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Facebook ‘likes’ are quickly turning into currency for credibility.
The more ‘likes’ your business has, the more seriously consumers will
perceive your company. Extra bonus: every time someone ‘likes’ your
page, each of your updates shows up in their news feed, thereby
providing them constant reminders of your brand.

So how can you pump up your ‘likes’ to Apple Inc. and Gap levels (2.7 million and 1.4 million, respectively)? Follow these tips and you’ll soon be on your way.

Tag, Tag, Tag


In late January, Jill Homiak, founder of Presenza,
a wrap top designer in Alexandria, Virginia, posted this to her
company’s Facebook wall: ‘Who else is excited that Sofia Vergara is the
new CoverGirl?!?!’ She tagged the word CoverGirl by putting an @ before
the ‘c’, thereby alerting CoverGirl to the post. Her plan worked; it not
only caught the attention of the cosmetics brand, but the brand ended
up ‘liking’ her comment.

“By ‘liking’ my comment, it showed up on their Facebook page, which
is ‘liked’ by more than 1.7 million people,” says Homiak. “It gave us
huge visibility and we attracted more ‘likes’ in the process.”

Donate to Charity


PaySimple, a cloud-based accounts receivable provider out of Denver, Colorado is taking a touchy-feely approach to attracting ‘likes.’

“We are taking part in a month-long philanthropy campaign where, for every ‘like’ we receive, we will donate $1 to Kids Are Heroes,
a non-profit that inspires volunteerism in children,” says Sarah
Jordan, the company’s director of marketing, adding that the company is
hoping to bring in around 200 likes and, so far, is up 40 from last
month.

If you’re inspired to try this but aren’t sure what charity will
resonate with your customers, Jordan recommends the trial and error
method to see what brings about the most interest.

Host a Giveaway/Contest


On New Year’s Day 2011, Marc Joseph’s Facebook business page had around 3,200 ‘likes.’ Today, it has more than 42,000.

How’d he do it?

“I’ve been doing giveaways every month since January 2011 on Facebook
and it has worked beautifully,” says Joseph, CEO and president of DollarDays International, Inc., a wholesale distributor out of Scottsdale, Arizona. “In addition, we really engage with our customers online and ask them what kinds of giveaways they want, which inspires even more attention and comments.”

Contests are also great ‘like’ drivers. Just before Christmas, Brina Bujkovsky, founder of The Younique Boutique in
San Marcos, California, offered a free hanging quilt as the prize of a
contest asking followers to describe their happiest holiday memories on
her business’s Facebook page. The contest worked—her ‘likes’ went from
100 to more than 800 in just two weeks, she selected the winner at
random and then asked them to post photos of the quilt once they
received it—attracting even more ‘likes.’

Create a Splash Page


A splash page is a gate to one's Facebook wall and usually contains
colorful graphics describing a company, promoting products or sales.
Louis Hernandez, Jr., CEO of The Motor Bookstore, a car manual retailer in DeBary, Fla., uses his splash page to capture ‘likes.’

“A splash page asks the visitor to ‘like’ your page before seeing
your wall contents,” he says. “You can bypass this, but the majority of
visitors will follow instructions.”

Reward re-posts


In an effort to get the word out about her harp performance business, Merry Miller turned to Facebook in a creative way: she asked followers to do the work for her.

“I inspired my base to re-post a link to my love CD by offering to
play a wedding for free to the person who got the most likes on my
link,” she says. “I captured 100 likes in the first day.”

Get personal


Facebook users hate a hard sell. Endear your business to followers by
posting on personal topics such a popular sports games and how you feel
about the weather. Michael D. Haaren, co-founder of Rat Race Rebellion,
a work-from-home job board out of Annandale, Virginia, posts about his
obsession with Nutella and gets tons of feedback as well as ‘likes.’

Bottom line: remember to put the ‘social’ in social media; don’t talk at your consumers. They will just tune out.