As a business (or some cases an individual product owner) looking to get into social media marketing, Facebook is usually the first platform that comes to mind. With the platform set to hit 2 billion users this year (2014), its no wonder that its the social media platform of choice for marketers. Unfortunately, unlike other digital marketing channels, marketing on Facebook requires more than just paying for ad impression or clicks, it requires a bit of creative flair and a Fan page that actually generates interest. In this blog, we will show you a few ways you can grow your Facebook fan page without spending thousands on Facebook ads.

Make your post personable and passionate

Although its self explanatory, many businesses seem to fail to make their Facebook posts relevant or event passionate enough for it to be picked up by their Fans. If you truly wish to engage your fans, you will need to post things that are interesting, approachable (or personable) and ultimately relevant to your fans and the product.

Some times include:

• Writing something that you are truly passionate about, for example, don’t talk about cats if you are secretly a lover of dogs
• Talk about things that you actually understand and are knowledgeable about. There is no point posting information on a topic which you have no interest or know anything about as it will show very clearly in your post
• Make sure its interesting to your audience, and if possible make it something that is snappy and funny (or controversial) – this is the secret ingredient of going viral
• Try to share original content, although having an occasional cat video or meme appear on your page will keep things fresh, having original content will increase the likely hood of it being shared as no one wants to see the same article over and over again on their Facebook feed

Going of these guild lines, you should be able to product compelling content to entice engagement with your existing audience, but how do you get more fans?

Encourage the sharing and liking of posts

Now that the posting part is out of the way, you need to encourage your fans to share you page. They already love your page and your posts, but to get them to share, you will need to actively mention it with Call to actions. Drawing your fan’s attention to sharing your content will enable you to be seen by friends and friends of friends of your fans. This is a very powerful mechanism and if employed properly can massively increase your fan base.

You can also actively look for Facebook pages which share the same interest and discuss a sharing of posts and fans. This will help both party reach more fans and ultimately generate even more likes. With every like and share goes on the fan’s wall, this will then be seen by their friend’s feed, and if the content is interesting enough, they may also like and share the content.

By connecting with Facebook page managers, not only do you gain additional help from a fellow Facebook fan page manager, you’ll also be able to help each other develop, in a mutually beneficial way. Cross promotion is not new and taking that concept to Facebook can only further your ability to grow your fan page online.

Encourage conversation on your posts

Beyond just sharing and liking, Facebook comments is another action your fans can take which will expose your post on their Facebook wall. You pose a question to encourage conversation on a specific post, allowing the fans to talk among themselves which will expose your Facebook page and post to a wider group of people. This is usually harder to achieve for humor based post, but works better for posts that are controversial in nature. Note that using a controversial topic as a hook can sometimes back fire, so please proceed with caution.

Don’t be afraid to post non relevant content

Don’t just stick to the same type of content all the time, this will bore your audience and you’ll see your fans dislike your Facebook page. Try to mix up the topics a bit without straying too far from your business / product. You can also throw in viral content to spice things up. Memes once in a blue moon will also help generate a little boost in shares / likes and comments.

You could also try using photo based post as an image is worth a thousand words. You can utilise Flickr to find relevant or powerful imagery to illicit a response from your Fan base without even type a single word.

Best times to post on Facebook

This should really be a blog post in itself as its a much debated topic, “When is the best time to post on Facebook”. There is really no golden time frame, I can provide a general rule of thumb.

Before we progress, it would make sense to have a look at your Facebook insights, to see when your existing fan base is more active. This will obviously dictate when to post as you will be posting around the times they are on Facebook, increasing the chance that your post is viewed by them. However, if Facebook insight provides no answers, then you can try posting within the below time frame:

• Morning rush  / commute (7am to 9am weekdays)
• Afternoon rush / commute (5pm to 7pm weekdays)
• Before bed Facebook binge (10pm to 1am everyday)

Depending on the industry, the above may change but you could use this as an initial guide line until Facebook insights starts providing more information.

Other common methods to increase Facebook Fan Base

Below are a few other common techniques people use to increase their Fan base:

• Add a like box to your website, self explantory, but doesn’t really give you a massive boost unless your website has thousands of visitors a day
• Include your Facebook fan page within your email signature. Just nice to have it there if someone really wanted to connect with you via social media
• Run a contest – very effective but fans gained this way are not very engaged and usually drop off within a few weeks

Growing your Facebook  Fan Page in general is not an easy task, and requires a lot of work and almost a dedicated staff member to manage the influx of comments and questions generated. As a person running a small to medium sized business, it sometimes necessary to outsource the marketing, and in this case, Socialious Australia can help.

We can help you grow your Facebook Fan base without you spending more than 5 minutes through our check out system. If you would like to Buy Facebook Likes / Fans, we can offer you social media marketing campaigns to deliver up to 26,000 likes within 30 days. Prices start from as low as $19, please check out our services to find out more.

Feature Image by Jason A. Howie