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Golfman530
02-01-2012, 06:23 PM
Hello everyone, I am curently running a facebook page (just started today) and my goal is to get 1,000 followers. Here is the page LearningGG | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/learninggg) Does anyone have suggestions on how I do this? I am looking to gain this many people fairly quickly like in 3 weeks.


Thank you so much!

vangogh
02-01-2012, 08:03 PM
To be honest you probably aren't going to be able to start from nothing and have a 1,000 followers in a few weeks. It's certainly possible, but usually the people who are able to grow that quickly have a network of people to ask for help in the promotion. Building a network of followers isn't something you do at the end when everything else is about ready. It's something you have to be doing all along.

Having said that here are some suggestions.

1. Ask everyone you know to help. Tell your relatives and friends what you're trying to do and see if any can help get you some followers. It's possible that even just a few are well connected and can send a lot of people your way.

2. Add a link and a call to action in your email.

3. Offer people a reason to follow your page. Why should I or anyone else follow you right now? What's in it for us?

4. With the above in mind could you start a contest where the winner will be picked from a list of your followers? Offer a good prize, preferably tied to the products or services you offer to entice people to sign. The prize has to be something people want, which could mean you'll have to spend some money. A simple idea is to offer an iPad or Kindle or something similar. You may want to announce the winner after your 3 week deadline.

If you have a website promote your Facebook account there. If you've built any kind of community around your site some of the people in that community will likely also follow you on Facebook.

Remember though that building a community often takes time. You may not get those 1,000 followers now, but if you start building a community of followers now you will have those 1,000 followers the next time you need them.

Another thing to keep in mind that any tricks to quickly build a community aren't building a community of people who are genuinely interested in you. For example the contest idea above can lead to more followers, but most of them will only be there for the prize. What you really want is followers who are genuinely interested in you and your ideas.

technowonder
02-02-2012, 10:19 AM
In 3 weeks, 1000 'real followers' is a giant leap! If you are just looking at numbers of followers so it looks like lots of people really find you interesting, you can find people who sell facebook like packages, "buy get you 500 likes for $50" etc. However, facebook is about having followers who are interested in what you post, interact with your posts rather than just those 500 $30 followers who'll never be interested in what you are saying or care about interacting, and probably are all made up accounts anyway!

If you are looking for building real followers, then vangogh has it spot on!

If you just want instant numbers to look like you're really popular, then goog for facebook fans and lots of companies who will sell you likes will turn up, e.g.
Buy Facebook Fans, Facebook Likes and we build your Fan Page Designs (http://www.bulkfans.com/)
or
Buy Facebook Fans & Likes at FanPageHookup.com | We design custom Facebook Pages (http://www.fanpagehookup.com/)

...to name but two.

Golfman530
02-02-2012, 10:38 AM
Thanks guys for your great responses. I believe they are both spot on. The situation here is that I am working as a freelancer for this company and they want me to generate 1,000 Facebook likes in 3 weeks. I took the job just because I wasn't exactly sure how hard it would be. I am also a communications major in college so I wanted something that could boost my resume.

I am finding that it is very, very hard. I want to do the absolute best that I can for these people but I think their expectations are too high.

Another problem is that they have not even launched their website yet. They want me to get these 1,000 fans before they launch the site.

I guess I will just do the best that I can and see what happens.

P.S. (They are only paying me $50 to accomplish this)

Thanks again!

vangogh
02-02-2012, 11:17 AM
Unfortunately of you this company has gone about things completely the wrong way. It's pretty clear they don't get the point. I could go on and on about that, but instead let's see if we can figure out a way to help you.

Definitely tell everyone you know. If you're on campus spread the word. Call in favors. You're probably only a connection or two from some people who know many on campus. Get them on your side and they might be able to convince some people to Like the page. Add a link in your email.

Now this next bit isn't going to be useful to the company when it comes to sales and it borders on spam, but there are people out there offering Facebook Like exchanges. You like their page and they like yours. I think there are networks where you can join and for every page you like someone else likes yours. These exchanges are completely useless in terms of having anyone genuinely care about the page being liked and I would bet Facebook doesn't care for them. At the same time they can probably increase the number of Likes on the page. Do a search for Facebook Like exchange and visit forums like Digital Point. You might want to be careful with your own Facebook account if you decide to go this route.

Do you have access to the account to post on it? If so start commenting on other people's walls and liking their pages from the company account. Some of those people will probably check out the page and like it in response.

It sounds like your motivation is less about the $50 and more about building up your resume. If that's the case you could offer the $50 as a prize to your fellow students instead of an iPad or Kindle. A single click for the chance to win $50 isn't a bad deal.

KristineS
02-02-2012, 12:07 PM
Leaving aside the whole wrongheadedness of this company's thinking, which has already been covered, there are a few things that it looks like you're doing that I wouldn't recommend doing. One, don't post on other people's walls as an advertisement for your company or your page. That's another person's space, and nothing turns people off like one company or one person appearing to "spam" another person or company's page. You won't get more likes that way, you might do quite the opposite.

