Facebook Business Pages: Having Trouble Inviting Friends to Like Your Page?

Wednesday, 05 September, 2012 17:28 Written by Holly Yalove

81 Comments

How To Invite Friends to Like your Facebook Page

This post is a great follow-up to “Facebook Business Pages: How To Invite Friends to Like Your Page“.

After the first post I received many comments indicating some page owners were missing the “Invite Friends” option under “Build Audience”. If you are having the same trouble, read on brave Facebook user!

I hope these tips help…

Most page owners are able to Invite Friends to like their pages using the Build Audience drop-down on the Facebook Business Page admin panel.

Expand your Admin Panel, and choose your preferred option

However, some are not seeing the “Invite Friends” , they only have the ”Invite Email Contacts” or “Create An Ad” options.

If you are having this problem, here are some things to try.

Trouble Shooting Steps/Questions

1) Make sure you are using Facebook as you the person vs. the business page.

In some testing examples, when I used Facebook as the page I was not always given the “Invite Friends” option. When I switched back to using Facebook as myself, POOF! I then had the “Invite Friends” option. Since you personally are the one with friends, you as the person can invite your friends to like your page – make sense?

2) Make sure you have Claimed Your Page. If you have not, Facebook presents the “Claim this Page” option to you on the Edit Page drop-down.

3) Check your Admin Role. This option is also on the Edit Page drop-down and the descriptions Facebook provides are as follows:

Managers can manage admin roles, send messages and create posts as the Page, create ads, and view insights.
Content Creators can edit the Page, send messages and create posts as the Page, create ads, and view insights.
Moderators can respond to and delete comments on the Page, send messages as the Page, create ads, and view insights.
Advertisers can create ads and view insights.

In analyzing when users started saying the Invite Friends option was missing, my bet is that this problem cropped up related to changes Facebook made in the last few months including the option to see which ”voice” you are using.

Did these tips help, or are you still having trouble getting friends to like your page? Feel free to comment below, or if you would like custom social media consulting services specific to your needs contact us !

Tags: facebook business pages, facebook marketing, internet marketing, social media

Helen W. Mallon

Thank you for this!! Your instructions are very clear, (but FB isn’t): “When I switched back to using Facebook as myself, POOF! I then had the “Invite Friends” option.”

This makes sense, but I could not find the “invite friends” option on my personal page. Also I cannot visit my (in this case) author page AS myself. I am the admin, however. Is that what needs to happen? On which page will I find the “invite friends” option, and if it’s on the author page, how do I access it?

ALSO on my author page “Claim this page” is not one of the offerings under “edit page.” I tried to do that thinking it might be the source of the problem. I am the admin, however.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  You are most welcome Helen! If you don’t see “Claim this page” you have either already claimed your page, or don’t have the proper Admin Role to claim.
  
  Your personal profile won’t have an invite friends, but it does have the option top right (under home) to change back and forth between you as the person and you as your page.
  
  If you navigate back to your business page after switching your “voice” either through the top navigation bar or from the drop-down under “home”, check your admin panel again and see if the invite friends is back.
  - http://www.facebook.com/steve.sheppherd Steve Sheppherd
    
    Thank you. It helped a bunch in the comments section.
    - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
      
      Super Steve! Glad it helped
Wendy

“Make sure you are using Facebook as you the person vs. the business page.”
Confused. I always log in to Facebook as myself then switch to using Facebook as the Business Page I am working on. Still don’t see the Invite Friends option. Also, I don’t have a “claim this page” option. Have I been doing this all wrong all along? When I first started building pages for businesses, Facebook said to create your own personal page and then create the page while logged in as yourself. I don’t know that we even have a way to log in to our FB page otherwise.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hi Wendy! That is correct, the best approach is to log in to your personal account and then create the business page. If you reference the answer I just gave Helen on this same post, let me know if that helps!
Lisathx

Thanks heaps. I went to EDIT PAGE and scrolled down to “Use Facebook as my name” and then went to Build Audience and Invite Friends was there.
Quite simple when someone shows you how!
Loved your blog – very informative.
Lisa
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Lisa,
  
  That is awesome! So glad you love the blog – come see us again!
http://www.voiceforanychoice.com/ Voiceforanychoice

This fixed EVERYTHING! Thank you so much! I never could invite others to check out my page, and when I made sure I was logged in under my regular real me Facebook, I typed the name of my FB Fan page into the URL bar, and so I was at my page WHILE logged in as the real me, and not fan-page-admin-me, and it worked like a charm!!

