Start off with standard Facebook ads that include messaging that describe your offer and mix in sponsored stories (social ads) once you have a decent base built up. Sponsored stories are shown to friends of users that like your page, and encourage them to like your page because their friend does. They are basically paid social recommendations and are very effective if you have a decent amount of page likes.

Qualifying Your Likes

Ok, so you have the base-building component down. If your offer is strong enough and you support it with advertising, you are sure to get likes. So, how do you ensure those fans will engage with your page, or even care about your product? First, let’s get this out of the way: You will never get 100% of the people who liked your page for an incentive to care about your company. There is always a certain element of the “sweeper effect” in all Facebook like incentive campaigns. Sweepers are people who take an action on social media (follow, like, retweet, etc.) only to collect a prize and then reverse the social action they took. After an incentive program has concluded, you will always get a certain number of unlikes. It’s inevitable. Your goal should be to minimize the sweeper effect by targeting your audience and qualifying your offer from the beginning. So how do you do this? The two most effective ways of minimizing sweepers are strategically selecting your incentive and targeting your advertising. Continue to Page 3