Illustration credit Sam Michel

What is a Like on Facebook?

Well, not literally “What is a Like on Facebook.” I’m going to assume you know what they actually are. But what value do they bring to your business and are they really worth the effort to actively try to get them? Wouldn’t you be better off treating each Like as a special thing?

Natural Growth vs Steroids

I’ve always been a major proponent of growing your business organically. Find clients, then those clients will tell people, and your business will grow. This applies for website clients as much as it does to people in your life.
Treat those clients amazing and some will Like you, some will refer you, less will talk about you to everyone they know that need a photographer, and even less will be your shouting billboard for how amazing you are at everything. That’s just the progression of Word Of Mouth. Not everyone spends the time to tout you. Some just needed the service you provided and were happy.

Not all your clients will like you on Facebook. That means a Like is a special thing. Let’s start treating them that way. Treat them as an endorsement, rather than just a collection that needs to be bigger than the other persons.

If a Like is special, why invite everyone and their mothers to Like your page on Facebook? Why buy ads to get people to like you?

Screw Likes. Engagement is where it’s at!

“What?!?! You just said Likes are special?”
Well, yes. They are and I believe we need to retrain our thinking to un-commoditize the idea of Liking.

But it all starts with knowing who your target audience is, and who will engage with your page. The Likes are kinda surface. To grow your business and develop the kind of people that will be those rare few that are shouting billboards for you, you’re looking for more than Likes, you’re looking for people to engage on your page.
But you can’t do that when you’ve invited everyone in the universe to Like your page (or paid for Likes) just to get your numbers up. In fact when people don’t engage with your posts, it decreases the reach your posts get.

Trying to get as many likes as you can actually hurts you.

Facebook Fraud!

I’ve seen people raising these points lately. But this video is just starting to make the rounds on Facebook today. Hopefully this puts pressure on Facebook to start being accountable. It’s worth watching all 9 minutes.

And I think it reinforces the idea that Likes for Likes Sake is pointless, and you should really be focusing on real Likes and Engagement.

And… don’t forget to Like Flaunt Your Site!

But only if you really want to. 😉