may be asking yourself, how do I convince people to like my page? How do I easily reach new people who should be interested in my organization, but aren't aware of us yet?

These questions are important, but unfortunately, some companies will prey on your uncertainty in these areas. You may be approached by a company who wants to sell you emails or Facebook likes.

Here's why you shouldn't do that:

Page likes don't matter

No, really. Facebook likes are an irrelevant vanity metric.

Facebook does not show your posts to every person who likes your page. In fact, most people who like your page will not see your posts unless they have high engagement.

Engagement can include comments, reaction emojis (likes, angry, love, etc), and shares. Engagement is all that matters. Your fake likes could actually hurt you because they will indicate to Facebook that you have a low engagement level.

Every page's audience is unique

Even if a company promises to get you likes among people likely to be interested in your focus area, that doesn't mean they want to engage with you.

For example, someone may donate to one political candidate but dislike another from the same party.

There's no guarantee those likes will be interested in what you have to say, and as we mentioned before, likes from bots will only hurt your reach to people legitimately interested in your organization.

Here are a few things you should consider doing:

Facebook interest ads

We have discussed how to build an email list with petitions in the past.

You should utilize Facebook ads to appeal to new individuals who may be willing to sign a petition or complete a survey.

You can do so by advertising people who meet the age, gender, location, and interests of people you believe would be interested in your organization.

Invite people to like your page

Did you know you can invite people to like your Facebook page? You can! In fact, there are a few ways to do that.

Here are two methods:

Invite your friends

You can invite your friends from your personal profile to like any page you are an administrator of by clicking the "..." button and clicking "Invite Friends."

Invite people who like a post on your organization's page

If someone likes a Facebook post on your organization's page, you can invite them to also like your page by clicking on post's likes and then clicking "Invite."

Now that you've learned about inviting your friends and inviting people who like posts on your page, you will quickly grow your page's following!

If you need a platform to collect leads through petition or survey pages for free, consider using Anedot Action Pages.