It goes without saying that you should be replying to comments and keeping the conversation going on Facebook. One of the best ways to boost fan numbers and engagement is to ask questions and lead discussions yourself, by posting interesting content that makes people want to chime in. There’s nothing greater than seeing a single Facebook post that has hundreds or even thousands of comments. But that can also make them hard to manage or even read.

For many pages, this giant comment thread might not be a daily issue. But how do you ensure that your fans know you are responding to them, even when there are just a few comments to sift through? There is a lot of competition for attention on Facebook, and most people don’t visit an actual fan page very often; they only see its content in their Newsfeed. But you can ensure that your fans see your reply simply by using the @ tag.

Reply Directly to Fans With The @ Tag

You’ve probably used an @mention to reply on Twitter, and you may have tagged a friend on Facebook from your personal profile. But did you know that you can do the same on Facebook as a page? As you read through the posts and comments on your page’s Facebook wall and find fans you want to reply to, use the @tag. Simply type the “@” sign and then start typing the first name of the person you are replying to. Their profile icon and name will pop up below the post. Click on it to insert a clickable link to their name, which also send them an alert that you mentioned them.

It’s very simple, but highly effective. Email has proved again and again that using a person’s name in the subject line increases open rates. This works on the same principle, while also sending the fan a notification and a link back to the page. This is especially useful for older posts, where the fan may have forgotten to check, or on busy pages where content gets pushed down quickly. Above all else, it makes the fan feel special since you are explicitly calling them out by name and remembering to respond to them.

Try it out on your page. Often, you’ll get even more comments from the people you’ve tagged as they begin to feel a stronger connection to your brand and to your Facebook presence.

Sound like you? You’re not alone. Without naming names, I can assure you that there are some big name companies whose Facebook pages are currently gathering dust. And whether you have 10 employees or 10,000, the issue remains the same: Facebook is seen as a quick fix, an add-on to existing marketing strategies. To really succeed, you’ll need to break out of that mindset and understand what makes Facebook work. Then you can start to figure out your goals and how to achieve them.

Ready to dive back into your page? Follow these four tips below and you’ll start to see the results you were expecting from Facebook. Just don’t expect miracles overnight. It takes time to build a community, and there is a lot of competition on Facebook. After all, your posts are showing up next to not only your direct competitors in the real world, but also all of your fans’ friends and family members on the site as well.

Do It Right

Brands need Facebook pages. Period. Profiles are for personal use, for sharing photos of your cute cat or new nephew. If you are using Facebook for business, to drive leads, sales or engage in any type of marketing, you need a page. Even if you’re a lawyer, a doctor, a real estate agent or some other type of “individual personality” in business. Celebrities and politicians use pages for business; you should too.

That’s not to say you can’t make it personal, too. Share behind-the-scenes photos and insider info. Give fans a glimpse behind the curtain. This works especially well for larger companies, which can be kind of a mystery, and individuals (such as real estate agents) who can easily share personal info.

Customize Your Content

Automated tools (such as RSS apps that post right to your page’s feed) are tempting, especially when you are first starting a Facebook page and don’t have the results yet to justify an actual person manning the page every day. But Facebook  users are smart. And they don’t respond as well to automated posts as they do to manual content posted by an actual human. In fact, Facebook used to devalue automated content in their EdgeRank algorithm.

Facebook claims that all content is now considered equal, but automated content can still be problematic. They can break, and you might not know your content is no longer being imported. They can format funny, or post at odd hours when your fans may not be on Facebook. And above all else, they draw attention to the fact that you did not post that update by hand. Plus, there’s no chance for editing, so you are stuck with whatever the app grabbed for you. These tools can be useful when used in conjunction with handcrafted posts, but you need to be able to customize content and create timely posts based on what’s happening right now.

Tell It Like It Is

One of the major drawbacks of automated tools, as outlined above, is the page administrator’s inability to edit updates before they post to the wall. That means you lose a valuable opportunity to add directives to the post. Because what works on your blog or Twitter page might not fly on Facebook. Again, these are separate sites and different pieces of your marketing strategy. Respect and embrace what makes each site unique and put it to work for you. On Facebook, this means getting “likes” and comments. And the best way to do that is to explicitly ask for them.

