There are some good reasons why you should not “like” a Facebook page just because a friend asks you to.

Facebook LikeI have more friends on my personal Facebook page than I have people who have “liked” my business pages, and that’s okay.

I’m also “friends” on Facebook with a lot of people I’ve never met – friends of friends or professional associates. Again, that’s okay, because I know the difference between a Facebook friend and a real-life friend, and I appreciate these relationships for what they are.

However, a lot of the people I’m “friends” with regularly ask me to “like” their business pages or to “like” the business pages of their friends. I don’t mind the request, but I’m selective about following through. Here’s why:

When you “like” a page, it shows up on your personal profile.

A couple of years ago, a close friend of mine said this to me: “We can’t be friends anymore because you ‘like’ [name of politician].” I think she was joking, but I was still taken aback. Since then, before I like a page, I’ve given consideration to whether I want to be publicly affiliated with it.

I know I’m not the only person who “likes” a bunch of pages that I don’t really like but I want to see what they post. And I’ve “liked” many pages as a favor to friends and clients, to help the page owners boost their numbers. And that takes us to the second reason I may not respond to your “like” request:

If you “like” a page you don’t really care about and don’t engage with, you can actually harm the page’s ranking.

This is important from a business perspective. Facebook considers fan engagement when calculating the percentage of a brand’s fan base to feature posts to. This is why fake “likes” are damaging to pages – it might look good at first glance for you to have thousands of people liking your page, but if those people aren’t paying any attention to what you post, if they’re not commenting and sharing, your Facebook Edgerank will suffer and you won't reach the people that matter.

If Facebook is part of your marketing strategy, you should read Dan Sullivan’s article, “Facebook Ad Fraud: How to Beat Fake Likes.” Beyond the ad fraud issue, it’s good information to keep in mind when you’re trying to increase the number of legitimate likes.

And if you’re asked to like a page that you really don’t care anything about, remember that you could be doing the page more harm than good.

If you want to engage with my Facebook pages, here’s what you’ll get:

On Jacquelyn Lynn, I share articles from my blog and other sources that I think you'll benefit from and enjoy. I also post inspirational images and quotes–and, of course, news about my books.

CreateTeachInspire is our company Facebook page; we post daily inspiration, news about our products and information about publishing and content marketing.

What’s your personal policy on responding to a request to “like” a page on Facebook? Share below.

Jacquelyn Lynn
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