‘Like Ladders’ is term used to describe the practice of social media managers and business owners swapping “likes for likes” on their social media pages.
This is a particularly prominent practice on Facebook where many start-ups, small business owners and entrepreneurs post in networking groups asking people to like their pages and, in return, they will like their pages back.
So can Like Ladders work?
Most social media professionals will immediately tell you “NO” – and for very good reason!
In principal, Like Ladders don’t work because social media platforms, Facebook particularly, don’t measure your page’s success by how many likes you have, they measure it by how much ENGAGEMENT you have.
So say you’ve posted in a Facebook group requesting “a like for a like” and you get a massive response – say 200 people – and you think “excellent! I’m doing so well, look how many likes I have.”
Then you start posting more, but you’re still only getting the same few people engage that liked your posts before you garnered more likes, even maybe one or two more for arguments sake. What does Facebook think of it?
Facebook thinks your content isn’t interesting to your likers because most of your likers aren’t engaging.
So your content starts to disappear from newsfeeds and slowly the whole point of even having a social media presence becomes void.
This also has long-term effects. Say your page suddenly blows up with genuine engagers who want to know about your business, you’re going to have to work a lot harder and most likely spend money sponsoring posts to have your content seen by your genuine likers, because statistically, Facebook doesn’t value your posts.
So am I crazy to tell you that Like Ladders can work?
Not at all, because they can and there are two ways you can make them work for your business.
Number One – Request likes only from people who are interested in your business offering.
This one is relatively simple, although not foolproof as you will still need quality content which garners engagement. It involves wording your request for likes differently. Instead of posting a free-for-all “like my page and I’ll like yours back”, post something like:
Hi everyone, I run an X business selling XX. I really want to build my page up with genuine likers, so if you are interested in what I’m offering, please head over and like my page. I’m also keenly interested in following pages back that seem interesting, so post a link to your page below!
This way you’re more likely to get genuine likers who may engage with your content and you may find some likeminded businesses who you can connect with and either become a consumer of or network/partner with.
Number Two – Request likes and ongoing engagement.
This one is a roundabout way of circumventing algorithms – it does involve more effort on everyone’s part however and a bit of trust.
The idea of this is to offer a free-for-all “like for a like” scheme – with a catch. Everyone involved in the scheme must not only like reciprocal pages, but also engage with all posts made by those pages.
So if a hairdresser, a plumber, a candle maker and an event planner all get together and like each other’s pages, they also make a pact to click like on every post they see on their newsfeed from the other pages and sometimes make a comment for good measure. This ensures that all of their pages receive good engagement results, not just empty likes, and allows for future organic growth and appearance in the newsfeed.
It’s probably best to start this option on a smaller scale to see how it goes, then build from there.
I hope that explains how Like Ladders can work for you! Let us know if you try either of these methods and how they pan out.
Hugo Halliday PR & Marketing can help you develop a social media strategy for your business, contact us for more information.