Facebook is the undisputable king of all social networking sites. Launched on February 2004, it has now over 1 billion active users worldwide.

Next in rank is Twitter which only has half a billion users. This is an unimaginable number if try to consider it. 1 billion people are like the whole population of China!

If you’ve been using Facebook for some time, you might have stumbled upon a Facebook page. It’s the page where it seeks to promote itself and ask for your ‘likes’.

There are different purposes why people create Facebook page. These purposes can be for business, promoting an organization, representing an institution, information dissemination, engaging people, and to reach out various communities.

A Facebook page can be customized by hosting an event, posting stories, and adding applications. When people will hit the ‘like’ button of your page, they’ll be notified of the activities of your Facebook page.

Now that you know a little bit about Facebook page, you might be interested on starting your own page. The greatest challenge that you’ll face is to increase your Facebook fans.

How to gain more likes on your Facebook for free

To assist you with this challenge, I have listed the best 13 ways to increase your fans on Facebook without even spending a single dime!

1. Design your Fan Page

Obviously, the first thing you should do is to design your fan page. It’s really an easy task and it doesn’t involve highly technical skills and knowledge. Of course, almost everything is spoon fed to you since Facebook will guide you all throughout the process of designing your fan page. Just make sure to read and follow their instructions carefully. Here’s an example… this is how I designed my timeline:

I added a creative and unique cover photo to make it look LIVELY and a profile picture so it won’t look like a spam page. I also added Twitter and Instagram tabs as well to make it easier for my fans to see new updates.

2. Utilize Search Engine Optimization Techniques

When you’re finished with your page design, you must make sure that you‘re visible not just in Facebook but also in the World Wide Web as a whole. This is best done by making sure that you use SEO. Perform the following to increase your visibility.

Choose best name – you need to make sure that your name will speak of itself. If you already have a brand name, then be more descriptive so that your page will be more relevant to people’s queries. Your name should be easy to remember, catchy, and impressive.
Create custom URL – custom URL allows you to use a customized URL but this is only possible when you have more than 25 ‘likes’. This is very useful so that people will more likely remember your name. Without custom URL, your default URL will have long messy numbers and letters.
Use keywords – add keywords in your about page, description box, fan page name, and description box. Keywords will help your website to rank higher in search engine. Here’s how I use keywords on the “about” page (SEO, web development):
Optimize status updates – your status updates should contain relevant keywords that will match people’s search engine queries.
Facebook notes – by writing high quality and relevant Facebook notes, you’ll most likely attract more likes for your page.

3. Post Shareable Videos and Images

Look for shareable videos and images or create one that are relevant to your niche. Visual content are very effective in engaging Facebook users. For example, I’ll post an inspiring quote image about “motivation” or “entrepreneurship”. When my fans can relate to it, they would likely share these quotes to their profile. Don’t forget to credit the original creator.

4. Create Beneficial Quality Content

Quality content will increase your credibility and professionalism. When people read your content and they feel that the content are helpful, they’ll want to hear more from you and hit the ‘like’ button.

5. Share Exclusive Content

People are curious and when you ride on their curiosity, they’ll do almost anything to satisfy their curiosity. You can take advantage of this by offering content that are only accessible by people who ‘liked’ your page. You can also offer rewards for those people who will endorse your Facebook page.

6. Engage your Fans

When you respond, comment, and start a conversation, you’re actually establishing relationship with them. When they have pleasurable experience shared with you, they’ll endorse you to other people to like your page.

7. Update Regularly

People should know you in real time. Posting updates regularly will assist them to know the latest news about you but of course, you should never overdo this if you don’t want your fans to be annoyed and un-‘like’ you. Just post as necessary.

8. Invite Friends

This is the fastest way to let your friends know that you have a Facebook page. And since they’re your friends, they’ll most likely hit the ‘like’ button.

9. Install Facebook plug-in in your Site

When you have a blog and you have good content, people may want to ‘like’ your blog and it‘ll be very convenient if you have a Facebook plug-in installed in your website. When they ‘like’ your blog, that will automatically appear in their wall post. Installing a LIKE box on your website on your website will also help increase the chance of getting likes, since people love your content, they might be interested in what you have to offer on your Facebook fan page as well.

Here are the links where you can get the plugins:

Just copy the provided code and paste to embed them on your website.

10. Post in the Right Time and Day

The real perfect timing to post really depends upon your niche. For example, if you’re selling seasonal products, then it’ll be best to post weeks before the season changed. But in general, it’s great to post content during weekends when people are most likely have the time to check their Facebook.

11. Photo Tagging

Tagging your friends on a photo will get them interested. They’ll check the photo if they’re personally tagged.

12. Coupon and Sales

Awarding coupon and sales to people who will like your page will encourage them to do so.

13. Understand EdgeRank

EdgeRank is what Facebook uses to rank your page content to determine which of the pages will be posted in fans newsfeed. There are three basic factors that affect how EdgeRank works. These are affinity, weight, and time decay. Make sure that you make further research about this topic so that you can use this for your own advantage.

Now that you know the thirteen ways to get more Facebook fans on your page, you’ll definitely be more successful in using Facebook. Remember these tips and you’re on your way to Facebook stardom!