With the growing influence of social platforms in the travel industry, hotel marketers are beginning to become aware of the immense value of earning a legion of “Likes”: on their Facebook page.
“Likes” have become the new currency of social approval - the iconic system sends to mass users an instant signal of popularity that allows hotel businesses to quickly establish a level of dependability and credibility. Such value has spawned online industries where Facebook likes can be bought in bulk for extremely low prices. This new culture of buying fans however, is often frowned upon and appear to some as unethical in nature and in some cases proven to be ineffective.
But there are legitimate and organic ways to gain Facebook likes that deliver impressive results through this strategy. Before delving deeper into this topic, Island Media Management would like to share as Bali’s fastest growing digital marketing agency, we do not support the use of buying Facebook likes. Our uniquely integrated marketing strategies are the work of our dynamic team striving for excellence and exceeding expectations of large and small businesses. Trust us to spread your desired brand awareness and products or services in an ethical way.
Approach #1: Purchasing from “Facebook Like farms”
When you Google ‘Buy Facebook Likes’, you’ll find an endless amount of websites offering to deliver you thousands of new “Likes” and followers (that are marketed as “Real Human users” or “Active Accounts”) for shockingly low prices.
The cost alone should be enough for people to grow suspicious as to the integrity of these services. The reality is, almost all of these “Likes” are not legitimate fans and are mostly users from countries that aren’t even a part of your target market. You’re probably paying to seek approval of an audience that has zero interest in your hotel. This in itself might not look like a huge problem if your goal is to merely establish an authoritative appearance on your Facebook page. But this strategy comes with major consequences.
One easy way to tell whether a page has bought “Likes”: lots of likes but limited to zero engagement on a post. This can ring alarm bells with genuine users interested in your accommodation that you’re trying to influence, which could potentially lose you the very credibility you were trying to earn.
Limited engagement on your posts impacts your EdgeRank - a Facebook algorithm to determine where and what posts show up in a person’s new feed. If you find a page with a lot of likes, yet only little to no liking or sharing the post, the more inactive fans the page has and the more limited number of organic reach. This means that the business will have to spend more advertising to get reach, and on top of that, a large portion of your advertising spend will be used on advertising to fake users that don’t have any interest in staying at your hotel.
As one of the island’s most dependable and up-to-date marketing agency, Island Media Management invites you to take your business’ marketing efforts one step further. Read more about our passion and mission for success here.
