How Weekly World News got to 40,310 Facebook Friends in 4 Days

Weekly World News recently went from 3,244 Facebook fans to 40,310 in just four short days with some very strategic planning. Here are the things they suggest to get a high number of fans as well as the right fans. The full article is here.

1. Ask users to like you in an ad. This is now possible in Facebook.
2. Send users to your Facebook page, not your website. If you send them somewhere else, they will forget about liking you.
3. Create an incentivized LIKE page. Weekly World News created a tab that had a blurred out news page with text over it saying "Get the latest terrifying news on Facebook by becoming a fan!"
4. Do NOT send users to your wall. Send them directly to the incentivized like page.
5. Rotate your ads DAILY. Facebook is a daily site, so don't bore targeted fans with the same ad.
6. Optimize primarily to cost per fan, not just click through rate or cost per click. This will help you target the most relevant fans.
7. Separate into test and production campaigns.
8. Send updates regularly to fans. Facebook allows you to send your fans an email through the site. This will remind your fan to go to your page, which hopefully will generate some activity on his or her newsfeed and get you more fans.