10 Tips for Building an Engaged Facebook Community

While Facebook is a great platform for connecting with your audience and potential consumers, the social media site is not going to do the job of engaging them for you. The audience is definitely there, but even if you have developed a Facebook dream team, actually engaging with it is a nonstop process that demands continuous testing, listening and tweaking.

What you shouldn't do is drown your community in a sea of posts and content. Inundating your "likes" with a barrage of status updates and content doesn't mean they're going to jump into the conversation by default. In fact, it might alienate them. With that in mind, Monte Lutz, SVP/group head for Edelman Digital, provides 10 tips for building an engaged community on Facebook.

Tip 1: Don’t talk about yourself. If you just talk about yourself and sell things people will tune out.

Tip 2: Be honest and respectful. Don't hide facts or misrepresent yourself or your brand.

Tip 3: Always be asking. You always must be asking people to take particular actions.

Tip 4: Find your voice and your cadence. Some brands hire comedy writers. Learn what your audience’s preferences are, figure out when your people want to talk and engage. Then test, and test again.

Tip 5: Give exclusive access. Create events and opportunities to give people a reason to give more of themselves.

Tip 6: Celebrate your audience. Put your audience at the center of your page. From a B2B context, it may make sense to choose “ambassadors” to drive conversation.

Tip 7: Reward "likes" for bringing their friends. Create contests that require people to bring their friends. Add an incentive to bring more people into the process.

Tip 8: Offer unique rewards.

Tip 9: Bring Facebook into the real world. Find ways to have your community meet in real-world situations.

Tip 10: Celebrate milestones. Celebrate and thank your audience when you hit important milestones on Facebook.

For more tips on engaging with your community, register for PR News' Facebook Conference, which will be held on Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C.