Fan Pages continue to be the space for brands to communicate with users on Facebook. As Facebook updates its privacy guidelines for personal use and fan pages, engagement strategies will become modified to suit the needs and constraints of the service.

Initiate and Drive Dialogue

Interesting fact: If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest with over 350 million users. Tapping into this consumer base provides brands with an opportunity to engage with consumers where they want and, more importantly, where they are. Facebook should not be viewed as a one-way content distribution platform — it’s about sharing exciting content, both branded and unbranded, listening to fans’ thoughts and opinions and continuing the conversation through appropriate responses.

While traditional customer relationship management (CRM) processes are still relevant and important for a brand’s success, social media has changed the way a brand interacts with its audience. From a CRM standpoint, Facebook allows companies to make it personal for the consumer by acknowledging their complaint and providing a solution in a timely manner.

Cost-per-click (CPC) advertising works wonders in increasing a brand’s fan base. CPC ads on Facebook are extremely cost effective, and can be targeted by geography, interests, age and relationship status among others.

Share Varied Content

Fans will turn a blind eye to pages that only share cookie-cutter brand messaging — “buy this, use that.” Brands have an opportunity to strengthen relationships by sharing relevant content with pass-along value, such as videos and photos. We’ve found that this type of content encourages fans to interact both with the brand and with each other, consequently fostering a community built around the brand’s presence on Facebook.

Facebook provides a variety of tools to make engagement interesting and keep fans guessing what the brand will share next. It’s important for brands to take advantage of these tools — sharing content through status updates, photos, videos, notes and polls – piquing fan curiosity and bringing them back to the page.

Connect With Online Communities

Facebook pages work best if they don’t stand alone. After all, the point of having a presence on Facebook and other social networks is engaging fans in their preferred venues. With this in mind, be proactive by alerting fans to other online spaces where the brand is represented such as the corporate page, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

Increase the knowledge of these communities by integrating media into the fan page. For example, post a link to the brand’s official Flickr page in the mini-feed, allowing fans to comment and “like” the content shared.

Monitor Growth

Facebook Fan Pages provide basic yet comprehensive analytics to measure interactions, fan growth, page views and advertising click-throughs, among other things. By closely evaluating the data, page administrators can measure growth against benchmarks, identify best practices and track initiatives that drive the most fan interaction.

Earn and Maintain Trust

Trust is hard to earn and so easy to lose. Fans are attracted to pages where the following principles are practiced:

Gabi Reynolds Edelman Digital, Chicago Follow on twitter @gmreynolds

Archana Ramachandran Edelman Digital, Chicago Follow on twitter @archana