Facebook has been a challenging network for me. Having my content actually seen by people & gaining new likes has been a struggle & I hit a plateau. In this post, I’m going to tell you how I grew my Facebook likes to 2,147 in five months.
Starting off on Facebook
I started Cuddle Fairy’s Facebook page one week before my blog went live. I invited all of my Facebook friends to like it. I asked close family & best friends to invite their friends to like my page (through the Facebook page like function). I grew to 372 Likes promoting through friends & family.
Next, I ran a Facebook like & comment giveaway for some rose earrings (which cost 20 euros but looked stunning). I gained 65 new likes with that competition. Since then, I’ve held several giveaways on my blog. “Visit Cuddle Fairy’s Facebook page” is always one of the entry options. My blog giveaways don’t gain as many new Likes as the Facebook like & comment giveaways. Regardless, my Likes slowly increased to 372 from 572 over the course of 4 1/2 months.
I wanted more Likes but had hit a wall & felt like my content wasn’t being seen by anyone new. I read a few great posts about growing on Facebook & about promoting your posts & Facebook page. I have paid to boost some of my posts & that increases views to my website, which is fantastic, but doesn’t add new likes.
Facebook Promotion
I bit the bullet & paid Facebook to promote my page. Facebook gives lots of options to tailor your promotion. Once you are finished selecting your options, Facebook then suggests your page to your target audience, giving them the option to Like it. What’s great is you can reach a huge audience & you gain the Likes of people who are genuinely interested in your content & not just interested in winning a prize.
Here are the choices I made:
Location – U.S., Ireland & UK because that’s where the majority of my followers are from.
Gender & Age – Women aged 20 – 60. Facebook suggested I target this group because that’s who already Like my page.
Interests – Motherhood, freebies giveaways, travel with kids, blog, shopping & fashion, parenting, product reviews, inspirational quotes, parent, recipes, cooking, social media, travel, days out with kids – because these are areas covered on my blog & Facebook feed. It’s best to attract people who will be interested in your content.
Cost & Run Time:
I gave this a lot of consideration. You can name your price & length of time the ad will run. You pay your chosen price per day. I decided to spend $18 per day & run for 7 days. Facebook estimated I’d gain 16 – 60 new likes per day at this rate. Spending $5 per day estimated a gain of 5 – 21 new Likes per day. It made more sense to me to choose a higher amount for a shorter time.
In conjunction with my promotion, I ran a giveaway. My blog hit 20,000 views & I purchased a beautiful necklace ready to giveaway in a Facebook competition (Like Cuddle Fairy’s Facebook page & comment on the post to enter).
So, on August 11, I started the Facebook necklace giveaway & paid to promote my page. I had 572 Likes. My Klout score was 68. On August 18, the promotion ended. I had 1,558 new likes, for a total of 2,130 Facebook Likes! The first day I gained 300 Likes alone. My Klout score went up to 70. My Facebook Likes continue to grow since the promotion ended.
Why My Promotion was Successful
I waited until my Facebook page had plenty of posts & I was happy with the content & look before I promoted.
I also waited until my blog was a five months old & had enough posts to give people a flavour of what Cuddle Fairy is all about.
I ran a nice giveaway in conjunction with the promotion.
I advertised the giveaway on my blog & other social media channels.
I’m careful not to overload my Facebook feed. I generally share 3 – 5 posts per day that I believe my followers will enjoy.
Final Thoughts
I’m really delighted with the growth I’ve had on Facebook & the extra views & higher Klout score that has come with it. I don’t think I would have achieved a new audience without paying to promote my page. I’m sharing this information to help fellow bloggers who have hit a similar wall.
Please Note that this post is not sponsored or in any way linked to Facebook. Also, Facebook has rules governing how competitions are to be run. Here is what I found to be the rules & more rules & an interpretation of the rules. Be sure you comply with their guidelines. Notably, asking people to share a post or tag friends in a post is not allowed. It’s my interpretation that asking people to like & comment on a post is allowed but don’t take my word for it!
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