A Simple Trick To Get 10X More Facebook Shares And Likes For Your Posts

Unless you are an incredibly talented writer or you write about mainstream topics with broad based appeal, only a small percentage of people will ever share your content.

Even with my most popular posts, visitors click on my Facebook share buttons less than 1 percent of the time. And this is the case even on my highest CTR articles.

In the past, I’ve had several posts gain social traction but in general, the content that I write for my blog rarely goes “viral”. The same is true for my ecommerce store.

In fact, customers hardly ever share products from our shop on Facebook even if they love what we sell and are willing to refer their friends.

Now in case you’re wondering why very few people share, consider this…

How often do you share a post on Facebook? How often do you share a product from your favorite store?

I’m guessing it’s pretty rare. For me personally, I probably share 1 item out every 5000 posts that I see. And in most cases, I’m sharing posts to help my friends promote their content.

Without any incentive, I can easily go for many months without sharing anything at all.

Bottom line, most people are hesitant to share a page because it goes out to their entire feed. And because it’s a fairly large commitment to hit the “share” button, people often need a little push.

In today’s post, I will share with you a very simple tweak that I made to increase the number of Facebook shares which in turn has led to an increase in email signups.

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Convincing People To Share More

First off, there’s nothing new about the concept that I’m about to show you. I already use it all over my blog and I use it all the time with my kids.

It’s called bribery:)

Right now, I nudge people to sign up for my email list by offering a comprehensive 6 day mini course on ecommerce. And on a regular day, I get between 150-250 email signups.

But back before I used a lead magnet to entice people to join, my conversion rate for email was easily 20X lower that what it is today.

People need a reason to take action and people need a reason to share.

So to solve my social sharing problem, I started giving away free content in return for a share on Facebook and it has dramatically increased the number of shares and email signups for my blog.

Bonus Content

Here’s what my Facebook share flow looks like today.

When someone signs up for my email newsletter, they are immediately taken to a special bonus landing page where they can access extra bonus content in return for a Facebook share.

I’ve replicated my exact offer in the section below for you to see. It’s a working demo so give it a try!

Note: If you haven’t seen my Amazon launch tutorial, you should definitely check it out by clicking on the Facebook share button below!

After sharing the post, visitors are taken to a special page with the bonus freebies.

Note: I make sure that the bonus freebie is a valuable piece of content and worth their while. In this case, I’m giving away a very comprehensive tutorial on how to launch a successful product on Amazon.

This landing page has been running for a little over a month and here are some stats.

• 410 Facebook Shares
• 272 Extra Clicks To My Email Signup Page
• Over 100 new email signups

This is all traffic that I would not have had otherwise!

How To Set It Up

Creating this little share gate is super easy but it does involve a little cut and paste source code which I’ll provide to you right here along with detailed instructions.

1. The first thing you need to do is to get a Facebook Developer account. Click here to get started.

Note: You will need to verify your phone number in order to create a developer account.

2. Then you need to create an app. Name it whatever you want and click next

3. Click on the “Setting” tab and add your site URL. Jot down your APP ID

4. Make your app live.

5. Add the following code on pages where you want to implement your Facebook share bribe.

Note: You’ll need to populate your App ID with the App ID you obtained above. You also need to fill in the other verbiage marked between the <> symbols below.

<script>FB.init({appId: “<Enter Your APP ID>“, status: true, cookie: true});//change your application ID
function postToFeed() {
// calling the API …
var obj = {
method: ‘share’,
href: ‘<Enter The Page URL To Be Shared>’,
quote: “<Prepopulate the post message here> “,
};
function callback(response) {
if (response){
location.href=’<The destination URL of your bonus content>‘; //go to your page after LIKE
}
}
FB.ui(obj, callback);
}
</script>

<a onclick=’postToFeed(); return false;’>Click Here To Share</a>

Congrats, you’ve just implemented your first Facebook share bribe!

Other Blog Applications

While I’m currently using this method to attract more Facebook shares to my 6 day mini course, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can do.

If you want to encourage more social sharing for every post on your site, you can create a special content specific upgrade that is only revealed when the post is shared.

For example, I could have forced you to share this post on Facebook before giving you the source code for the application:)

Anyway going forward, I plan on adding content specific upgrades to my highest traffic posts to give them a boost. But I will only offer this incentive to people who are already signed up for my email list.

After all, email signups are still worth more than social shares.

Ecommerce Applications

This method of increasing social traffic can easily be extended to promote your ecommerce store as well. Here are a few strategies that I plan on implementing with Bumblebee Linens going forward.

As soon as someone makes a purchase, a Facebook share will reveal a special coupon code that can be used towards a future purchase.

Remember my wheel of fortune plugin? I can easily grant customers free spins of the wheel in return for a Facebook share.

Anyone who signs up for my email list can also have access to a valuable piece of content or a coupon code in return for a share.

In theory, you can also use this strategy to reduce the cost of your Facebook ads by increasing the social proof of your content BEFORE you launch your ad.

There are so many possibilities!

But the point is that you have to give something valuable in return for the share. And while this requires a lot more work, the results are worth it!

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Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell physical products online over at ProfitableOnlineStore.com. 

His blog, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times,  Entrepreneur and MSNBC.  

He's also a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading business publications.

In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job, which is a top 25 marketing show on all of Apple Podcasts. 

To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit.  

Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Despite majoring in electrical engineering, he spent a good portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses.