Have a question you want me to answer? Submit it here.
Ali Thompson delves into the importance of getting the right followers on your Facebook page. She breaks down the difference between followers and page likes, and how Facebook is shifting towards followers in the future. The video covers common issues such as stagnant growth and how to not unintentionally attract bad followers. Thompson shares four ways to start immediately to get good followers, including posting fantastic content and engaging with followers. The episode ends with a cautionary tale about the ineffectiveness of "like ladders" in gaining engaged followers. Tune in to learn how to increase your Facebook page's followers and engagement.
[00:00:52] Differentiate between followers and Page likes on Facebook.
[00:06:08] Having many followers doesn't guarantee success. Wrong followers could hurt algorithm and suppress posts.
[00:07:08] Avoid bad followers by not purchasing them.
[00:12:04] Bad followers hurt algorithm, get good followers in 4 ways.
[00:13:39] Good content leads to more followers.
[00:17:15] Invite those who like your post to like your page.
[00:20:44] Next time, goodbye.
Ali Thompson [00:00:00]:
All right. How do you get more people to follow you on your Facebook Page? This is a big question. A lot of people ask this question, and so I just want to jump right into it. We're going to talk about the do's and the don'ts and why it's so important to have the right followers on your Page. My name is Allie Thompson, and I am a Facebook marketing expert. I help small business owners get more likes, comments, and sales from their Facebook post. And one of the ways we do that is by communicating with our followers. And if you have very few or no followers, or if you've been stuck at the same level of followers for a long time, or if you're under the mindset that more followers equals more success, then you've come to the right place, because that is exactly what we are going to be talking about today.
Ali Thompson [00:00:52]:
How to get more of the right followers to your Page. So, number one, I want to talk very briefly on the difference between followers and Page likes. This has been a source of a lot of confusion, and people aren't quite sure which number it is they should be referring to. When they're looking at how many people like their Page or how many people follow them, what is the difference? So to understand this, we need to know a little bit of Facebook history. Back in the day, all you could do was like a Page. And liking a Page was similar to liking a post. It's like, hey, I'm giving this page a thumbs up and showing the world that this is something that I like and agree with. And when you like a Page, it would then become public on your account that your friends and family could see what kind of pages that you like.
Ali Thompson [00:01:42]:
So that it was kind of like a recommendation, like, hey, here are all of the things that I like. Here you go. Friends and family and anybody that sees me. And if it was public, anybody in the world that looks at my profile, these are the things that I like. Well, it kind of hit a snag when people wanted to like Pages. And in turn, liking a Page meant you saw their post in their newsfeed. So some people wanted to see posts from a Page, but they didn't want to necessarily tell the world that that's something that they liked. So it was something that maybe they could get a lot of backlash for, that their friends and family would be shocked, something private about themselves, yet they still wanted to see the content because it was something that was important to them.
Ali Thompson [00:02:29]:
So Facebook brought up this whole idea of followers. So instead of just liking a Page and it's showing everybody in the world, you could just simply follow a Page and not like it. So you would see the post from that page in your newsfeed but you would not see it necessarily on your it wouldn't be on your list of pages that you like. And it was a privacy thing. So right now, when there is still a like and a Follow button, if somebody likes your page, they automatically follow it. All right? So a like is an automatic follow, but a follow is not an automatic like. And if you like somebody's page but don't want to see your content, you can actually like their page, which means you're telling the world, this is something that I like and endorse. But you're opting out of the posts for that page.
Ali Thompson [00:03:26]:
So their posts, the posts from that page are not going to show up in your newsfeed. More and more Facebook is going towards followers versus like. They are putting more and more emphasis on the follow button. And in fact, on mobile sometimes that's the only button available is Follow. I presume that the like button may be completely phased out in the next couple of years, if not sooner, because they are putting more and more emphasis on the follow button. Now, following is what we actually want, right? We want people who are following our posts because they see our posts in their newsfeed. So when they follow us, they're getting all of our content. And that's more important to most of us than just kind of declaring publicly, I like that page because so many people like so many pages anymore, it's really, really difficult to even pay attention to that on somebody's feed.
