Facebook F8, photo credit @jimcaruso

Facebook Best Practices: Facebook Business Page & Facebook Brand Page

Facebook Audience Engagement Tips

Tips for Your Facebook Business Page or Facebook Brand Page

Post every day. As people make more friends and Like more pages, your posts may be missed. If you are only posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your community misses one or two of them. Some studies show posting between 3-5 times a day can be a good amount for Pages. Studies also show that the weekend is a good time to post updates because many people are on Facebook then.

Focus on engagement. You are trying to connect and get a response from your community. Ask questions, post helpful tips, links to articles that your audience will Like and Share. When you make posts about your audience and what they need rather than selling, you will develop a richer and deeper relationship with your community. You will sell more as a byproduct of that deeper relationship. Set aside time to follow up on posts and respond to questions on your Wall.

Have a call to action. Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post. Or have them watch your video or go to your website. Ask them to sign up for your newsletter or just to call you for more information.

Don’t Focus on selling. While you do want to sell your products or services, no one likes a never-ending sales pitch. Use the 80-20 rule for sales messages vs. content/connection posts. So if you decide to post five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and four posts will be other helpful or fun content for your community.

Make it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to have fun. Stay true to your brand but think of ways to entertain your audience. Try a contest or give-away. 

Involve the audience. Get your user audience to participate. Encourage user-generated content (UGC), such as comments, tips, photos, and videos.

Some companies recognize the enthusiasm and expertise of users enough that they let users help other users with support questions. Users often like to share expertise.

Recognize the advantages and disadvantages. Facebook is a company with commercial motives. You run a group, forum, or information page for your audience and your customers. Recognize the limitations of Facebook, including that they might change the rules at any moment. If you really want or need your own community, then you need to run on a platform you control. 

Learn about community management. As the owner or manager of a Facebook Business Page or Facebook Brand Page, you accept responsibility to inform and respond to your audience. This can be an enormous task and possibly a full-time job for one or a team. 

The community (a website) at Managing Communities is an authoritative resource on community management