Building likes to your Facebook business page is goal number one. Before you can do anything you must have an audience. AND not just any audience either. You must build an audience that responds to what you do.

It’s all about finding your ideal customers and prospects. There is no point to building likes just so you can say you have 50,000 Facebook fans. Because when it comes time to offer your products or services all you will hear is crickets chirping. That’s no fun!

1383077225_like So to get you started…here are a few things you can do to get started building targeted likes for free.

  1. Content – Make sure your content is attracting your ideal audience.
  2. Invite specific people to like your page via Facebook or email. Don’t invite all of your family and friends to like your page especially if they have zero interest in what your page is about.
  3. Get rave recommendations (even if you are not a physical place). You can set up recommendations on your page. This will build your credibility so that when an ideal potential customer visits your page they will be more inclined to hit the Like button.
  4. Change your cover photo often. Each time you change your cover photo it goes into the news feed. You can advertise a specific program, product or service. You can showcase your latest art work. This is a great way to get free exposure and get more likes. People who like what they see will click the like button.
    1. Here’s an idea: When you change your cover photo make sure the photo has a call to action to like your page and then when someone clicks on it make sure you have a link to a tab where they must click like in order to view the content.
  5. Promote your page or specific posts on other social media sites like Twitter and TELL them to like your page.
  6. Add the Like Box to your blog.
  7. Use Graph Search to find your ideal customers. Try these search strings for starters: Pages liked by people who like [PAGE NAME], Favorite interests of people who like [INTEREST OR PAGE], Pages liked by people who like [PAGE] and [PAGE]. And then NETWORK.
    1. NETWORK. Join groups related to your market.
    2. NETWORK. Comment on other people’s pages.
  8. Contests. Set up a contest with Woobox.com to get more likes. You’ll get more than likes too…you’ll get more engagement and email signs ups.
  9. Participate in #FanPageFriday. But be selective. Be sure to join in ones where your target market will be.
  10. Use hashtags (ex. #success) so that people who are searching will find your posts.

And finally even though it’s not free it can be very cost effective – use Facebook Ads to build targeted likes to your page. Combine Graph Search data with Facebook ads and you will find your target market much quicker.

Once you get the ball rolling it’s all about momentum from there!

What techniques do you use to build targeted likes to your Facebook page? Let me know in the comments below!