How does a startup get a lot of Facebook fans?

You can advertise on facebook targeting your preferred demographic, this will obviously cost you money.

Otherwise you need to promote your facebook page where ever possible:

• make sure you make a prominent link on your website to your facebook page
• find forums where your demographic hang out and post in the forums about your page

The most important thing is to have content on your fan page that people care about, then they will like it to see your updates. You can't expect people to like your page without a compelling reason for them to do so. If you don't have good content, nothing else here matters.

Also if you have good content, once you get a few fans it should grow through the viral nature of facebook.

The answer is painfully obvious-- you need a product or service that others like. That's precisely why the button that allows them to become a fan says "like" on it. You like what you like, and you don't like what you don't like.

I think the real question here is, "How do you create a business that people can get excited about" and the answer is: you create value. Value can be many things, depending on the target market. Software developers value efficiency, teachers value sharing knowledge, etc.

Santa Clause values good behavior-- show up at his door with an app for organizing who's naughty & nice and you can be sure he will give it a try. Even if he decides to purchase your app though, it's not a guarantee that he will become a fan of it on Facebook.

Here are a few things that I have personally had success with:

• Embed the "like" button directly into your website so users won't have to find it through Facebook.
• Ask for it. Appeal to their emotions and ask for their help and support in growing your startup.
• Provide incentive. A one-time or recurring giveaway, all they need to do is become a fan.
• Advertise on Facebook. In my opinion, it works best for Facebook apps.
• Integrate your service with the Facebook API and make automatic posts on their wall. A website like Yelp could post "I just wrote a review on Yelp for business in location. You can read my review at link" every time a user posts a review- but don't spam or post junk to peoples walls and make sure they know and agree to what is going to be posted. Traffic and fans can increase substantially if you execute this method properly. It's difficult to do tastefully.

If you are interested in to get lots of Facebook fans then strictly follow below mentioned activities:

1. Create an attractive fan page 
2. Put an ad which promotes your events targeting link back to your Facebook fan page 
3. Send a newsletter to let know people about your Facebook fan page 
4. Be ready to build relationships with your fans 
5. Run contests to be active fans on your page 
6. Reach out to friends of your fans more exposure and sharing

It is important also to maintain your fanpage always updated, with good contents concerning your target public interests and also interact with users. Do not only simply ask them a question on your feed and don´t answer them, analyze what they are saying (either if it´s good or bad) and try to speak with their same voice as much as possible. The more interaction, the better the more satisfied your users will be and this will definitely open new doors for you to gain more clients.