Building your business Facebook page likes of people that aren’t genuinely interested in your business can actually have a damaging effect on your small business.
Now more than ever it’s so easy to click ‘like’ or ‘follow’ on small business Facebook pages that have been shared by your friends and family to show support and encouragement. Before you click ‘like’, make sure that the business is of interest to you and that you’re genuinely looking to engage with them. Otherwise you’re at risk of just being a meaningless statistic that could actually negatively affect the business’ overall success through Facebook. Especially when it comes to advertising.
Here at Dupree International we believe in understanding a business’s purpose on social media and what they want to achieve. This allows us to create strategic marketing plans which will help grow and develop a social media account without having a damaging effect on the success of the page.
Facebook’s algorithm mainly works on engagement levels. The more engaging a post is, the more likely it will be pushed out to a wider audience, allowing page owners to reach the maximum number of people. Facebook do not want to push content to you that is not of interest, they regard non engaging post as spam. Having posts that users would regard important on their newsfeed will ensure your posts get shown more.
We’ve tried to explain this in simpler terms:
A nail salon currently has 100 page likes and 50% of those are from their actual customers.
These people have a genuine interest in the firm and their content so the content will actively get liked, shared and commented on.
Facebook will see this page as being actively used and engaged with by 50% of the page likers, making the page’s engagement rate 50%, which in Facebook terms is very active.
As recognition of this, Facebook will continue to push their content as a priority in news feeds, increasing the visibility of organic posts and offering a much greater return on investment for promotions and boosted content.
The nail salon then decides that they want more page likes so they actively invite their wider community (this is referring you to their Facebook friends and friends of friends) to get on board and show support.
Following this, the salon gets an additional 400-page likes giving them 500 in total. However, the size of their customer base hasn’t changed.
Their community now consists of people who aren’t local so can’t get their nails done; people who do not care for having their nails done but want to support small businesses or the wrong demographic of people entirely.
The nail salon’s page has now gone from having a 50% engagement rate (with their 50 customers) to having a 10% engagement (their continued 50 but now in a bigger pool).
Facebook’s algorithms will see a huge decrease in their engagement rates which means they’re less likely to push the content out meaning boosting and advertising becomes more expensive as the business will have to pay more to reach the right people.
We would wholeheartedly encourage everyone to shop locally and support small businesses but before pressing that like button, decide whether you really are going to be a customer or get involved with their posts. If you’re not, then show your support by sharing the page with others that will – making sure they’re having the same considerations as you.
From marketing planning to social media management, we’re here to offer our advice and expertise to ensure your social media performs in the best way possible.
Get in touch with Alicia Thompson to learn more.
+44 (0)1780 757666