How to Get a Lot of Facebook Likes

Using Facebook Posts

Keep your posts short. The text on your average personal post on your timeline should fall below 200 characters; ideally, you'll use around 100. This also means that your posts will have to be concise and clever, so spend some time planning them. If possible, keep a running list of potential Facebook statuses to use in conjunction with other content.

Include photos or other visual content with your posts. People respond to visual, eye-catching content much more than they respond to a wall of text. Including photos or videos with your posts will draw the attention of people scrolling through the news feed, which results in more likes. Facebook has a feature that allows you to put a colored or themed background behind your posts—use this feature to liven up text-only posts. If you post a video, delete the link once the video is embedded in the post and add your own text instead. This makes for a cleaner, more visually appealing post.

Use humor or current events to keep people interested. Posting a joke, a commentary on current events, or even a question about something about which others are actively discussing will increase engagement on your post, meaning that people will want to interact with the post rather than simply scrolling past it. If you choose to comment on politics, be prepared for a heated discussion in your post's comment section.

Post consistently. You don't want to flood your friends' news feeds with posts, but you should try to post at least once a day. If you're taking the time to curate concise, funny, and/or meaningful posts, this is actually harder than it sounds! However, consistently posting will lead to consistent likes. Establishing a theme for your posts can also help keep your posts consistent. If you do this, make sure that you monitor the general reaction to the themed posts, and be prepared to change the theme if you're not getting the likes that you want.

Time your posts. You might have in mind the funniest, most relevant post that anyone has ever created, but it won't do you any good if you post it at midnight on a Sunday. Try to post mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and/or mid-evening for optimal results. The best times to post include between 7 AM and 9 AM (breakfast and commute time), 11 AM and 1 PM (lunch time), and 5 PM and 7 PM (commute and post-work time). Make sure that you're posting in this time frame for the time zone in which the majority of your friends live.

Engage with people who comment on your posts. If you develop a reputation as someone who is friendly and responsive in the comment section, your posts will have more activity, which leads to higher post visibility and—you guessed it—more likes. This model works best when you ask questions and respond to the answers. Not all posts will be conducive to responses, so make sure that you're reading correctly the tone of the post before engaging others on it.

Using Facebook Comments

Comment on high-traffic posts. If you see that a friend's post has several ongoing comments or discussions on it, jump in and offer your opinion! As long as you're respectful and witty, you're bound to receive several likes while the post is still active. Avoid commenting on page posts, as those tend to receive hundreds (if not thousands) of comments at a time—a comment here is more likely to disappear unnoticed.

Tag people in your comments. This is a good way to ensure that your comment reaches the people for whom it is intended; likewise, tagging several people will likely result in a like from each of those people if the content to which you're drawing their attention is interesting to them. This tactic works quite well on page posts, as you can usually get away with tagging several people at once without it coming across as spam. To tag someone, just type "@" followed by the first few letters of their name, then select their name in the menu that appears.

Reply to other people's comments. Similarly to commenting on high-traffic posts, replying to people's comments in an ongoing conversation or thread will almost guarantee a like or two as long as you're respectful. This is another instance in which humor is a great way to garner likes. Try to see what other people have responded with in order to offer a fresh take.

Post GIFs as responses. In keeping with the theme of posting visual content rather than words, using Facebook's GIF comment feature will increase the odds of people liking your comment without the potentially controversial nature of a text response. To post a GIF, open the post's comment thread, then select the GIF icon in the comment box. If you're simply viewing the comments in your news feed, you may not have the GIF option.

Using a Facebook Page

Promote your page. In addition to posting the link to your Facebook page everywhere that you can, promoting your page will make the page visible to people who aren't friends with you. Promoting your page in ad form costs money, though you can generally promote a modest ad for your page for less than $10.

Upload an engaging profile picture. If your page's profile picture hasn't been set or is a poor-quality picture, people might be dissuaded from liking your page. Establish a captivating brand icon or an interesting profile image and upload it to appear professional and like-worthy. A clean, high-quality photo will generally increase the number of people who are willing to like your page.

Make sure that your page's information is filled out. The "About" section in particular is important; if people don't know what your page represents, they may not feel comfortable liking it. Make sure that you have a concise, accurate, and funny (if possible) description for your page. Your "About" section's tone will likely depend on who your page's target demographic is, so keep this in mind when writing the section.

Ask questions. Simply ask a question on your page the old-fashioned way to generate higher levels of post engagement, which can retain the likes that your page already has. While asking questions doesn't necessarily increase the number of likes on your page, it can improve your current fan base's relationship with the page, which may lead to recommendations from those people later.