Like Ladders: The Worst Advice You Can Get OR Give

What if I told you that Like Ladders are hurting your business and setting you up for future headaches and failure?

Before we go on, I can hear you already:

“But Kelly, I have gotten so many new likes to my page…it absolutely WORKS.”

“Kelly, you don’t know what you are talking about, Leslie Leader suggests them and SHE makes 6 figures a month! That’s proof that it works.”

Let me tell you why an increase in likes from like ladders doesn’t get me excited AND at the end of this post I will also let you in on a secret that Leslie Leader doesn’t want you to know.

Let me help you see why like ladders are hurting you rather than helping.

1. Empty Likes

These are people who like your page for the WRONG reason. They are liking your page simply because they want you to like their page. In the majority of cases they are NOT liking your page because they are interested in doing business with you.  Quite the opposite, they are absolutely POSITIVELY SURE that once you come over and see what they have to sell, YOU will be buying from THEM.

Empty likes are FB kryptonite. They HURT your ability to be seen in the newsfeed. 

“How Kelly?  This makes no sense!”

Here’s how:

Many people are of the false belief that Facebook delivers their page posts to everyone who has “Liked” the page. 

Facebook actually pushes your post out to a few people at a time.  If those few people interact in some way with the post (like, comment, share)  then Facebook pushes it out to a few more people. If those people engage in some way then it gets shown more and so on.

Let’s use an example from someone who is a Like Ladder addict vs someone who has grown their following steadily with truly interested fans.**

Leslie Like Ladder: 1000 like ladder fans (holy crap she’s popular, people must LOVE her product!)

Steady Susan: 100 targeted fans (she must be new and struggling in business.)

Scenario 1

Leslie Like Ladder posts about the new catalog the company has just released.

Facebook shows it to 10 of her fans. Of those 10, 8 of them are from like ladders and 2 are people she has done business with in the past.

2 people click on the link to the catalog and one comments with a catalog request.

Facebook shows it to 10 more fans, 9 being like ladder fans and 1 being her neighbor.

She gets 1 like.

Facebook does not show the post again. It has decided that this content is not something Leslie’s fans are interested in. 

This post has been put into the feed of 20 people and is now dead in the water.  Several of these poor performance posts in a row and Facebook is beginning to think Leslie’s fans aren’t that into her.

This can affect how many people Facebook shows in the future.

Leslie Like Ladder is confused as to why her post didn’t reach very many people, she gets 1 catalog request.

Go here for the BEST ways to post about new products without being smarmy.

Scenario 2

Steady Susan posts about the new catalog the company has just released.

Facebook shows it to 10 of her fans. Of those 10, 8 of them are previous customers and 2 are complete strangers who liked her page.

Since they are familiar with Steady Susan and her products 4 of them like and comment.

Facebook chooses to show it to 10 more people. Since they know Steady Susan from doing business with her in the past (or possibly having a friend who recommended her page), 3 more people comment and one person tags two friends in the post.

Facebook shows 10 more and 2 people leave a question in the comments.

Steady Susan answers their questions and in the long run gets 10 catalog requests.

**Facebook does not release its exact algorithm, but we do know that Facebook cares VERY much about whether or not your followers are engaging with your posts. If a large portion of your followers have liked your page for reasons OTHER than being interested in you or your business... well you can see how your posts might not be getting the kind of reach you are hoping for.

2. Popularity Doesn’t ‘Win’ on Facebook

NEVER assume that because a page has a lot of fans that those fans LOVE the brand and that the business is making money hand over fist. 

The participation in like ladders is really about getting NUMBERS to your page, NOT true fans. You need quality over quantity where Facebook and their algorithms are concerned.

If you admin a fan page in order to see if you can get the most followers then be my guest, like ladder away!  You can also BUY fans if you really want to screw up your ability to use Facebook as a viable way to market your business. 

Guaranteed, these two practices will have you spending more time dealing with spam, bots and all kinds of BS that is not related to doing actual business.  You’ll also be one of those people who gripes and complains about how Facebook isn’t showing your posts and only wants you to buy ads. 

When you go about growing your page the wrong way you screw your chances with FB targeting ads.

Chew on this: “Likes to your page will not help it as much as poor engagement will hurt it.”

Let me say that again, this time in a shouty voice, “LIKES to your page WILL NOT HELP it as much as POOR ENGAGEMENT will HURT IT.”

“Likes are vanity, engagement is sanity.” I don’t know where I read that, but I love that quote! Don’t take short cuts where your business is concerned. Your fan base is your foundation. A craptastic foundation yields craptastic results.  

3. Followers Who Will NEVER Buy from You

“Kelly, you don’t get it, EVERYONE needs what I sell.”

Ok, doubtful, but I can tell you who will NEVER buy from you: consultants in your same company. 

You likely had/have someone in your company who suggested it would be a good idea for everyone to “help each other out” by liking one another’s pages, thus making it look like you all have LOTS of fans.

When you try to play the social media game by cheating, it ends up biting you in the butt. Believe it or not, if you are in direct sales, having fellow consultants like your page hurts you even more.

This practice might get you the appearance of more fans, but it also opens up any of your actual fans to OTHER consultants who sell the same thing.  Believe me when I say fans can be extremely fickle. 

Instead of worrying about numbers, how about you spend some time honing your niche and posting content that they WANT to see. 

Get to know them, let them get to know you and in turn— build a solid fan base!

4. Facebook Jail

Do not pass Go, do not collect $100.  Let me guess… you know someone who has been in Facebook jail?  Perhaps you have seen the lonely inside of FB jail where you can't like pages, access your own groups, or private message.

IF you are in a company where certain unsavory marketing practices are the norm chances are that large groups of your company’s leaders have all been thrown in the slammer.

For this post, we’ll just focus on like ladders. If Facebook deems that you are liking too many pages in short succession (as happens when participating in a like ladder) they often will put you in jail which prohibits you from liking any more pages for a certain period of time.  You also get on their radar.

Can I tell you that I have been running fan pages for almost 7 years, have over 16,000 fans and have NEVER EVER been in Facebook jail. 

You CAN get organic followers without resorting to smarmy methods, I promise. 

5. Time + Effort with Minimal Results

And here’s what Leslie Leader doesn’t want you to know:

This Like Ladder bullshit takes oodles and oodles of time and yields craptastic results.  What she doesn’t want you to know is that she spends lots of time on OTHER activities that give her results and help to build her business.

She wants you to join and to feel like her success is duplicatable by simply posting a link to your fan page and blindly following a bunch of random people on the internet with hopes that they will follow you back and actually buy from you.

I have a feeling that Leslie Leader has a WHOLE lot more going on in the background and that she puts considerable time and effort into that success.

Many times leaders want to give you something to do that seems simple and easy and fast to start getting you moving.  The truth to success is that it takes time and consistent effort.

It doesn’t matter if you are in direct sales or if you own a small business, success takes effort and a little more know how than just dropping a link.

If you are Leslie Leader I BEG you to stop giving this kind of craptastic advice to your team. Instead, help them with strategies that WORK and yield results without having to chase like ladders all over the internet.

Here’s some more CRAPTASTIC advice you should ignore! 

Questions?  Disagree?  Agree? Post in the comments! (Oh and BTW, commenting on blog posts IS a strategy for widening your digital footprint!)