You = awesome.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  You are so welcome “Voice For Any Choice”. I’m thrilled the post helped you and your comment made my day!
Edwin and Juan

We are unable to invite friends to like our page. We should be able to select “invite friends” from the “build audience” menu but that option isn’t there.
We tried the three troubleshooting tips. Here’s why:

a) In the “edit page” menu I should see “use facebook as my name” but I don’t. I only see “use facebook as ‘my business name’ “.

b) In the “edit page” menu there should be an option to “claim this page” but there isn’t. It is possible that we already did this but I don’t remember.

c) If you go to “edit page” then “admin roles” I tried to add myself as another manager but nothing happened.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Edwin & Juan! Thanks for your comment.
  
  a) If you see “use Facebook as (business name)”, it sounds like are already using Facebook as you, so the only switch that can happen would be to the business name.
  
  b) Someone must have already claimed so the page, so it isn’t asking if you want to claim it.
  
  c) Only a current manager can change you to manager. If you are already a manager you are the highest level. If you are content creator or lower, you will need a manager to change your role.
  
  I hope this solves it for you!
  - Kayo
    
    Hello, I am having the same problem with Edwin and Juan. I am not able to send invitations to my friends nor able to add other admins to the admin roles. When I created my facebook business account, I’ve selected “I don’t have my personal facebook profile”. Another word, I didn’t create the business facebook page from my personal profile. I’ve created from business facebook website. I assume this is causing the whole problem. When I log in to the account, I see the admin panels on top of the page and I don’t see “Home” menu to switch back and forth between business and personal. How can I fix it?
Haunaniw

When I hit invite friends my friend list opens up but the whole page is ghosted and I can’t click on anyone.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Haunaniw!
  If your friend list appears “washed out” or “ghosted” Facebook is indicating you have already invited them to like your page. If some of those friends have not yet liked the page, the invitation is still pending.
  
  Double check though that you are not only looking at friends with “recent interactions” – top left of the pop-up will have options. See screen shots on http://www.vieodesign.com/facebook-business-pages-how-to-invite-friends-to-like-your-page/
  
  Hope this helps!
Kayo

I am having the exact same problem with Edwin and Juan. I can’t invite friends (the option isn’t there) and not able to add other admins to the admin roles. When I created the business account, there was a questions whether you have a personal profile or not. I chose “I don’t have a personal facebook profile.” Is this causing the problem? I didn’t create the business page from my personal account. Currently when I log in I see the admin panel on top. I don’t see HOME where you can switch back and force between business and personal. Could you help me how to fix this problem so I can build audience and add others to manage the account?
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Kayo!
  
  Yes, you would need to have a personal profile tied to the business page to have this feature work as only you as a person have those “friend” connections. Do you have a personal profile within Facebook? If so, let me know and we’ll go from there!
  - Kayo
    
    Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, I do have a personal facebook. The email I’ve registered for the personal profile is different from the business account. (I am not sure if that cause any problem.) I would love to know how to tie those together. Do I need to recreate the business page? The business account has it’s own domain and I want to have it stay since it’s already linked from the company’s website.
    - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
      
      Ah! You can assign more than one email to your personal profile. I would go ahead and add the email you used to create the business page to your personal account.
      
