I was recently asked to answer a question on Quora about whether a Facebook page could be banned for spamming other pages with messages to come like their page.
Rather than just informing this business owner that what he was doing would cause him to banned from multiple other pages and possibly face serious consequences for his own page and account, I also gave him a quick lesson in how to properly interact with other Facebook pages in a way that will cause community managers and fans to welcome him and actually want to like his page!
Read on to learn how to interact with other people's social media communities to help grow your own community organically!
There are a few things to consider here, first, let's talk about the pages you're spamming:
Yes, they will absolutely ban the hell out of you. I've banned a dozen pages and personal accounts doing exactly what you're doing from client's Facebook pages every day for the last 3 and a half years.
What you're doing is incredibly annoying. It provides no value to the community you're spamming, and it's also not a very compelling call to action for any fan of that page who comes across your post in the 10 minutes it's up before your post is removed and you get banned.
Community managers view you as a leech, and they won't tolerate you. Facebook also won't tolerate you. What you're doing is against their terms of service.
If enough people report your spam posts (and I for one report each one I see as a service to my fellow community managers), then you will face consequences from Facebook as a result.
You know what doesn't piss off community managers, what won't get you reported for spam, and what will compel other page's fans to actually want to click over to and like your page?
Add value in other people's communities. Find pages that are similar to your own and actually engage with them.
Instead of posting the lame "like my page" message over and over until you're banned, comment with a useful insight or a good question on another page's post. Engage other people on pages who are asking questions you can answer or who are also sharing useful insights. Share a link to a post that supports the discussion, or if you feel the content is wrong, share a link supporting your counter-argument.
Community managers would love this. Rather than seeing you as the scum of the Earth, they'll see you as a valuable part of their community. Fans will love it too compared with your current approach. You see fans hate spam too, if a page has a lot of spam that hasn't been removed, fans complain about it. Nobody likes spam. They're not going to click on your spam.
Think about it. What you're posting on these pages is their first and only impression of your page. Why would I want to like a page that spams other pages? I would expect to just get spammed too, with crap I don't care about in my News Feed. It also makes me think the page is dodgy and untrustworthy. Why would I follow a page I didn't think I could trust?
However, they are likely to be interested in your page if you're proving that you're knowledgeable and serious about sharing and discussing interesting content that is applicable to them.
Is this more work? Is it harder and more time consuming? You bet your ass it is. That's why it will actually get you results. You get back out of any activity a fraction of what you put into it. The less effort you put in, the less results you're going to get.
You know what else though? It will also be infinitely more fun. Which sounds more enjoyable to you? Talking with other people about subjects that interest you, or bouncing from page to page copying and pasting links all day until Facebook disables the page you've worked so hard to build?