8 surefire tips to grow your Facebook Page as a blogger

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Two years ago I signed up for the Facebook Page Growth Strategies* course, after signing up to the FREE Facebook Group, with the aim to grow my blogging Facebook Page and start generating an income.

AND IT WORKED! From 2800 Facebook fans at the start of 2017 to over 10k now in 2020, with six FULL TIME social media clients. It’s safe to say that this is one investment that is paying out for me.

Facebook is my biggest refer in terms of how people find my blog. And if people don’t read, then I don’t get as many sponsored opportunities coming my way which naturally means a decline in my income. The more engaged followers my Facebook page has, the more effectively I drive traffic.

*lifewithbabykicks.com blog referral statistics for 2018*

With everyone complaining that the algorithm is beating them, I am finding the opposite is happening simply from following the course, finding like minded people to bounce ideas off in the FREE Facebook Group my page (and others I manage) has seen an increase in both followers and engagement.

But why wasn’t it working for me before?

Simply because my Facebook attitude was all wrong – I was too busy trying to beat the algorithm I dropped the ball. It’s not about beating the system or paying for a gazillion ads, it’s about working smarter and more effectively to a system, which Rachel helps to teach you through the course modules.

With engaging conversation ideas to kick start the engagement on your page to audience analysis and advertising tips on how best to promote you.

All starting with an attitude change.

A change in Facebook attitude

The first step to grow your Facebook page is to change your Facebook attitude.

I stopped seeing Facebook as the enemy, as an algorithm to beat and went back to basics.

Now the course goes into specifics, into when to schedule, how to schedule, what to schedule. It shows you the lazy and the powerful way to boost your posts, to create page ads. It shows you around the back end of your insights and explains them in detail. And so SO much more! There is a FREE audience building workshop to try out so you can see what I mean.

Grow your Facebook Page — *FREE audience building workshop*

The course is open for a limited time only – but you can make sure you’re on the waitlist ready for the next round.

In the meantime…. here are MY top takeaways from the course.

Not everything I write is suitable for Facebook

When I first started out as a blogger and on Facebook I would throw EVERYTHING I wrote up on my Facebook page. I mean – you throw enough mud some sticks right?

WRONG!

Life with Baby Kicks is an expat parenting blog with one very sleep deprived Mummy behind it. Those are the posts that I share. The real, raw parenting posts that I write.

Those are my Facebook magic posts. The ones that draw people in, have people liking and commenting.

My most likely to go viral.

The invite button is your friend

When you’re just starting out the key is to get people liking and engaging on the content that you put out there.

And when they like your content – you get the magic invite button…

To find this magic button all you need to do is to click on the people who like your post and up comes this screen (when in the Pages app) invite, invite, invite away.

Use groups to your advantage

Share, within group parameter guidelines, relevant blog posts.

Part of a breastfeeding group and written a wonderful breastfeeding post – share it.

Part of a parenting group and written something about sleep deprivation that others may relate to – share it.

Part of an expat group and written about expat life – share it.

There are more places to share your posts (and remember to do it directly off your page) than just the blogger groups that are set up.

You can share your blog post links more than once

There is a big Facebook theory that sharing your links more than once hurts your reach. Time and time again I see blogger social media guides that you only post a link once to Facebook. In some ways that’s true, a copy and paste of each link again and again and people are going to get fed up.

A strategic reshare of a blog post link that has done well however – a whole different ball game.

Facebook likes content that reaches users, it wants to keep Facebookers happy. Therefore a re-share of good content is keeping them happy. Worried about annoying your followers? Chances are, if you’ve engaged the right kind of fan, they will like it and read it again. Or you’ll hit someone else. Or yes you might lose a follower, but that’s OK because you want ENGAGED followers. And if they’re going to hit unlike because you posted the post again, likelihood is they’re not that engaged.

Update the link you’re sharing with something that is RELEVANT at the time and see what works for you.

Screen shot of Facebook page — *The original post was written in October 2016, this is a re-share of that post in December 2016 with an update on the fact my 20 month old still isn’t sleeping – still relevant, still engaged*

Be relatable

People buy people. People are interested in people.

I probably won’t care that Tesco has the worlds biggest baby event* and I’m unlikely to click, like or engage with someone simply writing “Tesco Baby Event now on – nappies are 2 for 1”

But I much more likely to care – and engage – if you wrote something on it saying:

“Here’s a heads up, if your child is anything like mine you’ll go through approximately 17,542 nappies in half an hour. That’s a lot of pennies that could be spent on other things (and by other things I mean wine) fear not other owners of small people who pee and poop more than you ever thought was humanly possibly, Tesco has your back with this weeks baby event, nappies are 2 for 1.
Also the wine aisle is fully stocked should you need to replenish other supplies #justsaying”

*no idea if the Tesco baby event is on or if nappies are 2 for 1 just an example!

Mix it up

Would you visit a page that was simply link after link? Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

You’re not just selling your blog you’re selling a community and lifestyle. I know there are various pages that I’ve unfollowed because there is just link after link, unrelated to each other even, spamming up my news feed. Hiding my real friends with their news. If I do that as a blogger when I normally try to give out love and support by clicking, reading and liking – you can only imagine what your readers will be doing.

Unlike.

Unfollow.

Mix it up, share other peoples content, photos, memes, videos. If other people on their pages are liking it, if it’s showing up on your feed, then it will likely show up for you. Gain engagement for you. And, hello, there’s that invite button again.

It’s OK to pay to boost posts

You don’t need to do it to every post and you certainly don’t need to pay megabucks, I pay on average £1-3 on posts to promote.

It gives me a chance to get my posts out to people who would be interested in my page but haven’t had chance to see it yet.

Then they can like, click, comment, engage. Oh and hello invite button – they can become a new follower.

And no. It doesn’t harm my reach on my next posts, provided that my next posts fits in with what my Facebook followers are expecting from my page.

*The post prior to this one was boosted – not a bad reach for a page of 3000*

Follow for Follow will hurt you

You see them all the time. Like for like. Follow for follow.

A wise woman said to me:

Other bloggers are NOT your niche they are your industry.

Which means the aim of the game is not to get other bloggers liking your page. They are not your target simply because they are another blogger

They, like you, will be playing a numbers game and will never engage with you. Just like you are playing the numbers game and are unlikely to ever engage with them.

This hurts your page, your reach, your interaction if they aren’t interested in your content.

Case Studies

Still not convinced about the course? Rachel personally grew the following pages exponentially; One Crazy House to 536k followers, Crazy Cat Lady to 97k and of course where it all began at Quirky Momma at over 3m now.

It’s not just my site, and I’m only at the tip of the iceberg here, check out the case studies in the Facebook Group, the people who have had millions of people reached with one post, the viral bank, the tips and expertise.

Still not sure why it would benefit YOUR blog?!

From starting the course in January 2017 until the end of 2018 I had 263,453 page views. With 45% of my page views coming in from Facebook.

That’s 118,623 page views from Facebook alone.

I thoroughly recommend getting on the waitlist ready for the next course date.

I mean, when I first did it it even helped my health as I listened to Rachel as I ran.

Working through at your own pace, unlocking the mystery behind showing your posts to more people, how to get those people to stay on your page and how to really target your advertising.

Soon your page will be booming.