What began as a simple site for college students to connect with friends from campuses around the country, has evolved into a tool that many businesses have now integrated into their social media and marketing campaigns.

Currently, Facebook has over 400 million active users. 50% of these users log into their account(s) everyday. Over 500 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every month. These statistics explain why businesses have taken notice of this social media network as a way to reach out to their target market, sell more products and get name recognition.

Anyone can create a Facebook Fan Page. However, it can be challenging to develop a strategic plan for your Facebook presence and then see it through. In order to create and maintain a successful Facebook campaign, it is crucial to dedicate both time and thought into the process. Like other facets of your marketing plan, your time is valuable. Here are a few tips that we have compiled to help you and help your business.

1. Use your website as a hub to connect multiple social media platforms. By doing this, a business has simplified ways in which customers and/or fans are able to identify each platform that a business currently controls. Another benefit to using your web home-page or landing page as a hub for your platforms is to allow customers/fans to easily recognize what may be the actual, or certified, business page. Depending on the business, there may be several Fan Pages that recognize one business/product that have been created by fans themselves.
2. Just because you didn't create it, doesn't mean you shouldn't embrace it. Referring back to tip #1; fans will and do create Fan Pages themselves. Embrace the fact that your fans are passionate enough to use their personal time to share your business/product with others. By rewarding or spotlighting a fan's dedication, you may inspire others to do the same. In return, you are empowering others to promote your business/product beyond what you may have ever imagined.
3. Actively engage with fans. More often than not, the pages that are most successful are the ones that engage in two-way communication with their fans. By posting creative content, questions, asking for comments, posting videos and photos, these pages keep fans checking in frequently. Customers/fans relate best to other customers/fans. Allowing them to not only “like” your page, but to provide them with a voice and the ability to share thoughts will not only keep them interested, but also keep your page relevant. Most demographics can appreciate personality and individuality. Separate yourself from competitors by creating unique contests, coupons, or games specifically for Facebook users that will encourage fans to re-visit often, and entice others to “like” the page.
4. Set a schedule for publishing content. Maintaining an active Fan Page can be difficult. Post too often and you are likely to lose fans, as they will get annoyed by your over-abundance of posts streaming through their news feed. By only posting material of significance, you are helping to eliminate the possibility of others ignoring or skipping information that may be of real value. Fall on the other spectrum of posting too seldom, and you risk the possibility that you are forgotten. There are no specifics when it comes to a posting schedule. You can even try to mix it up. Posting a status update, a link, an event, photo, or a video, help to ensure that content has flavor and relevance. Most interaction for posted content will occur within 24 hours and then it drops out of a fan's news feed. To take this schedule of posting even further, businesses can test and track different posting times and compare to interaction levels to establish the preeminent publishing time.

It is important to know your audience. Not every business is going to reap the benefits of Facebook. It may not make sense to push an entire brand on Facebook, but rather a targeted product or line of products. With over 160 million objects that people interact with (fan pages being one of them), 60 of which an average user is connected to; more than 25 billion pieces of content shared each month; Facebook is worth taking the time to analyze and establish a dedicated amount of time to maintain as part of your regular social media campaign.