Like for Like ~ Building Social Media

I am a part of quite a few bloggers groups on Facebook now and all of these groups run variations on this Like for a Like posts to help members build their social media presence. But I have mixed feelings about these types of post and I think bloggers should really think about how useful these will actually be to their own marketing plans.

What are Like for Like posts?

Like for like posts are basically exchanging engagement. If you like someone’s post, they will like one of yours back. These are also seen for follow for a follow.

Where can you find these posts?

Some people share these posts directly onto their social account, but the majority of the ones I see are in bloggers facebook groups. On the group posts, you usually can only share 1 post each time and normally have to go and like a certain amount of other peoples posts.

Why can these posts be good?

Due to how many social media algorithms work, the more people who interact with your content the more people will see it. For example, if one of my friends comments on a post, I am quite likely to see it in my feed, even if I don’t follow the account who wrote the post. So taking part in these like for like posts will increase how many people see your posts.

Not only that, but you can also find more accounts you might genuinely want to follow. I know that when I am struggling with inspiration, browsing through fellow bloggers posts can really inspire me to create new content.

What are the limitations?

Because you will tend to stick to the same communities for these types of post, you will have the same people interacting with your posts each time. This means that in theory, after a while you will not be reaching any new people by taking part in these posts.

I also feel that while this might help you build up a bit of a following on social media, I don’t feel that these types of strategy help improve engagement long term. If the vast majority of people are only engaging with you because you are returning the favour, then are they really interested in your content? Probably not.

It can also be quite a bit of work to keep up with all these posts and go through and like back all the people who have interacted with you. This time could be better spent creating content people actually want to see!

Should you use these strategies?

I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t use these posts. I do occasionally use them if I have a really interesting bit of content I think might do well with a bit of extra exposure. It can also be a good way to discover other blogs you might enjoy and inspire you.

However, I don’t think you should rely on them to improve your following, engagement and traffic to your blog. They can be a great tool when used correctly to build on what you already have, but if you don’t have good content, then it will give you hollow results. It may look like that your following and engagement is improving, but is it really bringing more people to your blog?

Last Updated on 19/10/2018