How many FaceBook likes do I need to start making a difference?
-
Just started the social scene.
We have a FaceBook page
https://www.facebook.com/SMSPro.Safety.Management.System
Only about a year old, and until two weeks ago, we had about 8-10 likes.
Then I started working on getting likes (please like this page if you can).
Question: How many Likes do I need for Google to start counting this as significant?
Would also appreciate any comments on FaceBook page to help.
-
On a related note, keep an eye on the YouMoz blog. Next week there's a post coming up about how to market the experts in your field who aren't necessarily a big deal on the internet.
-
Outstanding, William! Simply outstanding! Thanks for pulling my head out my rear.
-
In that case, I probably am even more convinced that FB isn't the right place for you. For many B2B companies, I usually lean towards LinkedIn and Twitter, and focus on producing high value and high credibility thought leadership content. That type of content is valued more highly on Twitter/LinkedIn, whereas FB is more about some form of entertainment.
There are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about how social affects search rankings. First, you have 'personalized search,' which means that you can potentially influence the search results of the small group of people who are in your second degree connections on different social networks -- this works extremely well on Google+ for certain types of things, but I think it works somewhat on other social networks as well, and may get better in the future. The second type of influence goes beyond second degree connections, and results when you have viral content that triggers lots of legitimate social signals (+1s, Likes, RTs, faves, etc.). In order to see positive outcomes from this type of thing, you need to create something that is ACTUALLY awesome. To get the results from personalized search, all you need to do is very basic stuff. To get the much larger results of hitting beyond your 2nd tier folks, it is not just a numbers game, and I never recommend it unless you are prepared to really put your back into it. In fact, you should check out this post by the Oatmeal (formerly of SEOMoz) to see the answer of how to succeed on FB.
-
RE: "Funny, OMG, weasel and rant topics will generate more traffic than any sort of biz generation."
This is why I failed to see the value of FB in the beginning.
I really don't get this. Promises of Madonna showing her panties will get more Likes and traffic than any legit business.
I have a competitor in Australia who is a new entrant into aviation safety software. My site (http://www.aviation-sms.com)has considerably more content, links and time in existence than his. aerosdb.com.
Competitor ranks higher than me, and I see that he has a lot of tweets and FB likes. Hence the start of this "Social Networking" crusade.
And the reasoning behind the question: how many FB likes do I need to make a difference. Maybe I should put a campaign promising to show Madonna in her panties. If they Like me, I show a picture. (just kidding).
-
In my opinion, FB likes don't generate any direct search engine benefit. However, if you have content that people share and those shares lead to visits - then you have something of value - maybe.
Funny, OMG, weasel and rant topics will generate more traffic than any sort of biz generation.
-
btw, thank you for taking time to respond!
-
most of my clients (decision makers) are older generation and not FaceBook users.
These are managers in the aviation industry. I don't think FaceBook will be a prime marketing strategy. I just need to get some Google power from it because Google is evaluating the "social" aspect and using it to help determine rankings.
-
Facebook is one of those areas where you are better off (in my opinion) by counting the human feedback you generate, rather than the SEO ranking. In other words, you are literally creating conversations with lots of people, so you should be evaluating the topics of those conversations (are they relevant? positive? interesting?). You should also be reviewing the source of new fans, names, and whether or not they go silent, etc. From there, you should look at the "reach" within Facebook itself to see how many unique people your posts are hitting. If none of this appeals to you, then FB is probably not going to be a good investment, but if it does, then FB should be awesome, and you will probably get some SEO value out of it as well. Someone smarter than me might be able to tell you exact numbers that start driving Google results, but my own experience has been that if FB isn't valuable to you for some non-SEO reasons, then you are unlikely to have strong company buy-in for very long.
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
-
Do review sites like consumer affairs negatively affect SERPs?
