Should Getting 1000 Likes Take 60 Steps?

This episode, Mike is back in charge to revisit Dad Jokes Daily — an experiment that began several weeks ago. Mike and hotlou share what was done, the results so far, and how listeners might be able to leverage the same strategy in their pursuit of getting 1000 likes on Facebook.

Dad Jokes Daily

Getting 1000 Likes on Facebook

The most loyal Lounatics out there may recall the Mike hosted the “Dad Jokes Save the Internet” episode of the hotlou show. He described his daily share of a dad joke he enjoyed to try to put a little more joy into the universe.

After recording the show, the Dad Jokes Daily page was born. A little while after, several of the growth tactics and strategies recommended on the show made their way into the growth plan for the new page.

At the time of publishing these show notes, there are 1100+ likes on the page after a little less than 7 weeks of applying the marketing advice shared throughout the show.

Here’s the page:

Getting 1000 Likes on Facebook

The experiment started early on with the show. It developed somewhat organically, but the goal was always to have the listener let go of this notion that building a list of 1000 followers is not nearly as insurmountable as it seems.

If you the listener are like host hotlou, it can perturb you a bit to listen to marketing bloggers, podcasters, panelists, and the like doling out advice, not knowing if they can apply their own advice to hit business or marketing objectives. For this reason, Dad Jokes Daily is a journey that you the listener (and reader) can enjoy watching first hand. Both in terms of spectating and dissecting the actions that drive results.

So with that, here’s the blueprint to getting 1000 likes.

Blueprint for Getting 1000 Likes on Facebook

Here’s what it looks like:

1. Use a Compelling Page Name

Sure, this is a bit nebulous. But just ask yourself, “does this compel a reader to want to like the page or see more regularly?” If you aren’t sure, keep working on the name.

In experiments performed internally at Evergreen, pages that reference some kind of “daily” publishing can often attract more likes. Any promise of a continual stream of the content described can definitely lead to higher interest in following the page. But if you’re struggling to come up with a name, try using title generating tools like Title Generator to see if it spits out something that sounds less like a blog post name and more like a page name.

And if none of the generated titles look good, try using the tactics described in the “Good Artist Copy, Great Artists Steal” episode to edit one of the titles slightly to fit what you’re looking for. Or look for other popular pages and see if you can find inspiration from another page and make a minor edit to the title to fit the content you’ll be publishing.

Not sure where to even start there? Try using a tool like Answer the Public to see what people are already searching for to give you some ideas of what may be currently popular.

2. Seed the Initial Growth

Getting 1000 Likes by Inviting All Facebook Friends to Like Your Page

Plain and simple, invite all your friends. There’s a “community” section in the right hand column of your page with a big blue “invite friends” button in it. Click the button and there is a small “select all” link you can click to send out an invite to everyone.

If you’re not comfortable inviting them all, you can select them one-by-one. That’s a bit tedious and it’s worth noting that the invite (unless you select the “also send via Messenger” option) is merely a simple Facebook notification, so it’s not too invasive to send to everyone.

3. Cross-Pollinate the Posts

Share posts with friends or on other pages

4. Buy a Page Like Ad

Yup. Spend a modest amount of money on an ad to attract more likes. This ad type is called a Page Like Ad. Even $10 can go a long way.

PSA! Boosting a post is not going to get the likes you may hope for. And Facebook pushes boosted posts a LOT. Boosted posts generally don’t hit the objective most page managers want (like more likes). Use them sparingly, with caution, and for a specific objective.

The Results

So for (1) using a good name, (2) inviting friends, (3) doing a bit of cross-pollination, and (4) investing $20, Dad Jokes Daily is now well past 1000 likes.

But what’s more fascinating is seeing the reach and engagement numbers of publishing frequently. The page initially had a post once per day. From experiments on hundreds of pages, Evergreen recommends that you can publish 2 or 3 times every day once your page reach 1000 like.

Dad Jokes Daily Reach

So now Dad Jokes Daily publishes at least twice per day. Of course, Evergreen powers the social media automation. But Mike and Lou occasionally drop in posts as well. Loyal listeners will know that Evergreen automatically turns off when someone publishes using any other tool and doesn’t resume publishing until nothing has been published for a while.

And look at the results!

From October 1 – October 7, Dad Jokes Daily posts reached 14,360 people! Organically!
On October 6, the posts reached 4180 people! Organically!
In the same week, there were 33 new likes, which is 3% growth. Plus it was a slower week than usual.

Evergreen Analytics Screenshot of Dad Jokes Daily post reach and engagement

One very noteworthy thing here that outlines the importance of publishing often is how the Power Law (or the 80-20) rule applies. During the show, Lou mentioned how 3 of the 14 posts represented over 50% of the reach and interactions.

The most recent week had similar results:

The top post was almost 25% of all the interactions
2 posts accounted for over 40% of the reach and engagement
The top 3 represented about 50% of the reach and engagement

This reinforces how massively different reach you will get from post to post. And that while you’d love for every post to be optimized, the reality is that a few posts are going to dramatically outperform almost all others. And if you are only publishing ever few days or weeks, it may be months or years before you publish the posts that perform incredibly well.

So what’s the lesson? Publishing frequently will help you in your goal of getting 1000 likes!