Definitely keep putting good content on the page. Also, have everyone at the company include the Facebook page link in their e-mail signatures and in all company literature. Make sure that page is getting publicized as much as possible.

Another thing to do is figure out who the target market is and aggressively friend or follow within that group.

Finally, you might consider creating a Facebook ad to promote the page if the company will spring for it.

greenoak
02-02-2012, 01:16 PM
thanks for giving us the background...i have over 2000 actual interested or slightly interested followers for my business page reached thru all the organic ways...no contests and no buying and no begging... and in my HUMBLE OPINION i would say that your job is impossible.... i would just forget about it and not think of it as a failure....it doesnt even sound likely...the business has it all backwards....the good page might come someday if they ever get happy customers who might be interested in their posts....or if they are actually offering something that stands out in their crowded....VERY CROWDED field.......
faceboook is fabulous for some.... and getting better all the time...but i wouldnt lose sleep over this job...maybe you could learn about facebook out in the real world by looking around at active pages and get the feel of it before you jump in...
ditto with kristine....her points make a lot of sense...especially about spamming .

Golfman530
02-03-2012, 08:48 AM
Thanks to everyone who has replied. I am realizing that this job is completely impossible. Anothing thing that is making it very difficult is that I am one of two admins for the page and sometimes I post something and the other admin deletes it. Also, the admin does not know how to spell very well and posts misspelled words which not only makes me look bad, but makes the entire page look bad.

After two days we have 8 likes and they are all people that either know me or know the owner.

I won't look at this as a failure because I do follow actual worthy "real" accounts with thousands and thousands of likes and I really pay attention and focus on what they do to run their pages.

Like I said, I mainly tried this job to boost my resume but I had no idea that it would be this impossible. I am sure the owners of the business and page will complain about me and give me bad reviews over this one experience when it fails but "OH WELL" I won't let that stop me.

vangogh
02-03-2012, 11:28 AM
Just do the best you can. Even if you can't get 1,000 likes, you can still learn a lot in get a 1000 or 200 or even 50. Do the best you can, learn from the experience, and take what you learn to the next job.

KristineS
02-03-2012, 12:05 PM
It really was a job with impossible expectations from the start. Plus, having a freelancer set up your Facebook page really makes no sense. Your page should be part of the company presentation and it should be staffed by people who know the company because they work there every day.

I think you're right to look at this as a learning experience. Sometimes we have to fail at something to figure out how to do it right, and we can always learn something from the experience.

lucas.bowser
02-03-2012, 12:12 PM
I just looked at the conference page, and I'm going to have to go with the contest idea. I think getting 1000 likes for this, should not be too bad if you can find a couple of cooperative souls. You can either front the prize yourself, or ask the company to do it. The prize is a free seat at the conference, which is $30 if you reserve it today.

I would find blogs dedicated to Technology Trends and Microsoft Trends. I would then open up a dialogue with them about getting a plug in for the Facebook page and a contest where you are giving away a free seat. The conference has some decent speakers and is being held at Microsoft's New York HQ. That alone should give you a little pull. If you can get just one or two mid profile blogs to mention you, especially if they have a strong East Coast base, you may be able to attain your 1000 likes over the next 3 weeks. The key here will be getting someone who already has established social proof in this arena, since that is what you are currently lacking.

I would say give it your best shot. You have a lot more going for you than you currently realize, and like vangogh and just said, this is a great learning experience for the next job.

vangogh
02-03-2012, 12:48 PM
I think a good contest can also lead to 1,000 likes. The reason I suggest it will be hard is because to something like this best you generally want more than a few weeks to plan and act. However that doesn't mean it can't be done. A free seat at the conference is a good prize and it will draw people in who are actually interested. I agree with Lucas about opening the dialog with tech bloggers. Most probably won't help, since you have no previous connection, but you never know.

For $50 I wouldn't be overly concerned with the end result. $50 isn't really a reasonable fee for what you're vein asked to do. Still do the best you can since you did take the job and use this as a learning experience. And I also think you do have more going for you than you realize.

For example we're letting you know to start building connections with people now for the next time you need help in promoting something. Get to know bloggers and people in the industry, mainly by doing for them, whether it's a comment on their site or sharing their content through different social sites or starting your own blog and linking to them. These things get noticed and little by little you build a network that will be there later when you need a favor.

lucas.bowser
02-03-2012, 01:41 PM
How much access do you have to the speakers at the conference? I see that each one of them has a social media media account of some type, but I don't see any activity on them talking about the upcoming conference. They should be promoting it since they'll be there. I would reach out to them ask them to promote the proposed contest (so long as you get approval for it.) Something like:

For a chance to win a seat at the Learning GG confernce in New York and hear me talk about xxx *Like* the following FB page.

vangogh
02-03-2012, 04:33 PM
That's a great idea. It gets the message out to exactly the people who are most likely to be interested in the conference, given they're fans of the speakers. And quite honestly it should lead to enough Likes. If it can't then perhaps someone needs to rethink the conference and who'll be speaking.