Likes for your Facebook business page are incredibly useful. Not only do they ensure that more people see your posts and content, but also enable you to reach a targeted audience and increase traffic to your website.

When you’re starting a business page from scratch, you need to go back to basics to get Likes for your page. These are my tips for those starting out.

Make sure your page is properly set up

Facebook tells us that these three things are all you need to set up your Facebook business page. But that’s the absolute minimum. You really need to fill out the About sections of your website, and tell people what you’re about and your areas of expertise. If you’re selling products or services, you can also add descriptions of these on your Facebook business page. Make sure all relevant fields (phone number, location, etc) are filled out and then get creative with your page and business descriptions.

Invite existing contacts to Like your page

These could be friends, colleagues, ex-colleagues or current clients. The best way to go about this is to invite them if you’re connected already on Facebook. If you feel comfortable emailing contacts that you aren’t connected to on Facebook, you can also directly email them, and ask your family and friends in person.

Cross-promote on other social platforms

Don’t forget the other social media platforms! LinkedIn is particularly useful, as it’s predominantly a business platform. You can also promote on Instagram if you change the link in your bio to your Facebook page.

Include Facebook page links on your website and blog

These should already be set up on your website but if they’re not then your web designer can add them (or you can if you’ve built and are managing your own website). It’s a given these days that if someone visits your website or blog, they’ll expect to be able to get to your Facebook page (and other social platforms your business is on) from there.

Add a link in your email signature

This is an easy win and most people appreciate an extra link in your email signature to your social media profiles, so they can easily click through.

Post valuable content

If you want people to Like your page, then you need to post content that provides value. Give away free samples, post news and blog posts that your clients or customers will find useful. Images and video also matter. Images and videos that are well-designed and attractive will get more engagement.

Use Facebook Ads to expand your reach

You don’t have to have a huge advertising budget to get started on Facebook advertising. The beauty of having a small budget is that you can test different campaigns. Then you’ll see which one is most effective, and you can boost the budget for that one.

One of the things I love to do is help clients with a personalised plan for their Facebook business page. If you’d like more information, definitely get in touch.