In my last blog post I provided a quick guide to creating a Facebook business page in this post I will show you how to develop a Facebook customer engagement strategy.

Here are some great Facebook business page tips:

Post consistently and always consider the added value – Don’t spam your customers with lots of updates per day but equally don’t go for days without posting an update so strike a balance.  Also, consider your posts from your customer’s perspective i.e. what’s in it for them and why they liked your page in the first place.  Doing this will ensure you stay on message and keep your followers engaged with your page.  The more engaged your followers are with your page posts the more likely they are to continue to appear in their news feed.  If a customer ignores your posts for a prolonged period then your posts will disappear from their news feed altogether and they are unlikely to revisit your page off their own back so the likelihood is you’ve lost them forever.

Don’t just post, ask questions, and start a discussion – encourage engagement on your wall by asking questions and starting discussions.  These questions can be about your products, services, a topical news item or even asking customers about the challenges they face which your business may have the solutions for.  This tactic works really well when you are struggling for fresh new content as your followers will likely provide an angle with their response – or even result in a new sale or business opportunity!

Personalize your comments – if you have time try replying personally to your followers individually (by typing@ then typing the name of the person you want to reply to immediately afterward with no spaces).  It will make your follower feel special and show the rest of your followers that you will engage with them.

Thank your new followers – send a personal message to all new people who like your page.  This may be difficult to do if your page really takes off so another tip could be to send a weekly welcome message to all new followers – you could even list them in the body of your message.  This will reflect well on your brand, shows you actively manage your page and care about your audience.

Re-Post your best content – not all of your fans will be looking at Facebook when you post your content, some might not sign in for a while so if you have an interesting post or link to share post it several times over a few days under different guises (if you repost exactly the same it is likely to bore the original recipients!).  Don’t use this approach all the time as you can appear spammy, save it for your killer content.   You can also pin important posts to the top of your timeline for up to a week, simply however your cursor over your post, click the pencil item and select pin to top.

Swift engagement – if someone comments on a status update or posts a message on your timeline try to reply as soon as possible.  Late replies reduce the chance to continue a conversation, provide a solution to a problem, or thank a customer for their input and support.

Use Images and Video  – pages that regularly use photos, images, and videos tend to generate far more engagement than pages that don’t – after all it’s far more interesting than pure text.  If you can, try to include an image with every update and encourage your followers to share your post.  Doing so will help you reach a far greater audience than you expected and can result in people checking out your page (and hopefully following you).  Keep your images and videos in line with your brand, the viral potential can be damaging as well as beneficial.

Create Facebook Offers – once your page gets over 100 likes the offers menu will appear on your page.  This feature enables you to create interactive offers to drive sales activity and promote special deals.  Everyone likes a deal and if it’s good enough will probably tell their friends about it so encourage your fans to share it and they probably will.

Limit auto-posting – auto posting your posts, tweets, and videos might seem like a good idea especially because it saves time but could lead your fans to view your page as spammy because of the robotic nature of your communications.  If you post manually you can customize your post and will make a huge difference to your page – it doesn’t actually take that much more time to do.  I have disabled the Publicise feature in my WordPress blog for this very reason.

Promote Events – If you have an event you are organizing try inviting some of your followers using the events feature.  It’s a great way to show off how popular your business is and can create hype around the event too – people can see which of their contacts are going stimulating discussion and you can create a series of countdown status updates building up to the event so overall fantastic PR.

What do you think?  Do any of these work for you? What works for your Facebook page?  Keen to hear your views,

Tags: Social Media Marketing