At the start of the week, my Facebook page had 5.5K followers.
I have just deleted just under 2000 folks from it, and there is twice as many to go. I am hoping by the time I am finished there will still be a nice number there, but this kind of thinking is precisely what got me into trouble.
Here is my painfully experienced advice for you, kids.
Do not do things that seem easy.
Do not take shortcuts.
Do not follow the quick fix solutions.
Do not expect overnight successes.
Do things properly.
Educate yourself
Take daily steps.
Have patience.
Work on your prosperity mindset.
Trust your journey!
BE FEARLESS (which means when it scares you to bits, do it anyway)!
I want to share my story with you openly and honestly. As a Visibility Strategist who focuses on organic marketing strategies, at the start I never thought about the power of Facebook ads for scaling up your online presence. Then when my business grew, and I felt it was the time to spread my wings really, I faced the most frustrating realisation… all my organic efforts may have been in vain. And here is why.
7 years ago I bought 500 likes for my new page so I can look “bigger than I was” to prospects in my new digital marketing agency business. It was the worst decision ever as my page never got any engagement – the likes then even started disappearing, but my posts were sent out to the sound of crickets… Whatever I tried I could never start any conversations with the followers of that page. What worked on my client’s pages, had no effect on my own whatsoever… I had to delete that page eventually.
Last year I started growing my personal brand and focused on sharing my knowledge with other online entrepreneurs, so I created a new page under my own name – but Facebook was heading towards the ZERO era, so organically growing the page was an unrealistic goal to pursue. If you are not sure what Facebook Zero means, it is merely the fact that in 2018, any posts that are not used as an ad or boosted will be seen on average by just above 0% of the total likes of the page. Of course for more established brands with high engagement levels, this number is a little higher (but even they noticed the decline in their reach). For a brand new page, growing purely organically (for free) is like pushing a heavy load up a very, very steep hill.
A couple of months after I set up my new page and got some Facebook friends to like it, I have come across the strategy that promised to get thousands on likes to one’s Page without breaking the bank. I followed it and fell into another trap. I wanted to look bigger than I was… As a Visibility strategist I though no one will take me seriously if I only have a couple of hundred likes on my page. Yes, indeed, people judge the book by the cover. But in some cases, like my story, keeping up appearances comes at a huge cost!
In 3 days running ads using the abovementioned strategy, I had 3000+ likes from people based in Asia and Africa, who had no interest in what I do whatsoever. Naturally, they never engaged, and what is worse, I had some very inappropriate messages from males on that end of the world sent to my Messenger through the page.
But that is not the worst part. My heart sank when I turned to Facebook ads – and with ads, your targeting is the most crucial element – and realised that my Page insights have zero data that I can use to really get to know my audience, let alone to target my followers or their connections. What it meant that everything I did to date on my Facebook page made little sense when it came to analytics as the People data was all wrong for me. I target women in their more mature ages, my page showed males in the 18-25 age group sticking out on the chart like an eyesore.
I felt like a complete failure first time in months. It was such a horrible feeling realising how ridiculous chasing a quick win was and not building things in the way they are supposed to, resulted in me facing square one again.
This is why I always say- do not chase the numbers, kids! Why did I not listen to myself!
Numbers on your page mean nothing if you cannot connect deeply to the people behind those numbers.
If you cannot start conversations that help you get to know them better, get to know what they desperately need and want.
If you cannot create and target audiences similar to those people who engage with you on your page.
By the end of the week I will lose at least 4000 likes from my page, and if only Facebook had an option to delete more than a few at a time, or select them by location… no, they did not make it easy for us.
Yet, I am making a commitment to walking my talk, and I am chopping off these dead likes like I am the last man – scratch that- woman standing.
Quality over quantity.
Meaningful personal connections over shouting your offers angrily at a passing crowd.
Deeper understanding over wild guesses.
If you want to follow me for all the right reasons, like my page at Juliette Stapleton – Empowered Visibility Strategist – I would love to guide you! But whatever you do. Do it properly!