Over Thanksgiving, a ton of businesses were having all sorts of contests, drawings and sweepstakes on Facebook.  

The goal?  More likes on their Facebook pages of course!

I saw this happening in all sorts of industries, even real estate.

The thing is, do more likes actually mean more leads?

Well, unequivocally NO!  More likes do NOT = more leads.  It truly boggles my mind that people think this.

Well, clearly most people using Facebook business pages think this.

Let’s expand on this and look at two inaccurate “theories” about Facebook:

1. More Likes = More Leads
2. Running contests are awesome ways to get more likes

First – the idea that more likes = more leads.  

Image courtesy of [basketman] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Tell me, does a like on your Facebook page mean you’ve got that person’s contact information?  At least an email address?  I’ll tell you, NO!  Likes have absolutely zero to do with leads.  Really, they don’t.

And, if you are like most people, you started asking everyone to like your page, whether they were likely to buy from you or not.  I wrote about this phenomenon last week on Inman: Need Facebook Likes? 2 Things Real Estate Agents Should NEVER Do, And Why They Should Never Do Them. LINK: http://www.inman.com/next/need-facebook-likes-2-things-real-estate-agents-should-never-do-and-why-they-should-never-do-them/

Ok, so you believe that you can “nurture” those likes into future buyers and sellers, right from your Facebook business page.  Do you REALLY believe that or do you just “hope” it will be like that?

Let’s look at the reality . . . Facebook has flat out said that less than 16% of your page likes actually see anything you post.  And, if you post less than 3-4 times a day, every day of the week, your “reach” is either at zero or pretty darn close to zero (reach is the number of people who see what you post on any given post, on any given day.)  Even more “distressing” news?  It is expected that Facebook is progressing toward total pay advertising, which means that if you want to reach any of your page fans, you’ll have to pay for it.

Now, don’t get all put out and “affected” like so many are about this news.  I mean really, the page is FREE and you are marketing your business using that page.  Why should it be free?

Second – the idea that running a contest is a great way to get more Facebook page likes

Let’s pretend you are a famous rap singer.  You’ve decided to give away a 2014 Corvette.  To enter the drawing, all anyone has to do is like the rapper’s Facebook page, like the contest post and share the contest post.

Do you think that will get that rapper a ton of likes?  Oh yes it absolutely will.  It got me on there.  I entered because I was interested in the Corvette, not because I like the rapper or his music.  When the contest was over, I “unliked” the page.

Oh, but what about the people who did the same thing I did, but haven’t unliked the page yet?  They are a noose around this rapper’s neck.  First of all, these people that are not fans of his, will not be engaging in anyway with his Facebook page.  Their inactivity will negatively affect his reach and engagement.  Which means that his real fans will be less and less likely to see anything he posts.  And then, when they do unlike his page, that’s even more negative activity affecting his overall algorithm.

Second of all, when the rapper decides to implement paid Facebook ads, he’ll be paying to promote to people who aren’t interested in his music.  He’ll be wasting a lot of money.  If even 30% of his “likes” are not real fans of his and never intend on becoming fans of his, that’s 30% fewer of his real fans he could be missing.  With a contest like the one he ran, the odds are that 60-70% of his page likes are not his target audience. Not a good place to be in.

Here’s the deal, you do not want to have to start over. We have clients who've had to start over completely, having us build them a brand new page with a brand new unique name, with brand new content, all because they had so many useless likes on their page.  Don’t let this happen to you!

Why on earth would you want to try to wade through a mess of uninterested people to get to your target?

This is exactly what contests do.  They encourage untargeted likes and ruin the integrity of your page.  Real Estate Agents should never use contests to get more likes.  Never.  Oh, unless they want their page to eventually be useless to them, they’ll use contests to get more likes.

Now, there are some very specific ways to can run like contests that work, but they are a lot more complicated than just a general “like us and you’ll be entered in to win a Corvette.”

So here is my warning, don’t listen to the promotional lies of all sorts of different page apps telling you to get more likes (by running a contest) and that more likes = more leads.  Do you know what this tells me?  It tells me the page apps are more interested in selling their products than they are in actually understanding Facebook lead generation.

Sad, but true.