How can you grow the number of people that follow your company Facebook page?

In this article, I’ll share my top tips for growing your Facebook audience organically and with advertising.

Tip # 1 – Use Facebook’s Page Plugin on Your Website

Website visitors are strong candidates to follow your Facebook page.

Make it easy to convert website visitors into Facebook likes by including Facebook’s page plugin on your website pages.

The page plugin allows a visitor to like your Facebook page while staying on your website. That’s different than a Facebook like button, which takes someone off of your website to your Facebook page. Since you’ve worked hard to bring someone to your website, you shouldn’t want them to leave the site. That’s why the page plugin is the preferred method.

You should also include the page plugin on any thank you pages of the website (like signing up for a newsletter, completing a lead form or making a purchase). After all, these people have already just done some type of interaction with your company and they’ll be more likely to connect with you on Facebook as well.

Tip # 2 – Provide a Link to Your Page in Email Signatures

Add your Facebook page link along with your website link to your email signature. Do this for all company employees.

For people that participate regularly in forums, add a link to your Facebook page in your bio.

Tip # 3 – Connect Employee Personal Facebook Profiles to the Company Page

Ask your employees to add your company as their current employer to their personal profile’s work section. When they do that, they’ll be adding a link to their personal information section that others can click on to visit your company page.

Employees can easily add this link. They just go to their personal About Page, and edit the Work and Education information. From there, they click on Add a Workplace and select your Facebook page as the company.

After the employee enters in details about their position, they check the “I currently work here box” and choose the applicable dates. Have the visibility set to “Public,” save the changes and everything is good to go.

Tip # 4 – Ask Your Audiences on Other Social Networks

Once or twice a year, casually ask your audience on other social networks to like you on Facebook. You’ll increase the number of people who take action if you give them a reason to like your page (i.e. fans only specials, VIP insider information, tips and best practices).

On Twitter you can use promoted tweets and on LinkedIn you can use sponsored updates to target specific audiences you would like to have as Facebook fans.

Tip # 5 – Include Facebook Page in Executive and Author Bios

If key executives are profiled on other websites, include a link to the company Facebook page in the executive bio.

If company personnel create and publish content on other websites, the author bio is a great way to promote the company Facebook page.

Tip # 6 – Add a Like Button or Page Plugin to Blog Posts

Add a like us on Facebook option under the main image area and at the end of blog posts. People that have engaged with content on your blog are great candidates to like your page on Facebook.

Tip # 7 – Advertise for Likes and Followers

Use Facebook’s Ad Manager to create an ad to promote your page to highly targeted audiences.

Tap into Facebook’s highly advanced targeting options to reach the specific audiences you want as Facebook fans.

Use Facebook’s Ads Manager as well to promote website links and updates to your Facebook page to your target audience. A Like button is included with these ads so people will have the option to like your page.

Tip # 8 – Brand Your Page

Make sure when someone visits your Facebook page for the first time that its Timeline Cover instantly reflects what your brand is all about. Your Timeline Cover is an introduction to your brand. Make it count.

You’ll gain more attention by periodically changing your Timeline Cover. Try it once a quarter or for seasonal events.

Tip # 9 – Post Great Content and Interact with Your Audience

The goal of your Facebook content should be to get your audience to interact with it.

That means they should like it, share it and comment on it.

When people interact with your content, Facebook organically will show it to more of your audience. Plus, interaction opens your content to friends of your followers, which means you organically reach people that aren’t already connected with your page.

How do you increase interaction? The basics lie in creating content that is relevant to your audience, entertaining to your audience, and meaningful to your audience.

What ideas do you have for growing your audience on Facebook? Please share them with us in the comments section below!