Since the emergence of social networks more than a decade ago, they have become another channel to consider in the marketing of any company. In fact, an effective Social Media strategy can catapult an e-commerce towards success commentsgo.
And since among all social networks, Facebook, with more than 2,000 million users , continues to be the cornerstone, today we are going to teach you a few tricks to get followers on Facebook and take advantage of them to increase your sales.
Are you ready to boost your sales thanks to your new followers on Zuckerberg’s social network?
Is a strategy to gain followers on Facebook still worth it?
Let’s start by analyzing the current situation of the largest social network in the world and its possibilities.
It is a feeling that has been floating in the air for a long time.
The scandals over the leaking and sale of data, together with the displacement of younger profiles to other social networks, have made more than one want to “condemn” the social media platform par excellence.
But how much is true? Let’s see some data:
This graph corresponds to daily active users and is extracted from Facebook’s official information for its investors.
1,449 million people, which represents 66% of the 2,196 million total users of the platform, enter every day .
And that percentage of daily active users over the total has been this way for at least two years. Facebook in decline? It does not seem…
There is more data that does not paint the picture badly, such as the percentage of income and profits that has not stopped growing since its inception.
It is true that other social networks, Instagram especially, have eaten part of the younger audience’s toast, but since Instagram belongs to
Facebook stays all at Mark’s house.
In addition, the creation of advertising campaigns on both networks is done from the same platform, which also makes the work much easier.
The algorithm change, Facebook’s pull on low-quality fan pages
In early 2018 Facebook updated Edge Rank , the algorithm that decides which posts are shown first.
In order to get brands to do more paid campaigns, he limited the organic reach of fan pages . That is, when a brand publishes, fewer followers see it.
The default scope was reduced, it is true, but there is more story behind it:
What was reduced was the reach of publications that hardly generated interaction, rewarding those that did.
So that you understand it better. When you publish content from your brand page, the reach it will have begins to be defined with the first impressions.
If the first people who see the post comment or like it, Facebook continues to show it to more people. If you enjoy interaction again, continue to grow in visibility.
However, if Facebook shows the post on your followers’ timelines, but few or none react to it, it will condemn it to invisibility. In the end it is a business that lives off the content generated by its users, it is obvious and natural that only the publications that are liked are shown .
This change has harmed those brands with many followers but very low interaction, rewarding those that do well.
The new objective of brands is to gain followers but based on content that entertains and generates interactions. Only then can it be translated into sales.
That’s why we insist on getting quality followers over quantity .
Advantages of growing your follower base
Having analyzed the reality, and aware of the challenge of creating engaging content to boost organic reach, we go with the advantages of achieving it.
- Social proof
As online buyers we like to know that we are not the only ones.
Seeing that a brand has the support of many people in the form of likes conveys confidence , thereby increasing the conversion rate of our e-commerce.
It is the symptom of the empty bar that we have mentioned more times. Users like to see “ambiance”:
Lots of followers.
Updated publications.
Opinions.
Comments and conversation in the posts.
Shared articles.
- Segmentation
Based on a good base of followers, you can create custom audiences to launch Facebook Ads campaigns . This is applicable on very large pages and allows you to filter out people who already know us.
Ads Manager itself , Facebook’s campaign manager, has an option to link ads to people who are already followers.
- Scope
It is obvious, the more followers, the more reach. But be careful, you already know that there is another essential requirement: the interaction generated with those followers.
Before it was a direct consequence and people even bought fake followers, but now it is a waste of time and money.
Strategies to increase your followers on Facebook in 2024
Now, let’s see 6 strategies to grow your community on Facebook.
- Include the “Like” button on your website
The possibility of becoming a fan of your e-commerce’s Facebook page without having to leave your website is a powerful and quick way to retain visitors.
It’s about making it easy for the user and saving them the step of having to open Facebook to search for your business and follow you.
The “Like” button, along with the email newsletter subscription box, are elements that cannot be missing from your website.
If you want to increase your followers on Facebook , create your own button from this link . It’s as simple as entering your URL and copying the generated code to your website.
We already discussed it in other articles about user experience, but it is important to remember that you must be careful with the location of the social media buttons.
Your website should be a place of arrival, not departure. Allow them to like but don’t make an outbound link to your social networks too accessible. They are visitors who will leave and never return.
- Implement a Social Locker
This plugin for WordPress is a great tool to get followers on Facebook and increase the dissemination of your content.
