Nothing's more exciting for a fan page owner than seeing your Like numbers going up.
You feel a sense of accomplishment -- your marketing efforts are working.
You brag on your page when you cross certain big numbers and celebrate with your new fans.
But what happens when you lose Likes?
Was it something you said? Was one of your posts or comments offensive? Did your fans switch to a competitor page?
(Image courtesy of Purely Branded)Maybe.
These are definitely the questions page owners ask themselves when they see their Like counts dropping -- especially now that unLiking a page is harder than it used to be.
Why would someone take time out of their day specifically to unLike your page?
5 Reasons People UnLike Your Fan Page
If you've been following some of the social media tips I've given you recently, you shouldn't be too upset when people bail on your page. People move on, profiles get deleted and closed. Don't beat yourself up about it.
But it is important to do a quick gut check and make sure you're not doing things that could be causing people to flee from your page!
Here are 5 of those things:
1. Constantly Self-Promoting
It's your page -- you should be able to constantly SELL, SELL, SELL, right?
WRONG!
If we've learned anything about social media over the last 3-4 years, we've learned that "push marketing" no longer works.
What is Push Marketing?
It's when a brand/person pushes advertisements and posts on an audience -- interrupting them and soliciting them to visit their website and/or buy their crap.
You've probably seen pages that do this. Every single post is a marketing pitch to sign up for their webinar, or buy their product. Even if those webinars and products are great, no one wants to get sold to over and over again, day after day.
That's why Pull Marketing is a much better strategy.
In Pull Marketing, you're still generating leads -- but you're doing it in a generous, informative, non-used-car-salesman way. For example this blog post is an example of pull marketing.
You probably came to this post via some form of social media or Google search and you're reading it to get information to improve your social media knowledge.
You doing that is actually our goal with blogging. But our goal is also to sell our app. By providing you with (hopefully) quality information and not giving you a sales pitch, we're building a relationship.
Some time in the future, we hope you try out our app.
Follow My 70/20/10 Rule
You've probably heard Facebook "experts" talk about the 80/20 rule or 90/10 rule.
This means 9 posts on Facebook should be informative or light-hearted and 1 post can be "salesy". I'd take it a step further.
To me 70% (or 7 out of 10 posts) should be informative posts -- and most of those should be your own blog posts, podcasts, images, etc. They should not be salesy in nature. You're "pulling" not "pushing" remember.
Then 20% of your posts should be shares of other people's posts, blogs, images or videos.
Then the remaining 10% of your posts can be promotional. You've earned it at this point, so feel free to make the sales pitch.
This is just a different version of the 90/10 rule. But I think it's important to be conscious of how much content from other people you're intentionally sharing on your page.
Not only does it show your audience you're not a walled garden of your own content -- it also motivates the people who's stuff you're sharing to share your stuff and return the favor.
2. Posting Too Much
No one likes a chatterbox.
When it comes to social media, especially Facebook, less is often more.
People tend to hop on Facebook for just a few brief moments on their lunch breaks or after work. If they log in and then all they see are 37 posts from your page, you WILL get hidden, or worse: UnLiked.
*Disclaimer- I'm guilty of posting too much on my personal profile, if you follow me you probably know this. Oh well.. Guilty as charged.
So how much is too much?
Well, I'd like to say that there is a "golden rule" and "magic" number of posts per page you should follow.
But, that's simply not the case.
Every page is unique and should decide what's best for their particular audience.
That said, I'd advise against posting back to back posts within a few minutes of one another. And I would suggest not posting more than 6-7 times per day on Facebook.
3. Not Posting Enough
Wait a second... didn't I just say that posting too much can make you lose fans?
Yep, sure did!
But not posting enough can also cause people to unlike your page.
Why?
People don't want to be connected to dead pages or to pages they don't have a good working relationship with.
In a blog post about "The Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make On Social Media" I touched on how being a "ghost town" on social media is a death wish.
And it's true. If you're serious about your business's social media presence, you'll adopt a posting plan that involves daily posts.
Is there a minimum number of posts you should be posting to your page every day? In my opinion, yes.
You should at least post once a day. But I'd challenge you to to post 3 times a day (morning, noon and night).
What exactly should you be posting?
For this, check out Josh's guest post on the Tabsite blog: Awaken your Fans and Revive your Fan Page with just 3 Facebook Posts A Day.
4. You're Sort of a JERK!
Ok, maybe you're not *really* a jerk, but you play one on Facebook.
Do you vent your problems and frustrations constantly on your page and post in an arrogant and/or rude way when responding to comments or messages?
Then you might be a Facebook Jerk!
Sure it's ok to consider yourself an expert in your niche. But you don't have to talk down to people on your page.
Remember -- everyone is watching. And they *will* take note when you're rude to someone. And they usually won't tell you -- they'll just unLike your page.
Or, maybe you're constantly calling out competitors in your posts -- pointing out their mistakes or criticizing them.
No one likes that guy.
Overly negative posts might get a reaction from certain people, but most people will just hide you or unLike your page and move on.
So be nice!
5. Posting Un-Related Items to Your Page
We all love a good laugh and chuckle.
But if your business's Facebook strategy is posting memes 12 times a day, you're probably just annoying people.
So Knock It Off!
Yes, according to most Edgerank articles, photos do carry the greatest weight -- and they do tend to garner the most likes, comments and shares.
But is it really helping to establish your business as an expert in your field?
Probably not.
Sure it shows your company has personality, I get that. But it shouldn't be every single post.
Eventually your fans will realize you aren't serious about your business and will unLike your page and find another business that's serious about their industry and about offering value.
This doesn't just apply to silly memes (and boy are there a lot of memes these days!). I'm also referring to posting about un-related topics to your page that your fans may not be interested in.
People probably liked your page because they had interest in your brand or product. Polluting their news feed which too much garbage will just cause your Like count to go down.
And rapidly.
Are You Ready to Be a Better Fan Page Owner?
These 5 probably aren't the only reasons people unLike Facebook pages, but they're the main ones.
So focus on not doing these things and I bet you'll see better results on your page -- which is your (and our) ultimate goal, right?
*Blog inspired by "Six Reasons Why You're Losing Twitter Followers"
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