Getting Facebook fans is one of the biggest goals for many local businesses participating in social media. Unfortunately, getting fans and keeping them are two different things that require two different approaches.

According to a study by advertising firm DDB, 40% of Facebook fans are likely to unsubscribe from a business page they have previously Liked (source: AllFacebook.com.)

It’s relatively easy to offer a discount or something of value in return for a Like, but how do you turn those new fans into real customers and keep them from unsubscribing?

First you need to understand why people Like your Facebook page and why they Unlike it. According to the DDB study:

• 49% Unlike because they are not interested in the brand
• 46% Unlike because they are not interested in the content
• 36% unsubscribe because content is published too often
• 27% unsubscribe because they don’t appreciate the content being offered
• 14% Unlike a page if content is not posted often enough

According to a separate study by ExactTarget and CoTweet (source: ExactTarget), 26% of fans only Liked a page for the sole purpose of getting a one-time discount or offer.

There are a myriad of reasons fans may unsubscribe from your page but there are a lot of things you can do to stop a Facebook fan exodus.

Offer Value: The cold reality is that no one cares about 99.9% of the businesses marketing themselves on Facebook. No one is going to Like your page or continue visiting your page just because it is there. To break through the clutter, you need to offer something of actual use to fans. Discounts and offers are the most popular but useful content, helpful advice, compelling explanations, and entertaining takes are all ways to offer something that will interest and engage your fans.

Produce Less Content: Content is still king but small businesses are pumping out so much low-quality content these days that the quantity of content can actually hurt. As you can see in the research data above, more than a third of existing Facebook fans unsubscribe because content is published too often. Find the happy medium between the 36% that dislike high frequency and the 14% that dislike low frequency through testing and analyzing your page trends.

Be Personal: The worst thing about large brands is they are hugely impersonal. As a small business, you are not getting a ton of feedback from “the public”. You should use your size to your advantage by being more personal with your fans – “Thanks @John and @Mary” is a lot more engaging than “Thanks to everyone”.

Stop Selling: Facebook can be a great marketing tool but outside of offering steep discounts, it has not proven to be a great sales tool. The goal of your Facebook page should be to create leads and spark interest in your business, not a hard sell.