There is a lot going on on Facebook. The average Facebook user is connected to 80 pages, groups and events–not to mention friends. (They average 130 pals, for a total of 210 entities they can interact with on Facebook at any given time.) Your posts need to break through this clutter, hold a fan’s attention and get them to take an action on the update to keep your EdgeRank up and allow them to keep viewing your posts in the Newsfeed. You have limited space to convince them, so get to the point: if you want them to “like” or comment, say so. You can’t afford to beat around the bush.

Get Others Involved

Facebook doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it shouldn’t be your answer to everything. Remember, you own your website and the content on it; you’re just borrowing Facebook’s space for your page. So while the social network might provide a lot of cool features and existing database of users, don’t discount your website, email list and other social sites.

If your fan count has stagnated, bringing other sites in can be the quickest way to get those numbers moving again. Make sure you’ve got “like” buttons on your site, and try to incorporate specific posts about Facebook on your blog. Send an email blast asking people to “like” the page and create a new promotion to breathe some life into the page.

Above all else, remember that content reigns supreme on Facebook. But “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply here. Just because you’ve got great content doesn’t mean your fans will multiply overnight. Work on building engagement, and look at new ways to drive traffic to your page.

Allow Facebook Page Comments

By now, most brands have joined the Facebook bandwagon and created a page. But as they deal with the realities of the good (and bad) of having such open and public communications with both fans and foes, a few have decided to take a step back and use social media as a broadcast platform rather than a two-way communication channel. It sounds like a good idea: lock down the Facebook page comments and get your content out there, without having to deal with messy complaints. Wrong. When you don’t allow people to sing your praises, and your faults, you create a distrustful community who immediately thinks you have something to hide. Allow fans to voice their opinion, within reason, and moderate the page instead of putting it on auto pilot. Respond to criticism, offer assistance and only turn off or delete comments when they take a turn for the threatening or extremely abusive.

Don’t Start Tweets With @ Unless It’s a Reply

It sounds so simple. But many people still haven’t figured out that when you start a tweet with an @ sign, only your follower who are also following that mentioned account will see the tweet in their stream. Want to shout someone out, for good or bad? To make sure everyone sees it, you need to reword the tweet to start with something other than an @. This is especially important when you are trying to draw attention to a new or “undiscovered” Twitter account. Also? If you’re pulling tweets into Facebook, any that start with @ won’t be included. @ mentions are a great feature, but keep in mind how they work and the goal of your tweet before you hit send.

Learn How To Request a LinkedIn Connection

LinkedIn is great for meeting potential clients, employers and fellow social media marketers. But just because it’s online doesn’t mean that first impressions aren’t important–perhaps even more so since you are relying on a website to show your best self. So please, take a moment to send a connection request that doesn’t feel canned. LinkedIn let’s you personalize the message text, so you can (and should) add a personal note for each connection. Or at the very least, write your own version that goes to everyone and isn’t the standard stock greeting. And above all else, don’t lie. Take 2 seconds to select how you know the person (school, work, common group, etc.) And if you don’t actually know them, explain why you are asking to connect. There’s nothing more annoying than having to track down who you are or wonder where we might have met.

There are a lot of social media marketing lessons wrapped up in the official kick-off to the holiday season. And I don’t just mean the obvious “post deals on Facebook and Twitter.” The very nature of the holiday shopping weekend is based on some tried and true marketing principles that can–and should–be applied to social media marketing all year round.

Create a Hook

This whole whirlwind weekend of retail therapy started with Black Friday. As online shopping became a bigger and bigger facet of our day-to-day, etailers jumped to get on the bandwagon, while brick and mortars upped the ante with different in-store and online-only offers. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday monikers stuck, creating ad campaigns and trending topics for themselves. Now, people look forward to it every year. And it just keeps getting bigger. Think about how you could do that yourself on your social channels. Create branded or themed posts that recur week after week and keep people coming back.