      Next – are you the page “Manager”? If so, give yourself (give your personal profile) admin access by making yourself manager. That will tie the two together. As long as your personal profile has been given access to manage the page, that should be all you need.
      - Kayo
        
        Thanks! I just tried adding my email address to my personal profile, It said the
        email has been sent to me but I don’t receive it. Also, when I try to
        add my email from the security page, it said the email has been used on
        other account and won’t let me add. Do you know of any other tricks? I
        am hoping I don’t have to recreate the business page since I’ve already
        made several posts and I don’t want to loose any people who’ve already
        connected.
      - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
        
        I don’t know what to tell you on not receiving the email. Even without adding the email to your personal profile, did it let you add yourself (through admin roles) as a manager?
SV

I may have made a mistake when I claimed my page. I’m not sure, because the whole thing was confusing to setup, but how do you change who has claimed it? I’m even having trouble assigning new admins because it is telling me the password is incorrect. I have tried the PW for both personal and business pages for that and no dice. So, since I can’t invite friends because I may have done something wrong with claiming the page, and I can’t assign admins…what am I to do? My personal account and my business account are entirely separate. Separate email addresses, password, etc. (I saw the reply below that I can add the business email address to my personal page…and it isn’t allowing me to do that either!) Any suggestions?
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello SV!
  
  When you say your personal account and business account are entirely separate, do you mean that you were not signed into your personal profile when you first set the business page up?
  
  When first setting up a Facebook business page, I recommend first signing into your personal profile, then setting up the business page. If you did happen to set the business page up under a different email, you should still be able to link yourself to it.
  
  1) Sign into the business page
  2) Go to the admin panel
  3) Go to Edit Page – choose Admin Roles
  4) Where it says “Type Name or Email” – type the email associated with your PERSONAL profile
  5) Make sure you assign your personal profile as a MANAGER
  
  For security, Facebook will prompt you with the password associated with the business page associated email. This would be the same password you used to sign into the business page.
  
  Hope this helps – let me know how it goes!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello Kayo! Sorry, missed this one when you first posted. You are correct, there aren’t admin roles on your personal profile. Since you used a different email to set up the business page than the email attached to your personal profile, try the steps included for SV above:

1) Sign into the business page
2) Go to the admin panel
3) Go to Edit Page – choose Admin Roles
4) Where it says “Type Name or Email” – type the email associated with your PERSONAL profile
5) Make sure you assign your personal profile as a MANAGER

For security, Facebook will prompt you with the password associated
with the business page associated email. This would be the same
password you used to sign into the business page.

Hope this helps – let me know how it goes!
http://www.facebook.com/kaylees.daddy Bryan Carter

I cannot “Invite Email Contacts” – I manage several pages and I have one page that does not show the invite email contacts option. I can Invite Friends on this page, however. Does anyone have a solution?
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Bryan! Is your admin level on the page in question the same as it is on all of the others?
Fla Holman

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve been searching for this answer for days!
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  You are very welcome Fla! So glad this answered your question. Have a terrific day!
http://www.FullWattage.com/ Liz Fletcher Brown

Perfect! Thanks so much I was having this problem too. all better now
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Liz! Thanks for leaving your comment – so glad this helped you!
http://www.facebook.com/desiree.sims Desiree Sims

You saved me .. THANK YOU SOO MUCH!! I was going crazy.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  So glad this helped Desiree! Thanks for your comment.
http://www.facebook.com/lindsay.chrisler Lindsay Chrisler

I followed your tips and I’m all good but when I go to “Search all friends” so I can click on people to like my business page, it’s all in grey and nobody shows up and recent friends I’ve made, I search for them and nothing. Any tips? Thanks so much!
- http://www.facebook.com/shipra.sud Shipra Sud
  
  Hi I’m having the exact problem.. It could be that you may have already sent these people a request to like your page. Not sure, but if your’re able to figure it out do let me know. Thanks.
  - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
    
    Thanks for your comment Shipra! Those who are no longer available either already like the page or have been sent a request. Some who have commented on our blog have recommended clearing your cache or visiting Facebook from another computer or device to see if you are able to re-send requests. I plan to do a few tests on this one in future to see if I can come up with the secret combination!
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Lindsay – thanks for commenting and Happy New Year!
  
  Friend’s avatars will indeed gray out if you have already sent an invitation, but I haven’t experienced what you describe related to new friends who don’t already like your page not showing up at all with the “Search All Friends” option.
  
  When you click from “Recent Interactions” to “Search All Friends” and scroll down, you don’t see any that are not gray?
  
