Facebook: The Simplest Way To Get More Fans

by Ivan on March 1, 2010

Ask. That’s it. If you want more Facebook fans, ask people to connect. But, here’s Catch 22. You have to ask in the right way. Asking strangers doesn’t work. Here’s how I do it.

Facebook: the Quickest Way To Get More Fans

I run twelve Facebook pages and this seems to work best. To get more followers:

  1. Join groups – with less than 1000 members. More than this and you can’t make an impression.
    facebook-groups
  2. Join fan pages – same as above. Choose niche or specialist subjects.
  3. Contribute – add comments, photos and videos. Stand out from the crowd in a nice way. Don’t be weird!
  4. Respond – to questions people have. Help others. Do this once a week minimum.
  5. Suggest – quality links that you find that relate to the group.  Share, share, share.
  6. Off Facebook – talk up your Facebook groups on your blog, LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) and elsewhere.

Then Ask!

Here’s how you ask:

  1. Open Notepad
  2. Copy/paste your invite text. Don’t write it from scratch every time. Keep this on your desktop, so you don’t  have to go rooting around.
  3. Choose someone you’ve helped, complimented etc (i.e. they’ll most likely know who you are)
  4. Click Add as Friend
  5. Click the Add a Personal Message link.
    facebook-add-message
  6. Personalize the message, “Hi David, this is Ivan from the Camtasia group, if you’d like to connect, that would be great. Ivan.”
  7. Click Send Request.

And that’s it

How about you?

What do you do when you want to connect to someone on Facebook? What’s the worst mistake people make? Spelling your name wrong?

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  • http://www.koreaccessblog.com/ Maria Pinochet

    Ivan,
    I think the process you describe is very effective. I would add that timing is also a factor. After establishing contact and recognition, it is always is a good feeling when a group member invites me to connect after a particularly good exchange of ideas. Maria

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    Thanks Maria,

    That’s a good point.

    The more I use Facebook, the more selective I am about who I contact and also who I accept.
    Going back to your point on timing… if you contact someone too quickly – e.g. after commenting on a mutual fan page – it can give the impression that you're hungry for followers. I know some people ‘collect’ friends or try to hit a target. I'm not sure any sane person wants to be part of that list. They add me to their list but I never hear from them again.

  • http://www.koreaccessblog.com/ Maria Pinochet

    Ivan, I think you are quite right about where the value is found – in meaningful connections. That is true for services. However, those selling a products are looking for “eyeballs” that will need their product at a later point in time.

  • http://twitter.com/DrMargaretLee Margaret

    Likewise, I tend to ignore requests from people that I've never. I don't see the point – why do they make the effort!

  • Ed Ho (Singapore)

    There is also a limit on the number of people you can connect with on Facebook, so be selective who you link up with.

  • http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com/google-tips/increase-traffic-to-technical-blogs-pagerank-monitize/4417/ 24 Ways to Increase Traffic to a Technical or Micro Niche Blog | I Heart Technical Writing, Tips, Tools and Templates for Technical Writers

    [...] Facebook – forget pigville and join groups, fan pages that compliment your business. Add useful comments, not just high fives. Say something that others have overlooked. Add videos, photos and RSS feeds to your [...]

  • carnagein

    Simple and easy way but it takes time and not guaranteed,for this reason I bought 10000 facebook fans on http://www.socialkik.com for my Business Fan page and I immediately started seeing the conversion rate of Orders/Visitors on my online store increase dramatically ! That was the best advertising investment I made !

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    I've not tried this approach, i.e. renting or buying lists. But, thanks for the heads. I'll check out this site now.

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