Make sure your incentive is something related to your product. I can’t stress this enough! Gone are the days of “win a free Kindle for liking us.” Yes, an iPad or Kindle giveaway will get you a bunch of likes, but unless you are Newegg,  Best Buy or Amazon and those products are part of your core business, the people who like you for an iPad or Kindle are less likely to care at all about your brand. In my humble opinion, coupons and product giveaways are the best incentives for a like campaign. Of course, Sweepers like coupons and free stuff just like the rest of us, but coupons and product giveaways give you the best chance at building a qualified base of people who will use and care about your product. It may even drive a little retail traffic. The reality of your like campaign is that the majority of your new likes will be generated through advertising. Yes, social sharing will play a role (even more so if you tier the incentive and create a greater reward for sharing, but that is a post for another day), but nothing beats advertising for generating Facebook page traffic. This means that you can pretty much control the makeup of your Facebook base by targeting certain consumer segments with your ads. Over the past year, Facebook has added a number of awesome ad-targeting options that help you really focus on your target demographic and segment your messaging. You can now target ads by geography, interest, likers of other brands, occupation, education level, etc., etc. You should already know your brand’s target demographic from your offline marketing efforts. Go after this group first. You may very well find that your target demo online is different from offline, but it is a place to start. You can always expand your advertising and try out new target groups and messaging throughout the campaign.  The overall goal in targeting your advertising is to make sure your campaign is aimed at the people most likely to care about your product and engage with your page after the campaign is over.

We Can Help

I am sure this is all a lot to take in, but it is all super important. Think about it. You may be looking to invest $10,000-up in building your audience, so don’t you want to get the most out of your investment and ensure that your fans will stay with you and help you achieve your Facebook marketing outcome? Of course, our digital team is always here to help. If you are looking to embark on a like-building Facebook campaign, talk to us first. Our team has an enormous amount of experience in Facebook like campaigns, advertising and community management for brands. We can craft a campaign that will build your fan base creatively and strategically. Feel free to send me an email and let me know what your brand is looking to do.