So, I recently came across a discussion on LinkedIn where people were sharing their Facebook Pages with the hopes that people would like them. Now, in theory this is a good thing, and a good way to get more exposure to your Facebook Page.
This question that I have though is with reciprocal likes. Does this bring any value to have some like your page just so you’ll like them back? If that is the only reason that they like your page then there is a very high probability that they don’t plan any other interaction with the page after you exchange likes.
This reminds me of all the requests I get to add a link to our site from people promoting websites that I’ve never heard of and really have no interest in linking to. If I accepted all these exchanges we would have a lot of low quality links that wouldn’t help with SEO. In fact they might even hurt. Yes link building is important for search placement and likes are important to social networking, but I tend to think that gaining 1 true fan that will actually interact it with your page and share with their friends is worth far more than a bunch of “like exchanges”
What do you think. Are “reciprocal likes” a good practice? Do you do it?
Update July 21, 2011:
So, I made the mistake of sharing my company’s Facebook Page in a LinkedIn group. Let me explain why I say “mistake.”
I am getting new ‘likes’ from the group, but what is the value? People are liking my page and then posting links to their page on my wall saying things like, “I liked you, now like me back”, “Please return the like” or “We just liked your page! Please like us too!.” The best one was “Based on your request.” The thing is I never requested them to ‘like’ it, I simply put it out there for people to see. Plus, to make it worse they started going to my client pages and doing the same!
Obviously some people disagree, but this is spam. A Facebook page is intended to be used by customers or potential customers to interact with the company. Most of us receive tons of emails requesting links or telling me about a service for which I never requested information. Where do those emails end up? In spam box.
If you have a real interested in my business, then please engage me. If you just want a like for the sake of having more likes, don’t bother. Many of you may find this harsh, but social media is not a popularity contest it is about engagement.
Opinions? Comments?