Hey all, So when googling the name of our site we see consumer affairs pop up around 5th with a 1 star rating. These negative reviews are mostly spammy (competitors, etc.) since we have an awesome support team that deals with all unhappy members very effectively. We reached out to CA and they came back asking for $10k+ (highway robbery) to "help us improve our rating." My question is: do poor ratings on review sites like these negatively affect your SERPs? And if so, how can we work to combat their effect? Thanks in advance, Roman
Branding | | Dynata_panel_marketing1 -
New Product. New Brand. Gmail/Authorship Questions. Need Advice.
I'm in the process of developing a new product and brand name and would like to create all the social media accounts (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), including G+ and want it to have it's own Gmail ID like ABCXYZ@gmail.com, so I can set up all accounts using this Gmail ID and if needed down the road, have someone else help manage the accounts so they have that login and my my main Gmail login. My question is, does Google frown upon setting up new Gmail IDs under the same name "Patrick McCoy" as I have my name tied to my personal Gmail account and my company's Gmail account "whiteboardcreations@gmail" both with G+ pages and URLs of /+PatrickMcCoy1 and /+PatrickMcCoy2 respectively. I'd like to have Authorship associated with the new product website and also want the new product to have it's own G+ Business Page to post updates, info, etc., which is why I'm getting a little confused on how I'd do it the right way, What would you do or does it really matter... can my new Gmail account of ABCXYZ@gmail just be /+PatrickMcCoy3 which is associated to my new product/brand name? Thank you and look forward to the feedback!
Branding | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Rep Management with Google+ > Help Needed
My client, Pareto Law, have set themselves up with a Google Local Business listing:
Branding | | AndrewAkesson
https://plus.google.com/+paretolaw, and when searching for the Pareto Law brand this page appears a bit like a site-link under the main search result. I've noticed that other companies, such as moz.com, have their G+ page ranking seperately on page 1 of the SERPs. This is especially important for my client, as we're trying to push down other sites rankings for our brand. In an ideal world I'd want only their twitter, G+, linkedin, & facebook pages ranking amongst wikipedia entries and the like, as opposed to forums discussing my client. The question is, are Pareto Law able to set themselves up with a G+ business page as well as the G+ local listing page they presently have. Is that an acceptable setup, or are you supposed to have just one or the other? I'm struggling to differentiate between the 2.0 -
What is the best set-up on Facebook if you have a spanish speaking and english speaking audience?
Hunting around I don't see a simple answer as to the best way to treat a customer base that speaks 2 different languages. The ultimate goal is to build the most efficient, easy to manage solution where segmentation is minimal, ie: we don't have to add 2 lists of friends, if possible. There are a couple of options, 2 company pages (1 english, 1 spanish) 1 company page (english) + community page (spanish) - community pages look like the company can loose ownership however. 1 company page + group What is the best way to do this?
Branding | | landon_harlan0 -
What if I have multiple sites? Do I need to register separately?'
I have 3 sites which has been running for 3-5 years. I've limited knowledge on SEO and some handholding is needed.
Branding | | FrankLaw0 -
Do I need a .com as well?
Hello Mozers, I need your advice. I have a new client that runs a paralegal shop called - Christophers Legal Advice up here in Canada ChristophersLegal.com is taken but ChristophersLegal.ca is available Question: Should I register ChristophersLegalAdvice.com and ChristophersLegalAdvice.ca and just redirect the .com to .ca (since both .com and .ca are available) or should I risk it and opt for the shorter url and just register ChristophersLegal.ca I'm thinking that I might be able to get away with just ChristophersLegal.ca since the site will be used to attract new visitors via the search engines and social media. What do you guys think?
Branding | | RogersSEO0 -
I need to get my hands on some already registered domains?!?
Hi Guys & Gals, There are a couple of already registered domains i'd like to get my hands on, but i'm coming up against a brick wall. I have already tried contacting the domain owners directly if there contact info is available through whois and tried using a domain brokerage service from the likes of SEDO to try and acquire the domain on my behalf...but they seem to only work they have solid whois contact info to use. My problem is that where do I turn now after the above routes failing? Are there any good domain brokerage services you are aware off or any other approach I could try to aquire such domains?? Thanks James
Branding | | cewe0
