On Facebook - chasing likes is the fastest way to damage your organic reach. Find out why here and find out how to avoid falling into the trap of chasing cheap likes. Chasing page fans – or ‘likes’ on your page is something that many companies spend a lot of time, resources and money doing. In the vast majority of cases we’ve seen, these efforts are a complete waste. Let me try and explain why. It is important to understand that not all page likes/fans are equal. If you have 10,000 fans who have liked the page purely organically – that is, they already like the brand, the gravitate towards the Facebook page at some point and they click ‘like’ – those 10,000 fans/page likes will be useful to you. These fans are the most valuable example of page likes you can have. If you have 10,000 fans who have clicked “Like” due to an incentive (e.g. free wifi if you ‘like us’, entry to a competition, even ‘like our Facebook page’ icons that are based outside of Facebook) – these will not only be of very little value, they may negatively impact your brand’s reach, engagement and performance on Facebook. More engagement = more organic reach. More reach = more potential engagement. When your page fans really engage with a post – that is, they comment / share beyond simply clicking ‘like’. Then this will push your post’s reach beyond your page fans and (crucially) into different social groups. Coming back to the initial reaction – if your post fails to generate engagement with the initial selection of your fans it is shown to – it will quickly sink and fall out of visibility. The post dies. The chance of getting engagement on a post is greatly decreased when you have page fans who aren’t really fans. Conclusion The quality of your page likes is an important factor in determining the organic reach of your posts. Likes that are attracted through promotions, incentives and competitions can negatively affect your brand’s organic reach on Facebook. Engagement is the most important factor in determining organic reach of individual posts. Likes, comments, shares and clicks (i.e. expanding photos, clicking ‘read more’) together inform Facebook’s algorithms which decide who and how many people to show a Facebook post to.

1. HOW CHEAP LIKES COST
MORE THAN YOU THINK!

2. Companies are addicted to LIKES
“How many likes did we get last week?”
“How many followers do we have?”

4. (Click this to see our infographic!)
Not only that but…
“Likes that are attracted through promotions,
incentives and competitions can
negatively affect your brand’s organic reach
on Facebook.“

5. (Click this to see our infographic!)
So what matters on Social Media?
Conversation

6. (Click this to see our infographic!)
What about likes and shares?
Ok:
Likes
Shares
Conversation

7. (Click this to see our infographic!)
Conversation doesn’t just mean comments
Engagement is a TWO WAY street
Don’t forget to acknowledge & reply

8. Reply to every comment?
No! Play smart.
Reply for maximum visibility.

9. Example

10. When you ask your community a question:

11. Make sure you know the answer!
(And share it with them)

12. How does organic reach work?
“I have 10,000 fans, so how come my
reach is only 800?”

13. (Click this to see our infographic!)
The optimistic take:

14. (Click this to see our infographic!)
This decreases when
you post too much
Comments & shares
are most important
according to Facebook
Average post lives for
3.5 hrs

15. (Click this to see our infographic!)
Cheap likes = Expensive Reach
“I can just pay more to increase my reach.”

16. Relationships remove decision-making
Making decisions is often hard
Personal recommendation is the strongest influence on
purchasing decisions
Seeing friends who have already chosen a product or
brand makes it easier
Especially important in areas of specialist knowledge
e.g. tech
Brute forcing reach via PAID options work...
BUT!
Paid reach reduces viral reach by up to 80%!
Cheap likes = Expensive Reach

17. Thank you!
twitter: @EzyInsights
facebook.com/ezyinsights
www.ezyinsights.com
Generating page likes that are valuable
is HARD.
And shouldn’t be your primary focus,
BUT…

18. Thank you!
twitter: @EzyInsights
facebook.com/ezyinsights
www.ezyinsights.com
We can help there too!
http://blog.ezyinsights.com/2014/03/26/valuable-facebook-page-likes/
http://www.slideshare.net/EzyInsights/how-to-get-facebook-page-likes-the-
right-way

19. Thank you!
twitter: @EzyInsights
facebook.com/ezyinsights
www.ezyinsights.com
Thank you!
twitter: @EzyInsights
facebook.com/ezyinsights
www.ezyinsights.com