~ by Haley Lynn Gray ~.
So many entrepreneurs are focused on numbers and results in their businesses. That’s a good thing. But there may be a point where we are measuring numbers and focusing on numbers which don’t actually lead to an increase in sales or visibility for our businesses.
What I’m talking about here are Facebook likes. When I started building Leadership Girl’s Facebook page, I was super focused on getting more likes on my page. If only I got to X number, I’d have clients coming in the door.
So, I did paid Facebook Like campaigns and saw my numbers shoot up. But, the engagement on my Facebook page dropped like a rock towards the bottom of a pool.
I also did Facebook Like Ladders. Those are discussions where you have everyone in a group like your page. Yeah. People would like my page, and then a few days later they’d unlike it. Facebook penalized me because I would get a bunch of likes then get a bunch of un-likes. That worked about as well as the paid Facebook Like campaigns.
None of those people converted to clients. 0. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Effort, time and money completely wasted.
Then I started doing some research. I learned that Facebook had been changing its algorithms. They do this test to see how long someone looks at your content, and if they look at it or engage with it, they show it to more people. If they scroll past it super fast, then according to Facebook, it must not be interesting, so Facebook shows it to fewer people.
Getting all those likes from people who didn’t really like me or my page was actually causing me problems! I was getting seen by fewer and fewer people.
To add insult to injury, Facebook changed its algorithms so that if you post just a link to a blog post, they show it to very few people. It’s like a jealous boyfriend who doesn’t want to share traffic.
What do you do instead?
You focus on putting up pictures, videos, and short posts with a link and a separate graphic to your blog. You can still drive a lot of traffic to your website, if you do it carefully. By focusing on sharing content on your Facebook page itself, you’ll get better scores from Facebook. Focus on pulling people in and getting them engaged. Do you tell a story? I try to tell lots of stories to make this whole social media thing more interesting and engaging and to help make it more relatable.
People like stories, wit, and humor. How can you appropriately tie those into your business? How can you engage people? Think about what you can post that people would want to see. What types of posts do people tend to engage with? Some of my most successful posts are the ones that are a little bit sarcastic and unexpected.
Ask your customers to join and engage. Post pictures of them and tag them in those photos. Ask them what they would find useful and helpful.
Remember, people come onto social media to be entertained and to hang out with their friends. They might decide to buy if something catches their fancy. They just don’t like being sold to directly.
Have you been using Google as your business consultant?
Are you ready to start working with an expert in business instead?
Schedule a consult with me today.
Meet the Author: Haley Lynn Gray
Haley helps female entrepreneurs create a strategy plan for their businesses – so they can make enough money to spend quality time with their family, pay for their children’s dance lessons, pay bills – and not worry about where the next client is coming from.
Haley is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Leadership Girl. She helps other entrepreneurs build their businesses by sharing the benefits of her business education and experience through Business Coaching.
Whether you want to get a new business off the ground or expand an existing business, Haley can assist you.
Connect with Haley:
- Work with Haley: https://leadershipgirl.com/work-with-haley/
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Leadershipgirl
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleygray
