11 Tips and Tricks to Get Facebook Fans and Likes 2012

Building a Facebook fanbase often takes time and effort. There is much more to it than just posting somewhere and asking people to like your page. That kind of approach rarely works. The best way to build of a legion of Facebook followers is to do what the successful pages are doing.

Most of the successful Facebook pages have a lot of activity. They post regularly and keep their audience entertained with new content.

A while back I wrote about How to get Likes for Facebook Pages. Facebook has changed a lot since that article, so I decided to provide you all with a more in depth exploration of the subject.

Listed below are 11 tips and tricks for increasing the likelihood that a visitor will like your page.

11 Tips and Tricks to Get People to Like a Facebook Page

Let your Facebook profile friends know about your page. There is a Facebook app for this purpose (Suggest to Friends), although mass mailings to friends generally does not work. To get Facebook friends to like your page, a more personal approach is the better alternative. Regularly post your page as the status on your profile. Send a personal message to close contacts and inform them about your Facebook page, what it is all about, and request a like.
Create a username for your FB page (25 page likes required). For example, the username for Artpromotivate’s Facebook page is obviously “artpromotivate”. This is better than the number that appears there before the change, and is easily recognized.

In order to get your own Facebook username, log into your own page, go to Manage - Edit Page - Basic Information. Near the top, change the username. Now, whenever referring someone to your Facebook page, use this link instead of the old one. Also, whenever commenting on a post, include an automatic link to your Facebook page by writing @username.
Create a good cover photo and profile picture. For a typical art page, a photograph of yourself, and one of your artworks will serve this purpose well. Facebook makes it very easy to do this with the drag and drop interface.

For a unique cover photo, consider creating your own in Photoshop or similar software. Include your name, one or more of your artworks, and an artist logo if you have one, or create something completely unique.
Use Facebook widgets on your website or blog. The Facebook social plugin and like buttons allow website visitors to like a page directly from your website. They may also see profile pictures of some of your Facebook fans, as well as an optional page stream.
See our Facebook page widget in the sidebar of this blog.
Join art groups and community art pages at Facebook, and share your page there. Even sharing posts while logged in as your Facebook page will work, since people can see who posted the link or message.
Include a link to your Facebook page in the description of all Facebook photos. When visitors share the photo on their own Timelines or pages, the link will show up as well. They may click through to your Facebook art page and become a fan!
Promote your Facebook page, photos, and posts at other social networks. This is very easy to do with the Addthis plugin on your web browser. Of course, let Twitter and Google+ followers know about your Facebook page. Include a link to your Facebook page at these and other places, including online portfolio sites, art forums, art groups, and art blogs.
Allow posts from everyone. To do this, go to Manage – Edit Page – Manage Permissions and check the appropriate boxes. Choose to show Recent Posts by Others. This appears near the top of your Timeline. Your own posts will still appear at your Facebook page under Highlights, but posts by others will show under Recent Posts by Others. This will increase the activity on your page by visitors coming to share their links. In doing so, they may choose to like and share your posts.
Be active on your Facebook page. Post regularly and respond to other people’s questions and comments. The more active a person is at their Facebook page, the more others are likely to return to see what you have to say, and maybe share and like it. Any shares and likes appear at their homepages and FB Timelines, for their extended network to view.
Share popular photographs and quotes. There are a few Facebook pages with tens of thousands, and even millions of likes. It seems the most popular FB pages are those of famous people, quotes, and interesting pictures that people often share. Britney Spears has over 19 million likes on her page. The Coca Cola page has 41 million likes.

Of course, this many likes comes from a marketing team that promotes the brand. But, a quotes page I recently saw has nearly 100,000 likes. Art & Sculpture has nearly 30,000 likes. It seems the last two achieved their fans by sharing quotes and popular images on Facebook. They share the things that people are more likely to share themselves.

What images can be shared? I think it is obvious that some of these pages are sharing images that they do not own, or have not had permission to share. But, there are many quotes and public domain images online that can be shared. Typically, any artwork from an artist who has been dead for more than 70 years is in the public domain. So, these are safe to share.
Be patient. There is no real magic trick that instantly guarantees lots of likes, though some methods work really well. The most effective method to get Facebook likes is to be consistent. Try to post every single day. An inactive page does not mean the people have left Facebook, it only means they have found other pages with more activity.

Consistently be active on your pages to get more likes, and to keep the fans you already have.