By Aris Jerahian
Facebook made changes to their API and SDKa recently. In their announcement of these changes, they let people know they no longer can use incentivizing to increase Page Likes. In other words, you can’t make people “like” your page by giving them something in exchange.
Many Facebook marketers have used apps such as TabSite and Heyo. These apps will show Facebook users two different screens depending on if they are a Facebook Page’s fan or not. If a fan goes to the Page, the app will show something like, “Click here for our page!” If the person is not a fan of the page, the window may say, “Like to enter this page” or “Like to enter the contest.” For the latter, people were provided an incentive when they Liked the Page. This is now a no-no on Facebook.
You may still be using these apps without a problem. That’s because they aren’t going to stop working until November 5. Once that day hits, you’ll likely see the functionality end.
Facebook’s Reasoning for Ending Incentivizing Likes
Facebook’s goal is to display posts on users’ newsfeeds they want to see. When people Like Pages just so they can get something, they are not really Liking it because they are interested in the business. Since they Like the business’ Page though, they start to see its posts. The posts aren’t interesting to them, so they may start becoming disinterested in Facebook. This leads them to spend less time on the social network, and Facebook starts to see a decline in the number of users using the network and how much time they spend on it. This leads to advertisers pulling ads from the site because of the decreased exposure, and ends up hurting Facebook financially.
Is Facebook being selfish? No, not at all. If Facebook sees a decline, so will you.
How to Get More Facebook Likes without Incentivizing
Just because you can’t incentivize anymore, it doesn’t mean you should stop trying to get Likes. Likes are still important to your online marketing strategy. What you need to do is be more creative in getting those Likes.
- Get more creative with content.
- Advertise your facebook page on everything.
- Use other social networks to drive people to “like” your page.
Fans on Facebook convert at an incredibly high rate, as long as those fans are ones that are interested in your credit union’s offerings. Step away from shortcuts in getting people to Like your page. Do it the right way now, so you can reap the benefits later.
Aris Jerahian is Principal and Managing Director with Social Link Endeavor. For info: www.slendeavor.com.