“You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app’s Page.”

Here you have one of Facebook’s most recent and maybe best updates: the Like Gate will be no more. Some people may be shocked or appalled by this, but there’s no need to freak out. It should be a good thing that you can no longer force a person to like your fan page in exchange for a reward. By doing that, you would create most of your likes based off of people that wanted rewards and nothing to do with your business. Really though, it’s okay. There are so many better ways to get effective likes on Facebook, and I’m here to share them with you.
Before I share them with you though, check out these stats:

50% of fans liked a page to support the brand

42% of fans liked a page to get a coupon or discount

35% of fans liked a page to participate in contests

Although contests are great, often times people want nothing more than a reward, don’t carry around freeloaders. They’ll just end up dragging you down. You know the saying “the more the merrier!” Surprisingly enough, that isn’t true in the Facebook world. Less fans with more engagement is far greater than having lots of fans with no engagement whatsoever. Check out this link to help you with this problem!

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/fake-facebook-fans/

Now, let’s start talking about these strategies to help you gain the correct likes on your page.

1. Save your Page

That may sound a little dramatic, but it’s true. You have to save your page from any low quality Facebook likes. How can you do that?

• Restrict access – you can actually choose the countries that you want your page to be seen by.

• Make your page only available to your target audience

• Languages – does your page apply to English speaking people only? You can adjust this in your settings as well. Just go to your general settings on Facebook.

• Age restrictions – seriously, if your company is focussed more on specific demographics, why not decrease the chance that a young kid could like your page just for the hell of it. Don’t waste your time with people that won’t care.

2. Build to Build

You know when you build a house, and you have to have to foundation or else the house will fall to pieces? Well, building a Facebook Page is kind of the same thing.

• Build your page to encourage likes and engagement. Without the solid foundation of your page, you have a less chance of staying strong.

• Create a cover photo that reminds people of the like button

• High quality posts + exciting promotions = more interaction

• Make your page hard to resist! If you know exactly what you’re doing and know exactly how to get likes the right way – people won’t be able to not like you!

3. Run Contests with Prizes that are Relevant

• Create excitement!

• Build your brand by bringing awareness, engaging fans, and collecting leads!

• Encourage new likes – but don’t push it

• Better quality likes = prize that is fun AND targets the audience you want for your page. Don’t be random.

4. Add Facebook Social Plug-Ins to Your Page

Most people don’t take full advantage of this because they don’t think to use it.

• Use plug-ins like a like button or comment stream

• All it takes is a code on the Facebook Developers site (link:https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins) 

• Gives a person great reason to like your page

5. Use Your Email List

Your email list is probably the easiest way to get directly to the customers and correct group of people.

• Shoot out an email just about why they should like your page.

*Gain their trust – be real.

*Keep it simple: short and to the point.

*Offer incentive: just encourage them – forcing isn’t the way to go.

6. Don’t You Dare…

The biggest don’t of Facebook and social media is to never, ever buy likes.

• It will cost you money and time.

• It may “help” your page “look” good, but really won’t benefit you at all and will most likely hurt you in the end.

• This should be a no brainer, but people do it anyway.

• Get the real likes, from real people.

7. FB Ads are A-Okay!

Instead of trying to buy likes, use Facebook advertising to gain other people’s interest. (Link to FB Ad Page: https://www.facebook.com/advertising)

• Create ads that are relevant

• Reach the right audience

• Create contest within the ad that will apply to people who genuinely care about your page/business.

• Observe your audience: Make it possible to research and target exactly what your audience is looking for.

(Link to Audience Insights: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-insights)

Now that you’ve learned some awesome tips for generating likes, go out and actually try it! You now know how to generate likes the right way without having to give out false information or information that may attract the wrong kind of people to your page.

Remember: Keep the engagement, be relevant, have a high quality page/post, comment, and invite your friends! Your close network will bring in people that you definitely trust and rely on for valuable information.

Do you need help managing your Facebook? Check out our Facebook Management Plans!