Ask HN: How can I get more likes on our FB page?

[ayusaf]

Hi, we're looking to launch our startup Super Owl soon and in the meantime have an interesting blog, twitter and FB page.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to make more people aware of these - I don't want to do spammy weird stuff.... I want to actually reach people who would be interested in the service that we're building, which is "the best audio stories sent to you each week" - initially as an iPhone app.

I have started a rather fun and cute campaign to on FB (http://www.facebook.com/TheSuperOwl) which states that we'll adopt a barn owl once we reach 100 likes (useful for us and helps a little owl out too!) - it's taking longer than I thought... although it is still early days.

Super Owl is for 30+ year old urban professional commuters who are into editorial content - The New Scientist, The Economist, The NewYorker, TEDtalks etc.

Any ideas and tips are really welcome.

Thanks!

[foundersnetwork]

I think it's worth asking yourself what you're looking to get out of Facebook likes. How often do 30+ urban professionals look at their friends' likes?

Running facebook ads is a great way to get likes, but are the likes worth that money? I'm in my 20s and I almost exclusively use facebook for sharing links. You said you already have an interesting blog, are people sharing that content? How can you encourage that?

I'm not saying that you should avoid facebook, just make sure you know what your goals are and what metrics you're going to use to measure success vs failure. If getting facebook likes makes sense for those goals, then by all means go for it. If getting facebook likes isn't important for your strategy, then don't worry about it - your page will grow organically as your user base does.

[noahth]

Getting Likes isn't just about marketing to the friends of people who Like your product - although those feed stories can generate viral growth - it's about marketing to the people who Like your product. Once you're in a person's News Feed then you have plenty of opportunities to turn casual users into evangelists.

[Wilduck]

On your webpage you said that you're affiliated with said.fm. Have you tried reaching out to those users? If you're looking to reach people who are genuinely interested in your product, starting with those who are interested in a related product from the same team seems like a reasonable place to start.

[ayusaf]

Yes, we have and you're right it's a really good start :)

[ig1]

Run a Facebook ad campaign (targeting 30+ professionals who like the Economist, etc.) and ask for likes. Yes it costs money, but it can be a great way of bootstrapping a social media strategy.

[ayusaf]

Interesting - so you're saying that FB targeted ads are effective.... I have no experience of running any FB ads,so it may be worth investigating - thanks!

[ig1]

For getting likes on Facebook pages definitely.

If I was you I'd integrate my product much more closely into FB as well. At the moment the content on your FB page doesn't give anyone much reason to "like" it.

I presume you're generating a stream of audio recommendations for your iPhone app, so why not publish them to Facebook as well. Have each recommendation (or a subset if there's lots) be a story on your Facebook page so users can "like" and discuss an individual recommendation (and push it to their friend stream) as well.

Here's how I do it for my web comic:

http://www.facebook.com/theoryofgeek

Here's how The Economist do it:

http://www.facebook.com/TheEconomist

If you're a content provider your Facebook page should be much more than news about your company.

[ayusaf]

Really good examples - I agree there's more we can do, in terms of content, on our FB page.

We can give samples of playlists to spark conversation and also as a taster of what to expect on Super Owl. Our editorial team put together the playlists so it's going to be a balancing act of how much we want to give away for free as the Super Owl service will be available for a small monthly subscription when we launch.

We've been quite active on our blog, writing our own articles so it sounds like more of this type of thing can also be done on our FB page.

[webstartupper]

Facebook ads are very effective in getting fans to your facebook page. Check out http://www.axemantech.com/facebook/get-facebook-fans-very-ch... for details on how to keep your costs down.

[ayusaf]

Thanks for this link - it's super useful :)