People worry that timeline will put their entire lives on display or require a seemingly infinite amount of time to customize. Neither of these has to be true!

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Everyone’s known that timeline would eventually become the official profile on Facebook and yet the news of the imminent switch has tensions rising.

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Not pruning your friend list can expose you to more information: Facebook’s data team says that distant contacts are primarily repsonsible for spreading data on the social network.

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Young people are using Facebook for personal over professional reasons, yet they are friending their coworkers.

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Facebook has over 800 million members, all of whom might be potential customers for your company.

That’s great, but it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t interact with those who currently like your page. 

Here are 10 ways to keep your page in your your followers’ news feeds — and in their minds.

Ask Questions

Whether you’re posting a status update asking a question, or constructing a poll, people love to be asked what they think. Giving your followers a forum for their opinions will surely inspire some responses. 

Most people spend hours on Facebook daily; this is a much easier outlet to share their thoughts than old-school letters. 

Ask something creative or personal. If you sell cars, ask, “What was your first car?”  If you just started a new line of shoes, ask your customers which pair is their favorite and why.

Respond

People enjoy giving their two cents, but they don’t like talking to a void. Reply often to the responses posted by your followers; ask follow-up questions. 

If your site receives a large volume of traffic, you can inspire fuzzy feelings by posting blog entries that address the most popular or intriguing questions you receive. You can also host free webinars to discuss topics that are getting a lot of wall time on your Facebook page.

Personalize Your Comments

Facebook doesn’t have threaded commenting, but we’ve all seen people addressed as “@username.”  Simply acknowledging the person who asked a question or offered a brilliant response will make that person feel special, and it gives him a great reason to post something on his own wall. 

You’d be surprised at how often a personalized greeting can inspire a glowing status update. 

Post Often, And During Peak Traffic

Condition your followers to expect new content from you. If you post daily, or several times per week, your readers will naturally start checking your page to see if you’ve posted something new. 

Best of all, take it to them: Post during times when most of your users will be online — somewhere between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in your time zone, when everyone’s at work. Popping up in their news feed when they’re online will guarantee you’ll be on their radar.

Host A Promotion

Many of your fans started following companies on Facebook in order to qualify for giveaways or contests. Offer something for free to your users occasionally, on the condition that they “like” your page or update. This increases your number of fans, but it also ups your traffic – your users’ “like” activity will pop up in their friends’ news feeds and provoke more activity.  (Imagine the goodwill you’ll receive from the person who wins!)

Utilize Cross-Exposure

Integrate your website, your Twitter account, and your other social media sites with Facebook. 

This will enable your clients to visit one site and contribute to a conversation on another, without leaving the original site they visited. 

For example, if you’re a microbrewery asking fans for name ideas for your newest beer, you’ll increase the exposure for your marketing campaign by engaging both your Facebook and Twitter audiences.

Do Some Good

Your page doesn’t exist solely to sell your product.  It serves many purposes, and promoting a cause or charity should be one of them.  This activates your fan base in a motivating way, and it demonstrates compassion on your part.  If you own a pet supply store, encouraging your followers to contribute to a Humane Society campaign will push them to impact the outcome of something bigger than themselves – and your company.

Maintain A Positive Image

Facebook pages aren’t the place for companies to complain about the economy or changes in the industry.  Keeping your tone light and your topics engaging is crucial to maintaining readership.  However, that doesn’t mean others won’t post negative comments on your page. Address their concerns quickly and professionally, and follow up with the posters off Facebook. Your fans will watch how you react and respond accordingly. 

Make Your Point Fast

People love Facebook because it allows them to get several bites of information in a short amount of time. Catch their interest by promising them a short time investment — post pictures when they can make your point for you, and keep your status updates short. 

If your updates inch above 200 characters, your audience will lose interest. Brevity is your friend.

Provide Information And Sneak Peeks

If your hours or location have changed, you have new products, or your policies are being updated, let your Facebook fans know. 

Your readers will appreciate a heads-up, and it may remind them to stop by or place an order. When you are releasing new products or services, giving your established followers a preview of your new items will inspire curiosity and convey a sense of loyalty. 
Your Facebook fans are interested in you; they need to feel that you’re interested in them. Reward their investment by engaging with them regularly, and take their feedback under consideration. 

They are your fan base, so they’re going to have the best insight into what your current and future customers want. You may not actually earn 800 million fans, but you’ll garner the ones who are the right fit for you.

Guest writer Louis Rix is the marketing director of NetCars.com.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Teenagers who don’t log off before leaving Facebook in favor of other websites risk getting fraped.

Don’t confuse it with the caffeinated blender drink. Frape refers to a popular prank among teens: Posting humiliating status updates on an accounts that a friend forgot to log off of.

As blogger Martyn Kelly explains:

Frape victims have usually left themselves logged into Facebook, or Twitter, or something similar, and one of their friends has written a comedy status, seemingly from them, to their friends or followers. This usually happens at parties, when someone will use a shared machine, and oh look, they’re still logged in. Boring pranksters go for the playground low-blows — “I am gay” through to “I just shat my pants.” The more sophisticated frapesters change the birthday of the frape victim to the very next day, ensuring they wake from their hangover to not just the clanging of their own nerve endings, but to the odd well-wishings of 200+ people saying “Happy birthday!”: in that process-driven way we’ve become accustomed to.

Kelly’s come up with a solution: a contractual agreement that friends can sign to promise not to frape one another. We appreciate the cuteness of it, but the exercise seems like more of a hassle than simply remembering to log off of Facebook before navigating elsewhere or leaving a shared computer.

Readers, what’s the funniest prank you’ve seen on Facebook?

Not too fond of the real you? Feel like you have a split personality? Perhaps a Facebook virtual world would be the best solution. Enter Dot Friends.

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Tech blogger Robert Scoble does not agree with the perception that Facebook users don’t pay close enough attention to their privacy settings. He thinks thinks the polar opposite is true.
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The best way to add Facebook friends? Actually knowing the people helps. The quickest way to lose Facebook friends? Offensive comments.

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