I’m part of a number of Facebook business groups and often come across a ‘LIKE ladder’, which is a request for everyone to share their Facebook page link with the request for everyone else to like each others’ pages. Most of the times the poster notes that you must like all other pages, which I feel strongly against and I will tell you why.

Whilst I do like like ladders, I do want to note that I think it’s a good idea to like only those pages that you have a real interest in.

As we know, Facebook favours engagement over likes and if we have ‘stale’ likes it can actually be more harmful for your page than it is good. It would be great to like those pages that you would love to see more of and actively engage (i.e. like, comment and share) with those you like.

As a social media manager, coach and educator I advise my clients to not focus on the number of likes but rather on engagement as that’s where your strength should lie, especially if you want to convert into sales. There is no point having a like from someone who will never be your customer in fact it will hurt your business in the long run.

I have participated in like ladders and I often like a few pages and skip others because I know that I won’t be engaging in their page as I’m not the ideal target market and adding my like without engaging will mean that that page will get less exposure in other people’s news-feeds, the people that matter to that business will see less of that business despite having said the like it.

If you have ‘dead/non engaging’ likes it means that your real fans will see your posts less in their feeds because Facebook thinks the content isn’t interesting because nobody engages with it so it get’s pushed out of people’s news feeds in favour of something that gets more engagement, which is not what you want to do.

You want to be in front of as many relevant eyeballs as possible so your aim should always be to grow your likes organically and targeting those who will become your customers, otherwise you’re wasting your time on Facebook and will wonder why there is not return on investment. Social media does work, if you do it right.

This post was originally posted on the ROOOAR blog.