The 30 Day Facebook Fanpage Challenge started on Monday in a flurry of activity and mad clicks. One of the tasks within the Facebook group is to add your Facebook page to a document – basically so we can get to know other pages of interest to us and follow along.
It was a great idea…
Which mutated into a monster…
A couple of days in and there was the inevitable:
“I’ve liked all the pages on the list, but only got x likes back!”
Or popping over to other people’s Pages leaving the message:
“I’ve liked you, come like me back…” (with a link)
For me, those messages highlighted EXACTLY why small business owners using Facebook need the Fanpage Challenge.
I’m not going to knock people or call anyone out because most people using Facebook for business are learning as they go along. By taking part in the Challenge and putting each daily task into practice, they will be miles ahead of other business owners out there – and will hopefully set a great example too!
Everyone doesn’t like you
Just like in the real world, you and your business won’t appeal to everyone. And it’s a good thing. By trying to appeal to everyone you appeal to no-one.
There is a problem with returning likes.
What do you do if the updates simply don’t appeal or aren’t useful for you?
Some people will unlike the page again – that’s ok.
Some will just ignore whatever flies through the feed.
Most though will hide the updates from their newsfeed (negative feedback)
That’s not so good.
Because Facebook has a calculation that works out how likely you are to appear in newsfeeds. It’s called EdgeRank and rather than try to explain how it works (I dislike algebra as much as the next person…), I’ve found a great infographic from PostRocket.
As you can see, your challenge is to get people who want to see your updates and interact with you to like your Page. Don’t worry about everyone else.
Over to you…
What are your thoughts on returning likes? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
It’s not too late to join in the Facebook FanPage Challenge either, find out more here
Oh, and if you “like” me, pop over and Like me on Facebook too 🙂
Not Everyone Will Like You (and it Doesn't Matter Anyway) [Infographic] by Jan Kearney
This free short report guides you through the 5 essential steps to make your local business Facebook Page work for you. Discover:
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Great, fantastic, super duper, awesome, brilliant post Jan and I am so stealing that infographic – telling you that right now! Of course I’ll tell them where I found it too!
I never dreamed that I was creating a monster!
Thanks for all your help and support in the group – good to have you on my side!
Sue
It’s a great challenge, Sue – I’m sure everyone will learn a lot! I admit, I still need to do day 3 and we’re on day 4 already…
Thanks for such a great explanation Jan. Must admit I’d been feeling a little hurt that I’d given far more Likes than I’d received, but I feel better now you’ve explained it.
The challenge is great though. I’m learning so much by doing it, making great contacts and it’s giving me a ton of fantastic content to share on my pages, so they look much better than they did before.
That’s the plan, Joy! I’m sure by the end we’ll all have learned a tonne of useful tactics to make FB work for us 🙂
Loved it! It’s so true. You are not going to “like” every page. I’m looking forward to connecting with other businesses that resonate with me. I tried to get day two’s video but there was a problem with the link.
I know the original day Day 2 mail had a wobbly link. Day 2 can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbrnSRSqKJQ if you haven’t seen it yet.
Enjoy the challenge, Toni 🙂
I’m having a lot of wobbly links Jan!
This is an incredible post! I’m so glad you’re participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge: )
Thanks Antoinette 🙂 Are you taking part in the Facebook Challenge too?
I’m not participating, but I may still check it out. It sounds interesting.
Hope to see you on the inside Antoinette 🙂
You are welcome to take a look to see what we’re up to Antoinette
Sue
Thanks Sue!
I appreciate you going over the fact that not everyone will like everyone’s page. I like the ones that resonate or interest me, I do not like just to like. I really don’t like getting the message “I liked you, now you like me” or similar type response. It makes me almost not like the page just because! And there are plenty of good pages that I would have liked without the message.
I have found that I look closely at anyone making a comment on my fan page. I appreciate the time that the other person took to make a useful, insightful comment!
If you want more engagement, give it!
Holy Interesting Infographic Batman!
Because I’m taking part in the challenge, I’ve been a littl;e more relaxed in sending those types of messages on my Page to spam – people are taking part because they want to improve what they do on Facebook.
Usually, I’m like you – I examine people a lot more closely!
Thanks for popping in, Arla and sharing your thoughts 🙂
Fab post Jan couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ve been feeling bad that I’ve been very selective in who I’ve been liking back, as I don’t want to offend anyone, but I’ve been doing it for a reason. Your reasons. I’m sure this will be a good learning curve for everyone.
Hi Ginny, I’ve “liked” a lot of pages that I wouldn’t normally like during the challenge – and I have found some great content that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise too.
I did it to try and support people taking part in the challenge, and I am making an effort daily to scroll down my interest list and thumbs up posts that appeal.
After the challenge, well hopefully people keep up the great content – if not, it will probably be an unlike later.