Social Locker consists of hiding a file of special value, whether it is the best part of a post, a video or a link to download a file. This part will only be unlocked in exchange for a social action , in this case a “Like.”
Of course, we recommend using it in moderation.
Refrain from including it in all your content or else your followers could perceive you as an interested party who only wants to see their visibility grow at any price.
- Organize contests and giveaways
Without a doubt, it is one of the best techniques to obtain followers on Facebook thanks to the great impact it generates. Holding occasional giveaways for your products will bring you a large number of likes and shares at a low cost, and will make you look like a nice business that rewards its followers.
No matter how remote the chance of winning is, people will take the bait. Even people who just discovered your page will share the post.
After all, who doesn’t like free things?
Related articles: How to run a contest on Facebook .
- Focus on engagement
You already know that if you don’t work hard, most followers won’t see your posts.
In reality, your number of followers on Facebook matters little, but rather the number of “people who are talking about this.” This figure more clearly reveals your real reach, since it is the followers who are truly interacting with your content.
A follower who does not communicate with you through comments, likes or shares will hardly ever become a customer.
So forget about the number of followers and start generating engagement.
To achieve this sought-after involvement you can launch surveys, open questions or dedicate one day a week to making a thematic section.
Also take time to respond to comments. Making a post looking for interaction and leaving the people who respond to you with the word in their mouths conveys a very bad image and will prevent those people from commenting again.
- Keep your page updated
With the new algorithm and the loss of organic reach, many fan pages have thrown in the towel.
Publications more than a year old posted in the biography.
Unanswered reviews and comments.
Etc.
An image of an abandoned house that does a disservice to the interests of the business.
What would be the point of Facebook sending visits to a lot?
It is preferable not to have a fan page than to transmit sloppiness. Remember the social proof, would you consume in a bar with two-year-old signs so empty that not even the owner is there?
The same thing happens online.
Nobody will become a follower of a page whose last publication is from the last century.
- Create Facebook groups
Returning to engagement, you should also consider creating a Facebook group open to your followers.
While it is true that your participation would occur from your personal profile and not directly from your page, leading a Facebook group gives you many advantages:
Strengthen your online reputation.
Improve your visibility.
It makes members much more active, interacting with you and also with each other.
Instead of mere followers, you will have a community.
Another positive aspect of the groups is that, unlike fan pages, their organic reach has increased.
And what to post in the group? Well, content that is consumed from within the group, the next point includes several ideas.
- Create unique content for Facebook
Facebook likes internal content, that is, posts that keep users on the platform (the longer the better).
Its business is based on displaying advertising and the more minutes users spend, the more ads it can show them.
With its current algorithm, it gives priority to content that does not take the user to other websites, such as links to blog articles or other pages. The scope of what gets people off Facebook is devalued against what keeps users on it longer and longer.
One type of content that is standing out above all is live videos. Facebook Live has doubled its volume every year since its launch in 2016, and already has two billion annual broadcasts.
Another good strategy is to generate content only for one social network.
To save time, most brands recycle Instagram content on Facebook, which is not positive for the user or for the social network itself.
You can touch on the same topic but modify at least the image or the words with which you tell it. The public will value it and want to see your content.
- Find out the best time to post
Unfortunately, at this point there is no formula. You are going to have to do tests and test when your publications receive the most feedback.
Depending on your activity, it is possible that the nature of your followers is more daytime and it is better for you to post mid-morning. Or maybe it is more effective for you to do it at dinner time because those who follow you are animals of the night.
But not only the time is important.
Choosing the ideal day to publish certain types of content also has its significance. If, for example, you have a blog and publish a new post every week, you will be able to see the notable difference in visits between publishing on a Thursday or a Saturday.
You can take a look at your competition and see what works best for them.
- Send visits to your fan page
It is possible that you are carrying out an online networking strategy based on comments on blogs and pages in your sector.
In these comments, or in the posts in forums and other communities, you usually have a space to leave a url. Once your fan page is worked on, updated and moving, it is a good idea to leave that url instead of the one on your website.
It will be a good first contact that will generate new followers, who with time and work will be able to get to know you and become leads first and then clients.
- BONUS: Invite your followers to click “see first”
If you want to get an extra boost in the reach of your posts you should try this.
Your followers, unfortunately, do not follow you exclusively, but rather they follow many other brands. And that means that your posts compete with those of all those other brands that your followers also follow.
When you visit a Facebook page there is an option to define the priority with which to see what it publishes and possible notifications.