  I may do more research on this one via online tests and will let you know if the research uncovers something new…
http://www.facebook.com/kartikeyar Kartikeya Rawat

hey this worked .thanx…and like my pagr
http://www.facebook.com/ShadyBeatsTheFanmadeEminemFanpage?fref=ts

or search for Shady beats the fanmade eminem fanpage.
thanks again
please like my page
i am kartikeya rawat 14 years old eminem fan in india…
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Thanks for your comment Kartikeya and Happy New Year!
Marc A.

Hi,
I do have the option to invite email contacts to like our Facebook page, I’m here for a different reason. I did upload a list of about 1500 contacts of our company using this function, but nothing happens. No one receives this message / invitation. I did the same logged as “a person” and logged as “a page”, still, no results, 24 hours later. Is this normal? How does it work? Many thanks for your help, I’m really puzzled.
Marc A.

“Having Trouble Inviting Friends to Like Your Page? ”
Yes I do. I do have the option to invite email contacts to like our Facebook page,
but when I upload a list of about 1500 contacts of our company using this function and send the request, nothing happens. No one receives this message / invitation. I did the same logged as “a person” and logged as “a page”, still, no results, 24 hours later. Is this
normal? How does it work? Many thanks for your help, I’m really puzzled.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Marc and thanks for commenting. I may need to inquire further to help and will certainly help if I can! After importing the email contacts and sending the invitation did you get a pop-up message from Facebook that says it was sent?
Gail

I invited friends to my page, AS my page, rather than AS my personal page. So they apparently didn’t go out. Now when i try to invite the correct way, AS my personal account, they are all greyed out and I cannot invite anyone. Any fix for this?
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hello Gail and thanks for your comment! Those who haven’t been able to invite friends because they were acting as the page weren’t being given the drop down option. I have some pages that do that and others that don’t. Odd, I know.
  
  But, if you were given the drop down option to invite friends, and you see that they are grayed out, it sounds like the invitations did go out. I would check with a reliable friend on the list of invitees to see if they got the invitation. It could be that friends haven’t had a chance to like the page yet.
  - carrie dockery
    
    Hi, my friend and I are having this exact same problem as Gail. Everyone I have contacted has not gotten a notification that I have sent out the invite. Frustrated and not sure how to reset the greyed out boxes. Thanks.
    - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
      
      Approved
      
      Holly Yalove
      m: 865-318-7261
      http://www.vieodesign.com
      
      Sent from my iPad
Emma

Thanks, I think it worked……
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  You are welcome Emma and thanks for your comment. Happy New Year!
David Vogel

I am so frustrated. I can’t seem to invite anyone to my facebook page. It seems that the browse and import buttons are not showing up. Doesn’t matter what type of computer or browser. Doesn’t seem to be an admin issue either. I can’t figure this out. So annoying.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  David, I find the mobile Facebook versions to be very frustrating as a page manager, even the apps made for managing pages. I see that you said it doesn’t seem to matter what computer or browser, but just double checking – are you on a desktop or tablet/mobile device?
Edmond Chhung

Thank you!
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  You are welcome and thanks for your comment Edmond! Happy New Year!
http://twitter.com/MinuteMindset Karen Jolly

Thank you for the tips! I could not get “invite friends” into the dropdown menu trying everything below. However, out of desperation I clicked on “Create an Ad” and then canceled it and when I came back to my Page under “Build an Audience” it finally showed up!! Whew!!!! Hope that helps anyone else out there who is going crazy over this issue.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Karen, thank you for commenting and glad these were of help!
  
  There do appear to be several ways to get Facebook to recognize which “voice” you are intending to use (you the person or you the page). On the desktop version you can keep an eye on the voice indicated by “You are posting, commenting, and liking as_____” located at the top of the site. On mobile, it gets tricky!
  - Almu
    
    Thanks Karen, that was really helpful!!
    - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
      
      Super!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Thanks for your comment Vikki! When you say you are logged in as the account manager, do you mean you logged into your personal account, and then created a page on which you are the highest level admin?

