This is Day 8 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
Want to have highly engaging conversations on your Facebook page? You better get good at mastering the art of the social media conversation. How is a conversation within social media any different than a normal conversation? It isn’t! If you are going to build a following on Facebook let alone any other site on the internet, you are going to need to put in the time necessary to build relationships with others. Whether it’s posting follow-up comments or reaching out to people that have asked valuable questions or have even posted criticism, it’s important that you build an ongoing dialogue with your fans.

The Personification Of The Brand

Want to really thrive in the world of social media? Imagine your brand as a person who has a life similar to its customers. Prior to the internet, brands were organizations which spoke directly at their customers. While there was a number on the back of a cereal box asking for your feedback, there really wasn’t a two-way conversation for the most part. Thanks to the internet and new social technologies, you have the opportunity to engage your existing and potential customers directly. So what types of conversations are most effective at building an engaged fan base?

Ask Questions

Any good conversation involves questions and answers. Facebook Pages present an amazing opportunity to learn about your existing customers and potential ones. Not until recently was it possible to directly interact with your customers on an ongoing basis, especially if you were representing a large brand. People love to talk about themselves so ask them questions that are also related to your company. I happen to write about Facebook so I tend to ask users about their experience with the site and what their favorite and least favorite aspects are. Additionally you can simply ask general questions such as “what are you doing over this summer weekend?”

Respond To Questions And Comments

As you build your fan base, fans will begin to regularly post comments as well as questions. Take the time to engage with them. Any time you take to interact with the fans is always time well spent. Many of the questions and comments will be extremely easy to respond to, only requiring a few seconds of your time. If you end up with an extremely popular brand however, selecting which questions to respond to will become important. That’s a great problem to have though! Make sure you take the time to reply to your customers and you can just about guarantee continued growth.

Be Supportive Of Your Biggest Fans

Are there fans that continuously post on your Facebook Page? Take the time to recognize them and continue to foster a relationship with them. Your biggest fans can become extremely valuable. These fans will take the time to promote your business for you. They’ll reply to other fan comments and do a lot of your work for you. Building relationships with these individuals is extremely important. One way to help build these types of relationships is to promote those that have helped you build your business. Give a quick shout out to the person as a comment and they’ll typically be extremely grateful. Support your biggest fans and they’ll help support you, helping you taking your business to the next level.

Daily Task

Post a conversational update to your Facebook Page. This should become a daily habit and not a one-time event however. Make sure that you remember to stop by your Facebook Page at least once a day (if not more) to post an update.