You might be wondering, “So what is Facebook Like-gating?” Like-gating is when a Facebook page owner restricts users from viewing certain content if they have yet to like their page.
This was a pretty common occurrence on Facebook, especially among big companies. They usually force their fans to like their pages in exchange for lucrative coupons, discounts, access to contests and games, or free reports and videos.
Marketers are also known for giving away courses and e-books in exchange for likes. It is pretty similar to building an email list, though in this case you increase the reach of your Facebook page.
Why did it work?
People love free stuff, and it doesn’t take them too long to like a page. So, they were more than happy to do so to get coupons that could save them a couple of dollars.
Facebook page owners found this feature very useful. They didn’t have to spend any money on Facebook ads or high-quality content and images anymore.
All they had to do was announce their contest or offer (free information, coupons, and so on) and do some basic promotion to get the ball rolling. Discounts and free stuff go viral on Facebook pretty fast, so they were getting tons of potential buyers to their list (their page, in this case) with little to no money spent.
Facebook’s new stand on like-gating
On August 2014, Facebook officially banned Like-gating and announced that Facebook pages have 90 days to comply with their new terms.
They believe that by incentivizing people to like pages, the quality of a page’s fans is being severely compromised. According to them, only people who really like a page and want to connect with the associated company should like it—not those who were bribed or forced to do so.
Facebook says that a number of business owners have increased their usage of Facebook advertising after using like-gating for one of their offers. They believe this is because of the low quality likes they got from the process.
They might have a point. You don’t want someone who’s only there for a freebie you offered months ago and might never be interested in your business or products as your primary audience.
But then again, most of the marketers don’t seem to think so, judging by the blow out this news created all over the marketing community. Many marketers depended on like-gating to get likes for their page, and are now out of options.
Can you still get likes to your Facebook pages?
Of course you can. There are a number of tried and tested, albeit difficult methods that continue to get high quality, targeted likes for thousands of Facebook pages.
Facebook advertising is a proven way to get high-quality likes. They let you narrow your ads’ reach down by age, location, interests, gender, and a number of other factors that’ll make sure your ad only appears in front of a highly-targeted audience. But, Facebook ads can get pretty expensive—especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Sharing regular, high-quality, relevant content and images with your fans will also do the trick. Though this method might consume a lot of your time, it was one of the original methods used by Facebook marketers and has always worked when done right.
The key is in sharing content that your fans will want to share with their friends, thereby creating a viral effect that will bring more fans to your page by word-of-mouth marketing.
Like-gating might have been banned, but it is not the only form of “gating” content on Facebook. You can do what’s called “action-gating,” where you ask for actionable data such as email addresses, customer feedback, etc., in exchange for exclusive information.
By the way, in addition to trying out these methods, click this link to find out how our lead generation system can help you achieve your ultimate goal of getting warm leads who’re ready to buy from you.
This was a pretty common occurrence on Facebook, especially among big companies. They usually force their fans to like their pages in exchange for lucrative coupons, discounts, access to contests and games, or free reports and videos.
Marketers are also known for giving away courses and e-books in exchange for likes. It is pretty similar to building an email list, though in this case you increase the reach of your Facebook page.
Why did it work?
People love free stuff, and it doesn’t take them too long to like a page. So, they were more than happy to do so to get coupons that could save them a couple of dollars.
Facebook page owners found this feature very useful. They didn’t have to spend any money on Facebook ads or high-quality content and images anymore.
All they had to do was announce their contest or offer (free information, coupons, and so on) and do some basic promotion to get the ball rolling. Discounts and free stuff go viral on Facebook pretty fast, so they were getting tons of potential buyers to their list (their page, in this case) with little to no money spent.
Facebook’s new stand on like-gating
On August 2014, Facebook officially banned Like-gating and announced that Facebook pages have 90 days to comply with their new terms.
They believe that by incentivizing people to like pages, the quality of a page’s fans is being severely compromised. According to them, only people who really like a page and want to connect with the associated company should like it—not those who were bribed or forced to do so.
Facebook says that a number of business owners have increased their usage of Facebook advertising after using like-gating for one of their offers. They believe this is because of the low quality likes they got from the process.
They might have a point. You don’t want someone who’s only there for a freebie you offered months ago and might never be interested in your business or products as your primary audience.
But then again, most of the marketers don’t seem to think so, judging by the blow out this news created all over the marketing community. Many marketers depended on like-gating to get likes for their page, and are now out of options.
Can you still get likes to your Facebook pages?
Of course you can. There are a number of tried and tested, albeit difficult methods that continue to get high quality, targeted likes for thousands of Facebook pages.
Facebook advertising is a proven way to get high-quality likes. They let you narrow your ads’ reach down by age, location, interests, gender, and a number of other factors that’ll make sure your ad only appears in front of a highly-targeted audience. But, Facebook ads can get pretty expensive—especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Sharing regular, high-quality, relevant content and images with your fans will also do the trick. Though this method might consume a lot of your time, it was one of the original methods used by Facebook marketers and has always worked when done right.
The key is in sharing content that your fans will want to share with their friends, thereby creating a viral effect that will bring more fans to your page by word-of-mouth marketing.
Like-gating might have been banned, but it is not the only form of “gating” content on Facebook. You can do what’s called “action-gating,” where you ask for actionable data such as email addresses, customer feedback, etc., in exchange for exclusive information.
By the way, in addition to trying out these methods, click this link to find out how our lead generation system can help you achieve your ultimate goal of getting warm leads who’re ready to buy from you.
