5 Reasons Why No One Likes You Anymore…on Facebook
The rules of Facebook marketing have changed and many of us need to adjust our strategies if we want to succeed on the platform.
The rules of Facebook marketing have changed and many of us need to adjust our strategies if we want to succeed on the platform.
Ah, good old Facebook. It’s a tired subject for some and a breath of fresh air for others, but for most marketers and others trying to get some social media marketing juice, it’s become a depressing challenge to get some love (or likes) these days.
Fortunately, as part of my job I get to talk with the world’s top experts and ask them: why does this happen?
Here’s what I found and how to fix it.
Your friends and fellow marketers, business partners, and customers are posting on Facebook. Have you checked out what they are posting? What’s interesting to them? Why they like or share various articles? Mostly, have you actually commented, liked, or shared their posts? If not, how can you expect to post something they’d find interesting? Let alone get in their News Feed without a little bit of reason for them to check you out. Yes, I know it’s simple, but you need to do this on regular basis or become irrelevant. Which brings me to number four.
Any time you post and start with a reflecting statement of “me,” “I,” or otherwise, you’ll have folks tune out. Your broader audience doesn’t care how much you enjoy or a certain subject or not (yes, your close friends and loyalists will, but that’s no help). What consumers want is insight, inspiration, and plain old “wow, that’s interesting.” Whether you are a brand or small business, think about your followers and what might get their juices flowing and make them think a bit instead of just sharing your life preponderances.
Don’t post things that explicitly ask for someone to click on a link or buy in your posts. Pay for it. Meaning, do some retargeting so folks who have been to your site get ads in the places users expect them. Trust me, they’ll be OK with it because that’s the transaction they paid for – a free platform, Facebook, that sells ads to make money. Just make sure you ask for the sale in the right place.
Your stuff is stale! The headlines are not worth sharing. And that’s the key factor. To fix this, post things that are interesting, timely, and are the heart of what’s being talked about in the zeitgeist of the world and not something that just seems kind of cool to you. Get good at PR exercises around headlines and interesting topics instead of just saying “hey, check out my latest blog post.”
This is where the action is at, especially for those marketing to anyone under the age of 33. Make it happen, get on there, and just like back in the day when you were skeptical of Facebook, don’t let that set you back two years before you figure out this is where everyone spends time posting pictures. If you post where people #Lovethemselves, they will #startloving you. Use the hashtag (if you didn’t get my point).
In summary, you need to look at Facebook as the ultimate relationship and follow some of life’s more golden rules. Many of us are abusing our relationships on Facebook by talking too much, shouting uninteresting things, and not showing any genuine care or interest. If we want to gain likes and, in turn, loyal consumers, we must change our strategies.
UPDATE: For more up-to-date tips, check out our most recent article on this topic – The best Facebook marketing strategies for 2017