Ali Thompson [00:04:23]:
So when you're looking at your numbers, you'll probably see at this point that followers are bigger than Likes and that is simply it used to be the other way around. The reason why most people have more followers now than page Likes is because Facebook has taken away the Page Like button, especially on certain pages, especially on mobile. In the past it was automatically alike, but you had to intentionally go in and unfollow. Once you hit that like button, you had to go in and unfollow. And the like button was the default. Now it's kind of flipped. So really it doesn't matter. But I'm trying to change my language more and more to say followers, because ultimately followers is what we really want.
Ali Thompson [00:05:07]:
We really want people that are kind of subscribing to our posts. So what is the difference between a good follower and a bad follower? So a good follower is somebody who actually wants to see your content, who are opting in to see more about what it is we have to say. When somebody follows your Page and they follow it for the intention of seeing those posts, that is what I kind of refer to as a buyer follower. That is somebody that has some sort of intent, they want to know more and they are choosing on their own accord to go ahead and follow this page. Now, a bad follower is somebody there that is not necessarily somebody who's going to engage with your page. They're not necessarily there to even see your posts and they are adding nothing to your page. So I want to get really clear here. A lot of people think that it doesn't matter the quality of the follower.
Ali Thompson [00:06:08]:
If you have lots of followers, that is going to automatically mean that you're going to have more success, that you'll get more engagement and you'll have more success. And nothing could be further than the truth. In fact, having a lot of the wrong followers, people that never engage and have no buyer intent whatsoever for your product or service, having a lot of those people on your page can actually hurt your page quite a bit with the algorithm. And what that means is, let's say you have 1000 people on your page and 800 of them are the wrong followers and you make a post. Facebook is testing your post out to lots of different people. Watch my algorithm video to get more on that. If you have a large percentage of your page that are never going to engage because they're there for the wrong reasons, then it actually tells the algorithm that very few people on your page are actually interested in what you have to say and it's going to suppress your posts more and more and more. So even those 200 that are interested are less likely to see your post.
Ali Thompson [00:07:08]:
It really is like climbing a hill to try to get beyond bad followers. So the smart thing to do is not have them in the first place. So what is a bad follower? What is a toxic follower? So there are three ways that I want to mention here that people can end up with bad followers on their page. Now if you're not doing any of these intentionally, you don't have to worry, oh my gosh, am I accidentally doing something that gives me bad followers? These are very intentional steps you have to take. You know, if you're doing it right, if you're not doing this and you'll be like, I've never heard of that, that's fine. But if you are doing one of these three, you need to stop immediately and you need to try to remove as many of these bound followers from your page as possible. So number one is buying followers, actually purchasing people to follow you. You can go on to fiverr, you can go on to all kinds of websites that say, I'll give you 5000 Facebook followers if you pay me $100.
Ali Thompson [00:08:10]:
Now, the problem with these followers is they have no buyer intent whatsoever. They're not likely to be your client, and they're never going to engage with your post. Most of them do not live in the United States. And for most of you watching this, the majority of your customers are here in the US or Canada. So by purchasing followers from India, Pakistan, African countries, Asian countries, et cetera, that are not your target market. You are filling your page up with a vanity metric that makes it look like, wow, look, 5000 people are following you. But then when I go check your post, nobody's engaging on your post. I'd rather you have 200 followers that are highly engaged than 5000 people that are never going to interact with your post just so you can meet that vanity metric and then you never make a sale from it.
Ali Thompson [00:09:04]:
That's nonsense. Don't do it. The second one, that's very similar to this, but it's kind of like buying followers yourself versus paying somebody else to give you followers. You're doing it yourself. And that is running these really generic ads. And thankfully this has mostly gone away, but I still like to speak out against it because I'm sure somebody's going to come back with this and be like, oh, I've just found this new great thing. And it's running ads that are very generic ads. They're very generic Facebook Page like ads where you put like a quote that everybody can agree with.
