Building your brand throughincreased likes is mission critical. Some companies leverage creative but effective ideas to garner more likes and further the sales process. But just as often, simple strategies work just as well.

Burt’s Bees keeps it simple by inviting users to “bee social, bee a friend and like the company,” resulting in a very successful campaign of more than 250,000 fans that share comments.

Taking it a step further, the company is diligent about addressing those comments, resulting in more likes. Tending to the user is a basic of effective customer service, online or not.

Speaking of the basics, simple cross-promotion still works. The Wisconsin Future Farmers of America launched a campaign to grow likes to 3,000 and met that goal in no time by promoting the FFA page on their individual profiles. The group also blogged and verbally spread the word. The simple tools still work — not as fast, but slow and steady wins the race.

Know Your Fans

Keep the conversation and happenings inviting to your fan demographic. Make it fun for and interesting for them and not necessarily interesting to you. Keep them around or lose them forever. More fan clicks drive more inbound links, which drive search engine optimization.

Use what works best for you and your brand. Know your brand, understand the demographic and get creative. You’ll like what a little brainstorming and hard virtual work can do.