I feel so naive.
I’ve been on Facebook for five years. I first used it for business purposes five years ago when the NBA (I was an employee) partnered with Facebook to have an application developed. Yes, this was so long ago that you couldn’t create your own app. And this was when businesses had groups, not pages.
So Facebook and I go way back, and it’s why I know it inside and out.
One of the things that has always bothered me about Twitter is the numbers scheming. To be considered “influential,” you need to have followers. To get followers, some people will do anything. They follow thousands, hoping to get followed back. If people don’t follow back, they unfollow. There is an entire network of people that call themselves #TeamFollowBack. Numbers padding abounds on Twitter, and I hate it.
It’s one reason I’ve always preferred Facebook. That kind of crap doesn’t exist on Facebook.
Wait… it does?
I’ve been enjoying a very nice bump in new likes to my Facebook page lately. Some of it was due to Facebook ads I ran. Some was due to record traffic to this site that has stretched for a week and a half now.
On Friday, I hit a milestone for my Facbook page: 1,000 likes. It was awesome. I felt like I accomplished something. And it wasn’t just the nice, round, arbitrary number. It wasn’t a hollow number. These people were engaging. But there was one little thing that wasn’t right…
On three separate occasions, I posted a status update and received a comment along these lines:
Who are you and why are you posting on my wall??!!
When it was one person, I thought nothing of it. I thought it was either a joke or a crazy person. After two, I figured this is just the kind of stuff you deal with as you start to grow. But then three? In two days? Something wasn’t right.
Luckily, one of my fans told me what was up:
its because they liked you on a tagging session from their personal page and tagged their fan page and didnt unlike you off their personal page so your posts are showing up in their feed , just as you are showing up in mine.
Eh? I had no idea what this person was talking about. Tagging sessions? What in the world are those?
Then I was given links to a couple of pages that led these “sessions” and I was disgusted.
[Note: I’m not going to link to these pages here and give them any additional traffic.]
What is it? I’ll let them describe themselves:
You have to GIVE LIKES to GET LIKES
You will never get fans IF YOU DON’T LIKE OTHERS FIRSTdo you wait for a job to come to you…NO
LIKE and ask for return like then LIKE again and ask again (different page..they will come)
Rules to post on my wall…
1.Tag or LINK ME (copy my www and HIT link on your page and paste…then share) tell your fans [redacted] is a great place to network
on YOUR FAN PAGE WALL
2. Come and post on my wall
3. Like at least 10 other pages and comment on them…can be your tag
I will randomly promote pages that PROMOTE THIS PAGE and like other pages.quickest ways to get fans….
Bunk.
I hate this garbage. I hate that some people liked my page because it was shared to one of these “sessions.” I hate that I don’t know how many of these people ended up liking my page. It could be three or it could be 300. I have no idea.
Why do I hate it? Because it’s a mirage. It’s dirty. And it gets you nowhere.
These people completely miss the point of a Facebook page. They don’t get it. They value number of likes over the person behind the like. They ignore relationships in the hunt for numbers.
The people involved in this scheme have no interest in your page. As the description says, they like to get liked. It’s for the numbers. Period.
So when I got people saying, Who are you?? it’s because they honestly didn’t know. Because they liked 10, 20 or who knows how many pages for only one reason: To be liked back.
If your Facebook marketing strategy is focused around number of likes, you are going to fail. I don’t want inflated numbers. I want reality.
An inflated number is not reality. It doesn’t give me an accurate reflection of how I’m doing. So if I’m doing poorly, I want the numbers to reflect that. I don’t want a lie that will deflect the truth.
I get there are well meaning people who participate in this. They are struggling. They don’t want to spend the money on ads. Maybe they simply don’t know how to build a page honestly. Or they think this will lead to wealth.
Don’t buy it. You are only hurting yourself, your page and your brand. Don’t share my page on one of these walls. And if you ever see my page shared there, do us both a favor: Don’t like it.
My Facebook strategy is centered around honesty, transparency and authenticity. I do not take short cuts. They do not pay off. To get passionately engaged fans and customers, you have to do it the right way.
That right way takes time. It takes hard work. And there is no other way to do it.
Don’t be tempted to participate in this garbage. Facebook now has a metric called “Talking About This.” If you add a bunch of fluff likes, it will be reflected in this number. You can’t hide.
Don’t be scared of marketing honestly. Read my free eBook. Follow this website and my Facebook page. I’m here to help.