If you are the only one on the page and are the creator it may not ask you to claim the page (depending on when the page was originally created). The problem of not being able to invite friends seems to be cropping up when Facebook doesn’t “see” or recognize your personal profile in order to give access to you to invite friends.
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Steph,

Thanks for your comment! A few people have asked that and I would love to know what others have found. I plan do do some testing specific to the email import some time in the near future due to the number of questions being asked. Did you get the confirmation notice on screen that it was sent?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Danielle,

Thanks for your comment – is the new business page for a different business?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Steph, Are you on the desktop version of FB or the mobile app?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Sandy,

I may have accidentally called you Steph on the last answer due to the user name – sorry about that! Are you logging into your personal profile and then visiting other business pages or are you logging into a stand along business page?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello! If you can let me know on the answer to the last one, I may be able to get to the bottom of it
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello there! Do you log into your business page with a separate email than you do your personal profile? If they are separate – this could be the cause of your frustration. Let me know and we’ll talk next steps!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Let me know on the previous and we’ll get to the solution
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello there! This may be the source of your frustration. Facebook allows you to have a personal profile, and then ideally you would create your business page while logged into Facebook (as you the person). If you created the page as a “stand alone” – i.e. you use a different email to “log into the page”, your page is not likely yet tied to your profile. Is this what happened?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Oooh! Good point Mike – thanks for your comment!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

When you log into your personal Facebook account, and go visit your page – do you have any admin rights – or, do you have to log into Facebook with different credentials to manage your page?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Teri – when you are on the page, does the “voice” say you are using FB as yourself?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Beth, strange! I haven’t seen this one – try sending to one of your friends again and ask them (a real friend who you can trust) what notification (if any) they received. Let me know what you find out!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Brandon, if you were able to invite them at all I don’t think you screwed up. Are they saying they didn’t get the invitation or are you just not getting the turn around time you hoped for?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Natalie, thanks for your comment. I’m getting comments from others having trouble with the email invite option so I plan to do a follow-up posted related to that specific concern after a little more testing to see if I can duplicate the problem
fred

i have uploaded my email contacts and selected some to invite to ‘like’ my page.. no-one has received any invites…? does it recognise names, phone numbers, or emails only?
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Fred,
  Thanks for your comment. A few others have comment that they are having this same problem. I plan to do some testing and a follow-up post specific to email in the near future!
  - My Grandmother’s Lace
    
    I’m having the exact same problem. How will I know when you have more comments on this subject?
    - http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
      
      Hello and thank you for your comment! If you subscribe to the blog (top right below “search” and above “connect with us” you will be notified as soon as now blog posts are published. I want to get some hard and fast data on this to help our readers and will publish as soon as I have some tips to share on the email contacts topic. – Holly Yalove
Ravell

Hi! I have a different problem as that my friends have all liked my business page but I can’t see their likes.
- http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design
  
  Hi Ravell,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Can you clarify what you mean that you can’t see your friend’s likes? I’ll help if I can!
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello Kufi. Thanks for your comment. Ideally, you want the two connected – try signing into the business page and then adding your personal profile as an Admin on the page. Once you have made yourself an admin, you can sign into your personal account and should then have access to the page.
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Mazharul,

Thanks for your comments. Facebook has webmail contact imports and other email import options listed in the help https://www.facebook.com/help/212291088790957/. Once you start following the steps there are some added links with “how tos”. I will be doing a follow-up post specific to email as well.
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Hello Masiel,

Thank you for your comment. If you aren’t getting the “claim this page” it could be because Facebook already connects that page to you as the rightful owner. Did you create the page while signed into your personal account, or did you create a stand-alone page?
http://www.vieodesign.com/ VIEO Design

Facebook does provide instruction on combining two pages, but you will lose one of the pages in the process: https://www.facebook.com/help/249601088403018/. The free option is to post on the 500+ page to bring attention to the new page. If you want do go the paid route, there are some great targeted Facebook ads you can do for very reasonable rates.
Deniz

I have the same problem. I invited people when using facebook as my page from the invite friends box in the admin panel, and they didn’t get the invitation because I wasn’t using my profile. But now facebook doesn’t let me send a second invitation as my profile. This must be a bug.

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