20 Expert Tips for Better Facebook Marketing

If you’ve been reading our blog and other marketing blogs out there, hopefully you’re convinced that setting up a Facebook Page can be beneficial to your business. With Facebook now amassing over 750 million active users, it’s hard to deny that your prospects and current customers are using Facebook to connect with others and gather information to influence their purchasing decisions — probably about the very products and services you offer! And if you haven’t created a Page yet, what on earth are you waiting for?

But creating your business Page is only the first step. Nurturing a Facebook presence that actually provides business benefits takes some work. That’s why we’ve gathered the following 20 expert tips to help you take your Facebook marketing to the next level.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!

1. Ask Questions

“It’s not enough to be broadcasting promotional messages — brands should make an effort at engaging with their audiences. Asking questions is a great way to kick off that two-way dialogue.” – Erica Swallow, Mashable

2. Don’t Over-Automate

“Don’t automatically feed your blog posts or your Twitter updates into your Page. Often, automated content doesn’t make it into users’ News Feeds.” – Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist, Intel

3. Don’t Make it All About You

“As a rough rule of thumb, post four status updates on items about outside news items or discoveries for every post promoting a product. And when you do mention a product or service, try to do so in a helpful way.” – JD Lasica, Socialmedia.biz

4. Leverage Testimonials & Feedback

“Use Facebook to engage directly with your customers and make them part of your marketing efforts… Ask customers to share their successes on your wall and get feedback on new product features.” – Leyl Master Black, managing director, Sparkpr

5. Be Human and Personable

“The most successful B2B pages often combine demonstrations of expertise with humor and personality, sounding more like a real conversation than stilted marketing and sales speak.” – Karlie Justus, Social Media B2B

6. Offer Variety

“Mix it up a little between videos, photos, questions, information, etc. Don’t have your own videos? YouTube is a treasure trove of ‘em, and sharing sites like Reddit and Digg are great sources to discover stuff people like.” – Linda Bustos, GetElastic

7. Be Active

“Don’t take it for granted that you have a page available. No matter how great you’ve made it, if you aren’t active, it defeats the whole purpose of having one.” – Orli Yakuel, TechCrunch

8. Post Engaging, Thought-Provoking Content

“Unless they’re interesting enough to draw comments, simple status updates aren’t going to move you into Top News feeds. Publish content that naturally encourages click-throughs or creates discussion.” Jim Lodico, Social Media Examiner

9. Make Requests

“Want your fans to express their views on a topic? Ask them. Want your fans to share their favorite content with you? Ask them. Want your fans to share your content? Ask them. You get the point.” – Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist, Intel

10. Address Negativity With Tact

“Should there be a negative comment, which scares many B2B companies, address it with understanding and sincerity. In most cases, transparency and listening go a long way in stemming off negative feedback.” – Dave Folkens, TopRank Online Marketing Blog

11. Keep it Fresh

“Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.” – Debbie Hemley, Social Media Examiner

12. Be Consistent

“Nothing makes for a bad Facebook Group or Page than stagnant content. Like a corporate blog or dynamic website, you need to engage people regularly. Even if it’s just posting a new message board topic each week, do something on a regular basis (the more frequent the better) to elicit a response from folks.” – Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

13. But Don’t Go Overboard

“One or two strong Facebook updates per day is better than a half dozen scattershot updates that fly by and don’t have the staying power to attract people’s feedback.” – JD Lasica, Socialmedia.biz

14. Encourage Action

“Don’t be afraid to ask users to share objects or click on the Like button—especially if you’re new to Facebook. It can take a little while for a Facebook page to gain momentum. Anything you can do to help it along will only speed the process.” Jim Lodico, Social Media Examiner

15. Promote Your Page Offline

“If your business is run from physical premises, put a placard on the front desk letting your customers know you’re on Facebook.” – Mari Smith, Social Media Examiner

16. Offer Contests and Giveaways

“Contests and giveaways should not require much effort on the part of your fans but should offer something real and valuable to them.” – Candis Hidalgo, content and social media marketing director, FaceItPages.com

17. Provide Incentives & Motivation

“If you want to get people to Like your Facebook page, and become more familiar with your products and services, a strong incentive can help achieve this.” – Graham Charlton, Econsultancy

18. Think Strategically About Timing

“Because you have just a short window of opportunity to gain traction with a Share (time decay factor), think carefully when planning frequency and content, and timing. Consider time zones – if you always post at the same time of day, Fans across the pond may never see your updates. Spread the love!” – Linda Bustos, GetElastic

19. Understand How Facebook Works

“Write for the newsfeed, not for your wall…Though some people will be led straight to your wall through a link or ad for example, your existing fans are going to see your update in their newsfeed…Remember that saying something like ‘check out our tab on the side’ is completely out of context for people seeing this update in their newsfeed.” – Lauren Fisher, The Next Web

20. Analyze Engagement

“Monitor which posts attract the most Likes and comments (eyeball), and use Insights – Facebook’s own analytics tool – for data. (Integrating your Facebook Page provides much better data).” – Linda Bustos, GetElastic