Running a contest to increase Facebook Likes
-
I recently read about a well known company giving away a large prize and offering anyone a chance to win by Liking their Facebook Page.
Has there been any statements provided by Google on how they view the attempt to increase Facebook Likes through contests.
Or if they have not revealed anything, what do you think Google's approach would be based on their history?
-
Google will not really care about FB likes. Not even FB cares too much about artificially inflating likes.
Almost all FB competitions attracting likes are short lived and hardly ever engage your brand with the user and there will be zero stickiness. Consider the FB likes a vanity number and nothing else. If a company has no social engagement on the FB wall (i.e. no shares or comments), then it's not worth it to run a campaign.
I would rather look at an all-inclusive social campaign where you stretch across Twitter, FB, G+ and Pinterest. We had good engagement from users with our photo- or Pinterest competitions and actually saw backlinks and referrals growing from this.
Also look at engaging new / existing users on your site and/or blog - this will have more value than just artificially growing some meaningless number.
-
What is your goal of this contest? If you are just trying to get more followers on facebook why are you worried about google? Contests using app like wildfire snapp app or raffle copter as well as promoting it with ads etc are a great way to get your community started and is safe from harming you or your rankings.
If you are asking about links generated by such a contest or the ranking effects of social shares from google's prospective as long as you aren't doing anything spammy or underhanded and have real market goals in mind you should be fine.
-
As long as the contest legitimately engages a company's Facebook followers, I can't imagine why it would be a problem. Contests and giveaways are great ways to engage people. The one thing I would be wary of wouldn't so much be Google but Facebook itself. They have recently embarked on a campaign to eliminate "Fake" followers. If your contest produces a lot of fake follows, then you might see your number of likes inflate while people are entering, but then drop down again after the promotion if Facebook determines that alot of those new followers weren't real people with genuine FB accounts.
Disclaimer: No one, including myself can predict what Google will or won't do. (sorry, I aways feel the need to put that in when answering a question about "predicting" what Google might or might not penalize).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Hi guys, I need to create a subscribe end-off to my YouTube videos. I need something like this - https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear - where the red gear at the bottom pops up with a bright red "subscribe" CTA. How do I do this?
Hi guys, I need to create a subscribe end-off to my YouTube videos. I need something like this - https://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleCoffeeGear - where the red gear at the bottom pops up with a bright red "subscribe" CTA. How do I do this?
Social Media | | Bev.Aquaspresso0 -
How i can lose likes (from facebook) on a category page
Hello guys, Look i have here a stupid problem:
Social Media | | Shanaki
somehow i lost likes from facebook, i don't know how. And that is between 27 January till 23 February. You can see here a open site explorer check : check it here . And today (23 February) i have only 1 (witch is mine) please check picture here: check it here . Can somebody tell how i can lose likes ? :))) you can check it live here: https://wo-men.ro/huse-iphone-6 i just put a bar in idea of Hello bar :)) With respect,
Shanaki0 -
Where do the Facebook star ratings come from?
I have a client whose FB page has a 5 star rating (apparently from 5 reviews) but I have no clue from where they are aggregated? I tried Google-ing for answers with no luck! Any idea? This is the page I am referring to... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Partners-in-Womens-Health-of-Jupiter-LLC/310303442400699?bookmark_t=page
Social Media | | RickyShockley0 -
Adult dating site. How can I get people to share content on facebook or google plus..
I am working on http://www.top-10-dating-reviews.com an adult dating review website. I want to build a presence on social networks so have set up twitter, google plus, and a facebook page. As I understand it retweets, like, shares etc... Play a significant part in seo. Therefore I want to get as many shares etc as possible. My initial idea was to create a fan page on facebook and pay to promote it on facebook gaining likes on the fan page. Will likes on the fan page impact the main site? I would imagine not? However I can see how someone visiting the main site and liking a post would have a positive effect on rankings. The problem I've come into is facebook won't run the ads as the page is adult so they won't accept paid ads. If I add a post to the facebook page how can I get it in front of people to share or like it? Equally how can I get google plus shares? I'm new to social and am unsure of how I should proceed? Especially as facebook considers the page adult. Finally how important is social. I've read it can get short term wins and optimised posts can appear at the top of search results but don't stay there long. Link building is still the long term strategy?
Social Media | | SamCUK0 -
Setting up facebook
can anyone tell me how to properly link my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Shiftinsurance with my website www.shfitins.com. On OSE it shows that I only have 1 FB like when i have 29. I would like to make sure this is accurate. thank you.
Social Media | | shiftins0 -
Facebook Places & Business Pages - Any way to consolidate
Hello, I've read multiple posts on this, and the new timeline layout rolling out for business pages..but I haven't seen an update to this issue. My company has a retail store and an online store. Because of this, we had to create a places page and a regular business page. When people "check-in" via Facebook, the check-in goes to the places page. But our main marketing efforts and large fan base are at the business page. Facebook used to allow you to combine these. In a perfect world, all would live on one business page. Has anyone heard an update on this feature? Thanks either way.
Social Media | | Blenny0 -
How to migrate "friends" to likes on a new facebook corporate account
Hi, My client, which is a university department, used a regular facebook page to manage some 800 friend on a personal Facebook page. How would you go about convincing the friends to switch to "likees" on a new corporate account? Is holding a giveaway my best bet? Any other ideas? Thanks!
Social Media | | michalseo0