Ali Thompson [00:09:37]:
Let's say all you need is love as a quote, as a picture that you use to run your ads. And I actually tested this years ago and I'm like, this is nonsense. This is the most nonsense I've ever seen. So you run a post like that, but you run it to countries in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, where your clicks and your page likes are very cheap, but they are also not your target market. Unless that is your target market, then go for it. But for most of us that is not our target market. Those aren't our people. So you can get page likes for pennies per person.
Ali Thompson [00:10:16]:
It seems like a great deal. But again, all it's giving us is that vanity metric and it's going to completely tank you with the algorithm and your engagement. Don't do it. Don't fall for it. If you have a social media manager that suggests anything like that, run for the hills, don't do it. And then the third way that I see that people end up with the wrong followers and this is all very innocent and it seems like there wouldn't be anything wrong with this is oftentimes in Facebook groups, you'll see. Hey, everybody, let's start a chain where everybody's going to drop their Facebook page link and the people like the three pages above yours and then the people behind you will like those pages or like every page in the comments, something like that. We call these like ladders.
Ali Thompson [00:11:05]:
And I have had clients that have built 1000 followers using these like ladders. And they came to me and said, why can I'm doing everything you say to post? Why can I not get my followers to engage? And I asked her, I said, how did you get these followers? And she's like, like ladders? And and it was really tough. She had to gain about 1000 more followers that were more legitimate followers for her engagement to be anywhere near where it should have been, for the amount of followers that she had to overcome the inertia of those thousand people. Because, think about it for a second. While it sounds like a great idea, the only reason you're liking all of those other pages is why? So they'll all like you. You don't care. All you care is more people look at you. Not how many more people can I find? And yeah, some of those people you can convert into being actual followers.
Ali Thompson [00:12:04]:
But they didn't go to your page because they were truly interested in it. They went to your page for their own self interest of hoping that you would go and like their page in return. So those are bad followers and they will again tank you when it comes to the algorithm because the algorithm will see a large percentage of your page is not engaging with your posts and therefore your posts aren't interesting and it can be a lot to overcome. So with that being said, how do we get good followers? What are some ways to get good followers? So I'm going to share here with you four different ways that you can start getting good followers immediately. This is one of those things that with Facebook it's a little bit more difficult to get discovered. It's actually a little bit easier with Instagram, where hashtags are more popular. It can actually be easier when you're using Reels, which is not if you have a local business. I don't recommend that you use Reels if you have a national business.
Ali Thompson [00:13:04]:
Reels are a fantastic way of getting that additional reach. So that's not one of the four, simply because it's not something that everybody should be doing. If you are only selling locally, then Reels is going to bring in people from all over the world, honestly to your page. And it can encourage a lot of people to like your page that are never ever going to do business with you. So you got to be careful with that. But here are four that you can do, that anybody can do, whether you have a local or a national business. Number one is post good content. I cannot stress this enough.
Ali Thompson [00:13:39]:
The best way for you to get more followers is to post fantastic content. Why? Because content that is good gets shared and people will tag their friends in that content. If your content is not fabulous, if it isn't really great and engaging, then the likelihood that you're going to get those shares and tags is much more difficult. So this really is you've got to have the skills in order to show up. If you're posting very boring posts, it's going to be difficult for you to increase your followers. If you're posting high engagement, fun, fantastic posts, then it's going to be easier for you to increase your followers because more and more people are going to share it, more people are going to see it, more people are going to check you out, the more people that are going to follow you. Makes sense. So you want to have really good content.
Ali Thompson [00:14:34]:
You get both the shares, the tagging. And the third thing that happens with good content is that if you've got a post that's a real runaway, facebook will start showing it to people who are like the people that are engaging with it. Hey, I think you might like this. Like, I love the office. If I engage in several posts about the office, facebook will watch for other posts that they know are about the office. Like Facebook knows, and they're like, whoa, a lot of people commented on this. Let me show this to Allie. And it may be a page that I've never seen before, but because they have the kind of content I've already engaged with, facebook is integrate or recommending it to me because the content was good, right? So good content is number one.
