Here's the Science Behind Asking Fans to LIKE Your Facebook Posts

You may disagree with the following statement, but I stand by it 100%:

Your #1 Goal on Social Media (whether on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, or Instagram) is to Get People to Take Action. ~Scott Ayres

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If you're not getting people to take action on social media, then you're just killing time.

And don't get me wrong -- killing time ain't always a bad thing.

But for those of you reading this blog because you're running a business & want to use social media to grow it -- well, let's just say you're not in social media for the cat memes.

So How do you Get People to Take Action?

Easy. Ask them.

Sure you can come up with awesome, engaging posts to get your fans to do things -- but sometimes "engaging" just means including a call-to-action or CTA.

Yep, by far the easiest way to get your fans & followers to take action is by adding a clear CTA to your posts.

Why?

Because people need direction. As Zig Ziglar said:

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

This is true in so many contexts -- how you get work done, how you raise your kids, and yes, how you post on Facebook or Twitter.

And now we have some data to back the claim up.

Dan Zarella from Hubspot recently published his findings from a study of over 2.7 million tweets. In it, he analyzed the use of CTA's & their relationship to a tweet getting "retweeted".

He found 7 words & phrases that made people retweet posts at higher rates:

How Does This Apply to Facebook Pages?

Obviously you're not going to use "Retweet" or "RT" in your Facebook posts -- but you can still apply the lessons learned here.

Just use "Share" or "Like" instead of "Retweet" or "RT".

Actually, Dan published another study on Hubspot in November of 2012 discussing this very topic:

So there you go!

Further proof that having a clear call-to-action in your posts tends to increase engagement -- which in turn increases Edgerank.

Luckily for you, Post Planner has a whole category devoted to CTA's in our Status Ideas Engine.

The category is called "Ask for Likes/Comments". Check it out HERE.

And don't forget to do your part to help others find my blog post by:

• Tweeting this
• clicking "Like"
• "Sharing" this post with your fans & followers

See what I just did there? :P