Facebook Like Ladders

Recently got invited to a facebook page that advertises itself as ‘a place for Essex Businesses to ‘Like’ each others business pages and reach their target market’. This silly and pointless marketing idea encourages you to like a facebook page in return for likes from that page. You could call it a reciprocal like. I feel that this could be called ‘black hat’ marketing and shouldn’t benefit the participants, much like the spammy reciprocal links that have now been identified and downgraded by Google I believe Facebook should identify and remove these reciprocal fake likes.
Here is my response to the invitation to like other business pages in return for receiving likes and makes amusing reading, especially as the person inviting me runs a Social Media company, or probably has bought the franchise for that company for the South East of the UK
James This is against facebook terms and conditions and against common business sense – you like something because you ‘like’ it not because you want more likes for your own page – I suggest people read the recent information about facebook removing fake likes
Social Media Company I disagree there James. You may not require a service or product yourself but your friends list will be exposed to it and it may be relevant to them. I’m all for Essex businesses helping each other in any way they can that doesn’t incur costs. Have a lovely day x
James What don’t you agree with? one comment doesn’t really make business sense ‘your friends list will be exposed to it’ meaning you want people to like a company so that those peoples friends can see that they have liked them? Thats hardly targeted advertising is it? These ‘fad’ ideas simply confuse people and waste time by abusing a great business resource like facebook and eventually get removed / banned.
Social Media Company That’s precisely the ‘targetted advertising’ that facebook ads offer
James erm no it isnt
Social Media Company Yes it is James I have spoken at length with a member of the facebook marketing department in the UK. You can create ads from your business page which simply tell friends which page another friend has ‘liked’. I’m sorry this method doesn’t work for you but is has for me and any others. I am here just to be supportive of other peoples business and for us to all work together. It’s not new, nor is it a fad. Lets agree to disagree and again, I hope you are having a great day
James This is misleading and wrong – you said ‘You can create ads from your business page which simply tell friends which page another friend has ‘liked’ ” which if this is what you believe is something have misunderstood
Social Media Company If I can get my screen dump to function, I shall demonstrate an example ad which simply displays when somebody has liked your page. Are you using the paid ads? I started a new one today.
James Yes we use fb ads as well as Google / Bing PPC advertising
Social Media Company us too James. I fear we may bore people with this discussion here. I’m happy to continue if you want to pm me and I will email the screen dump with an example of a fb ad showing as a sponsored link that highlights that someone has ‘liked’ a page.
James You are talking about ‘Sponsored Stories’ which is a newish addition to fb ads and I assume you are wanting people to like each other’s pages to spread this ‘Sponsored Story’ (xxx likes xxx) to their friends
Social Media Company yes sponsored stories are a paid option in facebook ads. So I’m not entirely sure what we are disagreeing on. As I said I’m happy to continue our conversation by inbox if you would like to. Bye for now x
Essex Business owner I like the like ladders for the simple reason that when a potential customer looks at your Facebook page it looks better to have a lot of likers than not! I have also made several orders for things I wouldn’t have known existed through doing the ladders so it does work!
James But thats the point – if you think having more likes on your page is better then by faking it by having reciprocal likes will eventually get your page downgraded – fake likes are not good – you can buy 10,000 likes to your facebook page on ebay if you want but it makes that metric meaningless. Reciprocal likes (Social Media) will eventually go the same way as reciprocal links (SEO – Link building)
Social Media Company Me too Sarah ! I discovered beautiful personalised name scrabble boards which I have since bought as gifts, and discounted beauty offers near to my mum, which she now uses too.
Social Media Company –  James you may be missing the point. Quite apart from the perception of popularity when you are starting out, having very localised ladders is helping businesses reach local customers as Sarah has stated and I myself have experienced. If liking each others pages and discovering a product you want to buy as a result isn’t of benefit then I don’t know what is.
Essex Business Owner 2 I tend to agree with James on this subject, from a personal perspective I avoid these schemes as I feel they downgrade my ‘like’ and make it worthless, not only that but I end up with a lot of unwelcome fluff on my wall from every other cake maker and hobby business around. I also feel that this kind of activity is demeaning, either your business stands on its own merits or it doesn’t.  This conversation also breaks our rules. This is a for Business people within Essex, to network, give and receive advice and generally support each other. Please DO NOT self promote your business, there are plenty of places to do that, I want this forum to be about discussion and helping each other
Social Media Company The page posted is not a business. It makes no money. Is entirely voluntary and only created to help support local small businesses. It is not associated with any website or company. And I still stand by the earlier comments that I and others have discovered other local businesses through pages like this, bought their products and recommended them / introduced them to other customers. I make no apology for that. It’s unfortunate when you do something with good intentions and it isn’t perceived as you have intended.
James The page posted attempts to ‘game’ the facebook like system and is against facebook guidelines – its a fad and dilutes the facebook ‘like’ metric. You say it makes no money but by putting your own two companies as the first two on the ladder I assume you want to benefit by having more ‘likes’. The only benefits that you have pointed out could be gained from a ‘Essex Business Directory’ or Essex business page like this one. I also think the facebook group should be deleted as it is self-serving and breaks guidelines.
 
I was so concerned by these reciprocal like schemes that I decided to contact Facebook about them
Message to fb
Can you tell me what facebook’s position is on these ‘like ladders’ where one company likes another in return for getting liked! I for one think they are a waste of time / pointless and dilute your very valuable ‘like’ metric
I await their reply …………