Ali Thompson [00:15:18]:
Number two is posting in groups as your page. Now, you got to be careful with this. It still has to be good content. You can't simply go to groups and just say, I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff up here in the groups, and a lot of people are going to see me. You will get followers here and there from that. But for the most part, if your content isn't good, they don't have a reason to follow you. They have no reason to go check you out and learn more about you. So really good content in groups that you join as your page.
Ali Thompson [00:15:47]:
That being said, you can also get followers simply by updating your works at on your personal account to works at and tagging your page. And anytime you interact in groups, even if you personally are interacting in groups, somebody can hover over your name and see a link to your Facebook page. So you may say in a group, oh, well, here's how I do it. I make XYZ, and this is how I solve that problem, right? And they're like, oh, who are you? And they hover over your page, and it links directly to your Facebook page. They could go check it out and follow. So use groups both personally and from your business page. Use groups. Number three is invite people.
Ali Thompson [00:16:34]:
The easiest way to invite people is all of your friends and family. And this is true even if you have a local business. And this is true if you have a national business, all of your friends and family. This is also true if you have like a gender specific business. So if you mainly cater to women, invite your uncles, invite your male cousins, invite those people, your brothers. Because what happens when we invite our friends and family is that gives us kind of a baseline. These are people who already know, like and trust us. And these are people who are going to be rooting for us and are more likely to share and we can tap into their network, let them decide whether they want to follow you or not.
Ali Thompson [00:17:15]:
It's not up to us. Decide whether or not they want to support us. So at least give them that option. The other way you can invite people is to invite people who like your post. Somebody likes your post, invite them to like your page. Anytime you make a post, you'll see those little like five people like this post, or you'll see Marianne like this post. If you click on that, you'll see a drop down of names that people who actually liked or hearted the post or cared or laughed at it, whatever, all of those reactions. You can invite those people to like your page even if you're not connected with them personally, even if you've never seen them before, even if this is the first post of yours you've ever seen.
Ali Thompson [00:18:01]:
It's one way that Facebook gives us the opportunity to interact with other people and invite people that we are not personally connected to because that person already showed an interest in your post. And then the fourth way, which I'm not going to get into, but if you join my social Media Academy, I definitely walk through this step by step. How to have a post Likes giveaway. Now, I didn't say a page likes giveaway. This is specifically a post likes giveaway. This is a type of giveaway where you encourage people to like your post as an entry or comment. But I really like like the post because what did I just say? You can invite people who like your post to like your page. I just had a client do this.
Ali Thompson [00:18:47]:
She had 1100 people like her post. She then went through and invited all of the people who already didn't like her page to like her page. Now, not everybody's going to accept the invite, but those that do are like, yeah, I'd like to see more of this, right? Some people just want to be in the giveaway, but when you invite them, you give them the option and that's what makes them good followers. They were invited and they're like, yeah, I think I do want to see more from this page. This was really cool. I really like that product. I really like their personality, whatever it is. And they will choose to like your page if they are a good match for you.
Ali Thompson [00:19:28]:
I love the post Likes giveaway. There are right ways and wrong ways of doing it. So please don't do one of these giveaways without going through my training. Look, Social Media Academy is $7 a month. That's it. And we're going to show you everything you need to know about successfully posting to Facebook and using Facebook to get more likes, comments and sales in your business. Just let me know, if you want the link, I'll send it out to you with that I want to leave you with. Guys, focus on those good followers, the people who really can turn into buyers, right? That they're either going to be buyers or they're going to get you in front of buyers.
Ali Thompson [00:20:09]:
I'll add that caveat that they're friends and family and people that you're connected with that may not buy from you, but are very happy to refer you, very happy to share what it is you're doing. Tagging people, they're going to be your biggest cheerleaders. When you follow these steps, you'll see your numbers. You might not see a huge spike at first, and that's okay. Slow and steady wins the pace. When it comes to page likes, there are very few times when you should be seeing large increases in page likes. So go slow and steady. That's going to assure that you always have exactly the right people following you.
Ali Thompson [00:20:44]:
And I'll talk to you next time.