Increasing likes on Facebook - Strategies

[ocelot]

What local strategies has anybody used in the past to boost the local likes of a Facebook page.  The business concerned is a home improvements company covering a geographical area of the UK.

What I would like to do is try and increase the number of likes from our potential target audience in cities and towns that we cover.

I don't think Facebook ads are the right choice as many users just ignore them, but would be interested in online and offline marketing strategies that could be used to boost numbers to our Facebook page.

The reason this is so important especially in the home improvement space is that most projects are awarded on word of mouth recommendations, so Facebook is the perfect platform.

[BlueNinja]

Hi Ocelot

Wow they have a few Facebook fans don't they!!

I agree how many of these will actually be customers though ??

The customer social recommendation is a great idea to explore but how knowing us Brits they hard part will be getting them to actually do this!!

Customers are very quick to head to social media when they have a complaint but not as quick to praise!!

I guess the best strategy would be to "Just Ask"

I have found happy customers in the past to be quite accommodating

I am sure there could be ways to help incentivise these social recommendations but you may be heading down a slightly grey area.

Kind Regards

James

[ocelot]

Thanks James

Competitions are always a good idea of raising numbers but what i have found in the past is that the demographic will not be correct.  The majority of entrants will be 'compers' basically people who love entering competitions and basically have little interest in your service or products.  Especially if you spread the word via the major competition portals.

I read a case study on Appliances Online - AO.com recently on their Facebook success but a lot of their increased numbers was just down to people wanting to win free products.  I wonder how many of these new followers would go on to actually make a purchase from AO ?

I am trying to devise / work on a strategy that will increase social recommendation.  So when Mrs Jones has her new kitchen fitted she tells her friends and colleagues about the great job that the company did on Facebook.  I believe this form of social recommendation is one of the most powerful forms of marketing, even more so than product reviews on e-commerce sites

[BlueNinja]

Hello Ocelot

Have you thought about maybe trying a Facebook photo competition ??

Maybe you could ask people to send in pics of a part of the house they would like improving and why they should win the prize ??

New windows, falling down gutters, new conservatory etc

You could then ask people to get as many "Likes" and shares as possible to help them win the prize.

You would have overall control who wins and would obviously pick a good PR story so you can then get more content about who and why they won... more photos of them getting the new windows etc

This would be a great local papers story too.

Here is a link to a company I have used before for Photo comp

http://woobox.com/

Hope this helps

James

Little Blue Ninja