Unless you have a huge advertising budget, paying for Facebook Likes is nowhere near as valuable as it was five years ago. After all, organic reach on Facebook is pretty much dead, right?
However, there is still some marginal value in having a large number of page Likes. If nothing else, Likes serve as a form of social proof. More likes make you appear popular to people who are just discovering your brand. And having more followers gives you a small bit of organic reach.
If you manage a Facebook business page and run Facebook ads, check it out: I’ve stumbled across a weird hack that allows you to invite real people who have engaged with your content to Like your page – and you don’t have to pay a penny. So far, I give the results a big thumbs up.
Facebook’s “Hidden” Invite Button
Before going further, I want to be clear. I don’t know if this Invite Button is a hidden feature or something that Facebook is testing in beta. This doesn’t seem to be available on every Facebook account so you may or may not have it.
Also, what I’ll be discussing isn’t the invite option Facebook has given us for years (“Invite friends to like this page”). With that option, you’re limited to only inviting your friends.
No, the hidden Invite button I’ve found is completely different. It opens you up to reach a new and much bigger audience beyond the people who have already Liked your page.
To find out if your account has access to this Invite button, go to your Facebook Page or the Facebook app (only the regular Facebook app, not the Facebook Pages Manager App, which doesn’t appear to have this feature).
Click on the people who engaged with your post. You’ll see three types of buttons:
- Invite – This is the new button I haven’t seen before. Clicking on this will invite the person who engaged with your post to Like your page.
- Liked – These are the people who have Liked your page already.
- Invited – These are the people who you have sent an invitation, but haven’t yet accepted.
Limitations of the New Button
There is a limit to the number of invitations you can send per day. It seems to be somewhere between 500 and 1,000.
Once you’ve hit your limit, Facebook will tell you as much. Check back in a day or two to see if you can start inviting more people who have engaged with your posts.
Also, the Invite button seems to come and go a bit randomly. Weirdly, it doesn’t appear every time. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.
The Results?
Generally, I’ve been seeing an acceptance rate between 15 and 20 percent. That’s ridiculously high.
But it makes sense. You’re targeting people who have expressed an interest in your page already by liking your updates. I use remarketing so people who aren’t connected to me on Facebook will see my ads.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve added nearly 1,000 fans using this Invite button. It isn’t spam! You’re adding them organically.
What’s super funny is people have even sent thank you notes. They feel honored that I invited them to my page!
Thumbs Up!
I definitely like the conversion rate – 1 in 5 people I invite to engage end up liking my page. And you can’t beat the price.
When you run a paid Like campaign, you don’t know for sure who is going to end up Liking your page. It could just be some random person who doesn’t even have an interest in your product or service. Totally worthless.
However, with this Invite button, you know people have engaged with your content so they’re more likely to Like. Hopefully, you can keep biasing them positively toward your brand and turn them from fan to customer.
Want more tips to increase your organic Facebook reach?
Check out my new post on Hacking Facebook’s Newsfeed Algorithm, with my five best tips for getting your organic reach back.
This post originally appeared on Wordstream, and is re-published with permission.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Wordstream
In-post Photos: All images by Wordstream
Screenshot by Larry Kim. Taken July 2016.
