Lay My Hat

Since the sticky was started asking for reciprocal facebook likes, viewtopic.php?t=17383 times have changed, as has facebook.

Whilst I think it useful to get a page off the ground, I now believe it can actually be detrimental to your page to have likes for the sake of them. I have therefore removed my page from the list.

If someone likes your page, but then promptly unfollows it, so it never appears in their feed, then it as classed as an inactive like by facebook. It effectively means that unless the liker puts a page in an interest list (which seem to be less widely used nowadays and fb don't promote them) then they will never see your posts, interact or comment. That's a wasted like in my book.

I want interaction on my page and people to be actively interested, so for me, I only want likes from those who really are interested in my property or region.

What does the panel think?

I added my FB page to the list thinking it would be OK to like others as a business page which I would be quite happy to do. It gives me the chance to see what other property owners are doing (both right and wrong) and filch ideas for things to add to my FB page etc. However I am less keen to have my personal timeline cluttered up with the same info as I try to keep that for friends and family who I actually know and want to know what they are up to. I am happy to follow the accounts of people who I have interacted with here on LMH or are local to me or that I really like the look of and might recommend to others but I don't see the point of the "follow all" idea that some people like.

Just my opinion though. So if this for reason people think it would be better that I was not on the thread then please do say so and I will remove my link.

Hi Rosie, I'm just expressing my personal viewpoint on the process of facebook liking and wanted to see what anyone else thought. It's still down to the individual as to how you use facebook etc and I'm not dictating what others should do in relation to the sticky.

I think it's perfectly ok to like other pages from your facebook business page. A like is a like regardless of whether it bumps the numbers up or not. If someone hides you from their feed, the like is fairly irrelevant anyway. If that person is interested in seeing what you post, might occasionally interact, may share a post, might recommend you to a friend etc etc, then that can only be a good thing.

Nemo wrote: I want interaction on my page and people to be actively interested, so for me, I only want likes from those who really are interested in my property or region.

What does the panel think?

This bit of the panel agrees with you, Nemo .

I'm not into the numbers game and don't think the number of likes makes a hoot of difference to the success or otherwise of a FB page. My interest is also in people who are interested, and particularly in our previous guests, of whom many are page 'likers' and some active contributors.

I think I've recently read somewhere that FB itself is going to remove non-active page likers, so we could all see our number of likes going down anyway. But I certainly don't want anyone to like and then unfollow. No point.

French Cricket wrote: I think I've recently read somewhere that FB itself is going to remove non-active page likers, so we could all see our number of likes going down anyway. But I certainly don't want anyone to like and then unfollow. No point.

FB is only removing likes from pages that are no longer in use, so deactivated accounts in particular or sadly people who have died.

I am one of the ones who likes and unfollows, but that's because I don't want too much stuff in my newsfeed. I have pages I like in my interest lists so I go browsing periodically. I'm sure I miss loads of lovely stuff but there simply aren't enough hours in the day to read it all!

When looking at a FB page, i think that a page with a lot of likes looks less like a scam.
I also believe that interaction works far better regarding booking. In saying all that i really do believe that you need both.

When i see other businesses comment on other pages i think they are fishing and i don't like it.

I would prefer if people comment on mine from there personal profile!
I also like and then unfollow if i cant find anything in common with that page to chat about.

I have to agree too. I see the list as a starting point to get a page off the ground. Having zero likes is like having no friends - people will wonder what's wrong with you.

Once you have got past having almost no likes then adding more "fake" likes is fairly pointless. I see many people begging for likes who are already past 100. That's just being greedy and it won't help their business.

my FB-page exists for far over a year. never received any 'likes' from previous or future guests - only from 'friends'. might be because most of my previous guests are not on FB. i do try to keep it active, with special offers and updates, about things happening in/or about my B&B. i try to attract english speakers - but FB says: 'you need paid attention, we can provide it.'

okay. i am sure my 'paid message' will only appear for a day or so. i might be wrong - but what is the point of it?

i recently joined airbnb, after having lots and lots of second thoughts about it. their 'peer group' of young travellers booking last moment as long as it is cheap, is not my selected audience.

got my first booking through airbnb today - and am happy with it.

you have to keep trying i feel, to keep up with all the 'movements' of potential bookers.

when i started, most of the traffic to my site came from people using pc's or whatever at home.

nowadays, most hits come from people using ipads, iphones, i.e. mainly mobile devices.

when i started in may 2009, people phoned and wanted a 'printed brochure'...

I think to get likes from guests and not just your FB friends you need to persuade them to like you, by adding a FB button to your emails or newsletters. We do need to work on social media, what the future holds is never certain as the goal posts seem to move very quickly.

I remain happy to take on likes from whoever is prepared to like me I've been renting out my place for only nine months so I really have very little presence and not much of a back catalogue of guests. Having likes on my page gives me a bit of an oomph and makes me appear a little more established. I'm all for that.

I actually like seeing the news from other owners popping up in my FB page. It gives me ideas about what I could do with my page since I don't use FB much personally. I haven't unfollowed any of the pages I liked.

I agree with Nemo. And I had a recent like from someone's business page with a public comment about how they had liked my page too, I hate that. I deleted the comment and won't be liking their page.

I'm really not that good on Facebook and maybe I've totally been missing the point. I've liked everyone on LMH and never unliked anyone. I'm surprised at how many posts come up, which I assume is because many of use are not that active. However, I have often shared other LMH's posts to reach a wider audience. Isn't that the whole point of the pyramid effect to spreading the word? Shouldn't we all be 'sharing' posts to help each other with promotion? Or have I got this all wrong?

I've just been through and 'liked' all the FB pages on the list. I've really enjoyed it and have seen some great places for my future wish list that I would never have known about. There are many that I will be following too.

I did leave a comment on your pages from my personal FB page, that linked to my business page. I hope this didn't offend anyone! I just wasn't sure about only liking with my personal name and no-one knowing who I was. It just seemed a bit of a pointless exercise if people didn't realise I was from LMH. It also seemed a bit of a drag if owners have to log into LMH every time they see an unknown name liking their page to see if that is the source, so a link makes it much easier for owners to return a 'like'. I also figured that if owners had offered their pages up to be 'liked', then they would be more than happy to 'like' back?

I totally understand Nemo's point and if any other owner's share those views, then I do feel they should remove their details.

I get the majority of my bookings from FB and only have 8 weeks left for 2015 so to me I love getting likes, when someone likes my page often one of their friends see it and they also like it and so on.

Not many pages show on my newsfeed as there is now a pages feed which you can click on and scroll through, should you wish to do so.

Social media is the way forward in my humble opinion