How to Increase Your Facebook Fans

In order to increase your online presence, you need to change the way you view your online platforms.  Most small businesses make the mistake of using their fan pages as a giant bulletin board for their business.  It's messy and self promoting.

Your new mindset needs to be the same one that you take on when you first begin to date someone that you've been crushing on for years.  Just like dating, you need to woo your online fans.

This means that you need to make all of the posts be about them, NOT YOU!  When you first begin dating, you spent a lot of time getting to know one another by asking questions about the other person.  You'll do the same thing online.

If you haven't determined who is Your Perfect Golfer, then I suggest you check out this form from my blog.

Once you know who you are trying to woo, you'll have a better and more clear idea of what to post.  Be patient, this is going to take some trial and error before you get it figured out.  Once you discover what your golfers like, then finding interesting content becomes easier.

You should be posting at least once a day (yes, even in your off season).  Consistency is the key to success when it comes to building a fan base.  You need to look like the dependable date who is going to show up.  Every.  Time.

Here's some ideas to get you started:

QUOTES

Create a quote deck using canva.  You can either use the free images or simply upload some from your golf course and create at least 20 different quotes that you can repurpose.

Make sure the quotes appeal to your golfer.  You are trying to promote your golfer to like the quote so much that they share it with their friends.  If we're continuing with the dating analogy, the quotes are like a great kiss.  They should want to tell their friends about it.

TIPS & TRICKS

Create a month long schedule and hold a Facebook Live at the same time for a month.  Just give it a try.  In the Live video, you can provide valuable information.  There's tons of great tips and tricks that you have stuck in your head.  Share it!

If you're scared of live, then simply write a post that is clever and provides good information.  Perhaps it's a winter drill for golf or how to fix a slice.

Maybe you feel like you have a lot of information to share and a simple post isn't enough space for it.  If that's the case, then you can run a series of tips with short posts or you can write a blog article with the tips.

SHARE OTHER PEOPLE'S CONTENT

Search the internet & Facebook for interesting/funny content to share.  You're never going to believe this, but it's recommended that you share other people's information MORE than you post your own original content.

Facebook will view your page as a consistent resource for where someone can go to look for a topic.  By sharing others information, you've turned yourself into an aggregate for all things related to Your Perfect Golfer.

REPURPOSE

Create a system (or use a service like Meet Edgar), that keeps track of your posts.  When you find one that resonates with your golfers, reuse it!  Since a small percentage of your fan base sees your posts, it's unlikely they will have already seen it.  If they have, it's also unlikely they'll remember seeing it.  

Give at least four weeks in between your re-purposed posts.

WHEN TO BOOST

With Facebook's ever changing algorithms, there will be times when you should boost your post to increase engagement.  When you notice that your post is getting organic engagement (meaning people are liking and commenting on it), that is when you might consider boosting it to get more.

It's very easy to fall into the trap of boosting your promotional posts, so they are viewed by more people.  Here's the deal.  If no one is commenting or liking your post, then putting more eyeballs on the post isn't going to change that. 

The purpose of social media to help you engage your golfers.  The platform is where people go to find out about their friends and family.  You need to position your business to fall into one of those categories.

When I decide to boost a post, I make sure that it has at least five comments on it organically first and then I only spend $2-5 a day.

FINAL STEP

I'm sure you're thinking that I've completely fallen off my rocker because this lesson was about how to add more fans to your social media.  Yet, all I've talked about is how to post quality content.

Here's the deal.  That's the secret.  

In order to gain followers, you have to be a page that people would want to follow.  Don't go pouting if it doesn't work overnight.  It takes time, commitment and consistency to find success.  

It's so very worth it.

ONE MORE TIP

Once you have good content that has been shared and liked, you can begin to invite people to like your page.  

Here's how.  

Please note this is a screencast from my phone, so there's no audio.  The steps that I'm following are below:

STEPS

1. Write good shareable, likeable post.
2. Click on the names of the people who liked your post.
3. That's going to bring up a page of all your Reactions with the people's names and who liked, loved, wowed your post. 
4. Once you see who reacted to the post, you can invite people to like your page.  You'll notice that you don't always have the Invite button available.  That is because the person already likes your page.
5. If you had good engagement on posts in the last 90 days, then I recommend that you go back through your posts and invite people to like your page.

RESOURCES

Here's a link to my google doc that I use for conversation starters.  This are posts that engage my golfers and get them to comment.

Bonus!  I also learn a lot about my golfers through these posts, too.  They'll tell you what to order in the clubhouse and which balls you should stock in your pro shop.