I wouldn’t feel bad about being selective -it’s perfectly ok, because we don’t want our limited feeds showing things that we’re really not interested in – but you know that as a Social Goddess 🙂
I like to support my friends and what they’re doing online. If I go to their page and find interesting content, I’ll give a like.
If I go to a page that talks about topics that I have no interest in, it’s harder to give a like. I don’t want to remove information from my newsfeed because that doesn’t do a person any good.
Apparently, it’s not good for their Edgerank, is it?
I’m with you on that Bonnie, I like to try and support my friends. If I’m taking part in a challenge, I like to try and support other people taking part the best I can. We’re one of life’s little helpers 🙂
Yes, it’s hard to “like” something you’re not interested in. Hiding posts is one of the ways FB collects negative feedback that can affect the EdgeRank of a page.
The theory is if you never interact with a Page then it will eventually drop out of your newsfeed in favour of Pages you do interact with. In practice, I see varying results on that!
Hi Jan, excellent info graphic. I have a better understanding with these pics:))
It’s a wonderful infographic, so pleased it helped you understand FB Edgerank and how it affect what’s in the newsfeed. Thanks for popping in, Debra 🙂
Great info! Thanks for the graphic. My problem so far with the challenge is I am getting lots of those kinds of messages, liking their page however I am not having those same individuals come back on connect with likes or comments on content on my page? I have create a List where I can go and interact with pages. Is the FB Challenge not similar to a blog challenge where you read the blogs and comment? Best Regards, Wendy
As part of the FB Challenge, Sue has been reminding people to go like and comment on other pages – it’s great if they are Pages of other people taking part, but can be any Page that is related/relevent to what you do.
Commenting and liking updates from other Pages, particularly as your Page does help you to grow your audience and subsequently, your Likes.
However, the main aim of the FB Challenge is not to like every other Page taking part and comment on those that take your fancy, but to show you how to naturally build up your Page and target audience.
Technically, you can follow the Challenge and never like/comment on any other Pages taking part – but like every other challenge, the support from everyone taking part is what helps too – you get out of it what you put in 🙂
Thanks for popping in Wendy and sharing your thoughts
Hmm, Jan,
The Challenge idea has been one I haven’t jumped into this time around. I say that, ’cause as you indicated, when I’ve done it in the past, I’m flooded with “likes” which is great. However, two things occur:
1. Sometimes, people are “liking” my page just because they want a “like” back. I know reciprocity is great, but I want to connect w/those people who are serious about connecting because they found value when they visited my Fan Page.
2. I go to check out their page, because I believe in reciprocity, but I find what they’re offering has no relevance to me and I wouldn’t “like” them if they weren’t in the challenge.
Hope what I’m saying makes sense. It’s about quality, not quantity.
Your thoughts?
~Debra
Exactly, Debra – you’ve hit the nail on the head! The Facebook Challenge did take on a bit of a life of it’s own when it first kicked off, I think Sue has it pretty much back on a leash now!
Sue makes it clear right at the beginning with her vids and blog posts that the Challenge is all about growing your target audience. Her daily tasks help to do that and there is a very supportive community in the Challenge group too.
Day 5 tomorrow, and things have settled down. It’s not too late to join in 🙂
It seems I´m one of the few people who actually read their complete newsfeed, so I keep my numbers low, both in friends and pages.
When I choose the pages to like I take into account both the person and the content. Sometimes I will like a page that is not totally relevant for me but I truly like the owner or the other way round.
I often scroll down my newsfeed to see what I’ve missed, and pop into my interest lists too. Guilty as charged of “liking” too much, so I do miss things.
It seems like you have a grip on your likes and friends, Paula. Thanks for popping in and sharing your thoughts 🙂
Love the challenge and as with the previous poster, still need to get caught up with “Day 3” and then on to “Day 4”! 😉
Hi Penelope – great to see you taking part, I’ll be keeping my eye open for your updates flying through my feed 🙂
Same with me, Jan! 😉
illuminating post, i realised i know very little about this, and dont really use my FB page to its advantage. Perhaps i should join the next Facebook challenge
It’s not too late to join in Jana, it’s day 5 tomorrow. Would be great to see you on the inside 🙂
Oh, dear. I’ve been hiding stuff I wasn’t that interested in. My newsfeed is already insane due to having a lot of people friended for Farmville/Cityville/etc. back when I had time to play them. Adding challenge pages just made it worse.
If only Facebook would count Page likes. I see more relevance in interacting with someone as one small business owner to the other even if we’re not in the same niche, so I’d much rather just Like from my page and have people show up on that feed.
Facebook: not working the way I want it to since … ever.
I’d love Facebook to count page likes too – but it can be so easily abused. You don’t expect FB to make these things easy for us do you Katie? 🙂
I’d just like for them to make *sense*.