When I first starting developing websites online and started blogging just over a year ago it was my dream to have thousands of Facebook fans. I now have a few different Facebook fan pages and in total I have thousands of Facebook fans. However what I have learnt is that there is no magical way to get real fans on Facebook; it will take time to get fans to your Facebook page and at first I found that I was only gaining a few new likes every week.

So why would your business want fans on Facebook ?  Well Facebook has become one of the most powerful marketing tools on the internet and is free to use for anyone. With nearly a million members you can connect with customers, suppliers and readers. I personally use Facebook fan pages these days to mostly promote content from my blog. Every time I publish a new post I share it on Facebook and can drive a lot of traffic to my new post with in  space of hours. The same concepts applies to all businesses; you can post your latest products, special offers or post from your blog and market it to your fans on Facebook.  Your Facebook fans are also going to be interested in your content if they have liked your page to you get a much higher conversion rate than if you were to use traditional advertising.

On the other hand Facebook is the perfect place to show the more human side of your business by replying to other people’s posts and solving their problems in front of an audience you can build up trust in your brand. In this post I am going to share with you some of the methods I personally use to increase the amount of fans I have on Facebook.

Facebook integration with your website

Integrating Facebook with your website is a must for online businesses and something that I missed out on at first. By integrating Facebook into your website, visitors to your website can connect with you on Facebook and stay up to date. There are many different ways of integrating Facebook into your blog or business website.

I have found that the most effective way is to have a pop-up box on your website which loads when a visitor visits your website. To view your website they need to click off the pop up or on some websites they must like your Facebook page to continue on your content. This is most effective though when you have content that is useful to your reader such as a blog post and may not work best with your business website. If you are using WordPress then Social popUP  is a good plugin that I would recommend.

The second way to integrate Facebook with your website is to add a Facebook like button or box somewhere on your website. I personally like to add this in the sidebar or at the bottom of my websites so that it is present on every page of the website and it is not in the way of the content. This allows your website readers to Like your Facebook page with one click from your website.You can add  like button to your website by visiting the Facebook developers page.

To promote your own website on Facebook you could also add social sharing buttons onto your website. I would only recommend putting this on your business blog posts and not on any other pages on your website. These allow readers to easily share your posts on Facebook and promote your website for you.

Brand your Facebook profile

Imagine your business website if it did not have a logo or a consistently branded website design throughout. Well this is what your Facebook fan page will look like when you first set it up. Adding your logo to your Facebook page is crucial but as well as this you need to make sure that it is the correct size and has not been stretched. I often see small business Facebook fan pages where they have their logo uploaded but the image is stretched and not clear. This is a BIG no, it just looks unprofessional and rushed.

Furthermore you also want to add your description of your business to the ‘About’ section of your Facebook page. This is your chance to promote your business and give potential fans all the information they need to know about your business and how you can help them. A few paragraphs should be enough and you also want to add a link to your website.

Offer an incentive

At first I found it hard to actually get any Facebook fans in the first place and this is when I decided to offer an incentive for people to like my Facebook page. At the time I was trying to increase Facebook followers to one of my blogs and therefore I decided to offer one of my eBooks for free, all my readers had to do was like my Facebook page. For a business then you could offer a 24 hour free trial of your service to people who like your Facebook page.

Furthermore running a competition is also another method I found to rapidly increase my Facebook  Likes. You could run a competition and to be entered into the competition, entrants must Like your Facebook page to be in with a chance of winning.

Advertise your Facebook page everywhere

Just like your business, you also want to promote your Facebook page everywhere you can to get as much Likes as possible. I personally add a link to my Facebook page in my email signature for when I am email customers. You could also advertise your Facebook page in pictures and on places such as your business Twitter profile description. Offline advertising is important and I know some businesses tend to find that adding their Facebook page to business documents such as business cards and letter heads can increase followers.

Post viral content

This is not something that will appeal to every online business on Facebook but by posting some sort of viral content such as a picture or video (hopefully relating to your business) can give you a huge amount of exposure online as other Facebook users Like your content and share it with their friends. Doing this just once a month could greatly increase the amount of fans you have on Facebook and will be a great marketing technique for you.

Final notes

In this post I hope you have learnt everything you need to know to increase the amount of Facebook Likes that you have, hopefully by thousands as I managed to achieve. Just remember that it can take some time to do this, especially at first when you are new to Facebook but over time you should see the results you are looking for. Make sure you Like my Facebook page to get more tips like these.