Should You Waste Money Buying Likes on Social Media?
I have read quite a few articles and blogs lately from business coaches who advocate that you should spend money to get “likes” on your business page in Facebook and followers on other forms of social media. With all due respect, this is by far the most foolish and financially irresponsible strategy I’ve ever heard of. If your coach or advisor is telling you to do this, you need to need to understand that there are at least 3 good reasons why you should NEVER do this:
- While it is nice to have people like your page, you need to think about what the end game is. Likes don’t put money in your bank account and food on the table for your family. What you really need in your business is a good steady stream of qualified leads who are ready to pay you for your solution. Likes are not leads. They may like your page one day and never return or pay very little attention to the posts on your Facebook page.
- Facebook has recently changed the way their ads work (yet again) for posts on your business page. Even if you have thousands of followers, you must now pay to talk to them. In the old days, you could send messages and your posts were given priority in the newsfeed of your followers. Not anymore. Now, you must pay to promote each post you make or virtually no one will ever see it (no matter how many likes you have). With Facebook, you must pay to acquire the likes AND also pay to speak with them.
- When you send traffic to your own website and they give you permission to contact them, you are building the most important asset in your business: your list. Your list allows you to build a relationship with prospects and customers and it also buys you time to present your claim, solve their pain and prove that you can do it. Once you own your list, speaking to them is virtually free. No matter what, you have this list and it is always the most cost effective way of building your business. If someone else, like Facebook or any other social media site, owns your list, then they control how, what and when you can communicate – and how much you must pay to do it. If Facebook went off line or out of business, what would happen to the so-called list of followers you paid dearly to acquire?
As a small business can you really afford to buy likes on social media or should you spend your time and limited marketing budget on generating qualified leads who will pay you for your solution?
The most successful brands in the world don’t waste their money on likes. Instead they focus their time and money on influencing and persuading you to buy their solution. They know exactly how to push the “buy button” in your brain and they do it successfully over and over again.
They have ALL mastered 1 simple technique and they secretly hope that YOU will never discover what it is. As a small business owner, they currently have an unfair advantage over you but that is about to change… In my free online event on December 6th, 2012, I will reveal why this 1 technique is so damn effective and how you can use it to instantly influence and persuade your customers.
4 Comments:
By Nyrie 01 Dec 2012
Thanks for the great tips on whether or not we should be buying likes or Face Book. What you are saying makes absolute business sense. We will certainly be speeding our hard earned marketing dollars in other ways that add value and nurture our prospects and customers in the future.
By Michael Shook 06 Dec 2012
Measuring the number of likes you have on Facebook reminds me of how they used to talk about eyeballs and page views as a measure of business viability back just before the DotCom bust.
It’s hard to translate the amount of effort it takes into getting fans into a real business value. Either money or fame. Its not a bad thing to have Facebook fans, just not a goal in itself.
By Marsha Shimada 25 Jan 2013
Great post – I just stumbled upon your blog today and I can confidently say that i like what I see/read!
By Kim 18 Jun 2013
Awesome advice – thanks – can u reveal what that one secret is yet? kim