Be Consistent

Once you’ve got your hook, keep delivering on it. Simple works. In the crowded social marketplace, you need something that is easy to remember and can help you stand out from the noise. When people know what to look for, it’s easier to pick out of the crowd. A Black Friday ad is expected every year, so people learn to pick it out in a newspaper, much like your branded content will stand out in a Facebook Newsfeed or Twitter stream once you create a pattern. Can you imagine a Thanksgiving without the Macy’s parade and all of their Black Friday specials? Didn’t think so. We’ve come to rely on them as a hallmark of the season. And there’s no reason you can’t do the same for your fans.

Surprise and Delight

Seems to fly in the face of my point above, right? But you can deliver consistently and still surprise people. Capitalize on things people want and expect from you (like Black Friday sales every year, or Fan Friday posts on Facebook) but surprise them with a new twist. Retailers switch up their free gift offers every year, and there’s no reason you can’t do the same with your thematic content. Get creative!

The deck below outlines the basics for a successful Facebook marketing campaign. Here are a few tips to get you started, but flip through the presentation for real examples of campaigns, promotions and content on Facebook.

10 Facebook Marketing Tips

• Give ‘em what they want by crowdsourcing content and listening to feedback.

• Focus on engagement: make sure they like you and aim for more post comments.

• Pick a pattern and create predictable themes to brand your content.

• Don’t push, persuade fans. A hard sell doesn’t work; you need interesting posts.

• Don’t dilute your brand or waste time with multiple Pages. Create a cohesive brand.

• Keep your options open and don’t forget other sites. Cross-promote your content.

• Keep it light when it comes to your brand, and have some fun.

• Forget fakers and remember, imitation is flattery. Don’t worry about community pages.

• Watch yourself but don’t police your Page. Create guidelines and stick to them.

• Look for inspiration in unexpected places. Watch brands you admire for good ideas.

The deck below outlines the basics for building a social media marketing content calendar and developing posts that build engagement and interaction on Facebook. Here are a few tips to get you started, but flip through the presentation for some great examples of brands that are rocking it in social media.

Tips For Creating Engaging Facebook Content

• Make sure they “like” you and convert visitors into fans with a Reveal Tab.

• Keep it exclusive and encourage repeat visits by offering something only to fans.

• Crowdsource your content by listening to feedback to build your strategy.

• Create content for comments to increase interaction and boost visibility.

• Brand your updates for easier recognition and engagement in the Newsfeed.

• Be predictable and create patterns and themes for your content.

• Forget the hard sell and write interesting posts that persuade fans to buy.

• Cross-promote content for maximum reach. Don’t forget your blog or website.

• Automate some stuff for easier management, but always monitor your Page.

• Build a content calendar to plan your posts in advance, and stick to it.

You used to be able to see these mutual friends easily displayed on a user’s profile, with one click to view more if you had lots in common. This made deciding whether to friend (or unfriend) people easily, since you could tell at a glance that you had 80 friends in common, or none.

Facebook hasn’t removed the mutual friend functionality, but it is a bit trickier to find. Now you must visit a user’s profile and click on the “Friends” link below their profile icon to view mutual friends. From there, click on the “Search By Name” dropdown and select “Mutual Friends” to see everyone you’re both connected to.

Easy? Yes. But not quite as easy as it used to be. This extra step makes you take a little extra time to dig around on Facebook, which is always their goal for the site. It also makes you harder to see people you’re already connected to, since Facebook wants to foster more new connections.

Hard to say why this change was made, but I love a good conspiracy theory. The fact that it takes more time and clicks to accomplish a simple task does not seem insignificant to me. But for now, just remember Friends>Search By Name>Mutual Friends.

What do you think about the new Facebook layout changes? What are you liking, or finding hard to navigate? Share your frustrations or favorite features in the comments below.

Borrowed from Twitter, @ tagging allows users to mention a friend in a post and create a hyperlink to their profile where their name is mentioned. The post will then also show up on the tagged friend’s wall. This feature is also available for pages that a user is connected to. But now, you can tag any person or page on Facebook, even if you aren’t connected on Facebook.

Useful? Maybe. But it also opens up pages for more negative comments and spam, and users to incorrect postings. Remember when Facebook launched Places and the default was to allow friends to check you in with them? The default setting for tagging is to allow all tags to post automatically, without any moderation.

Users can protect themselves by updating their Privacy Settings on Facebook. Login to Facebook.com and click “Privacy Settings” from the top right drop-down menu arrow next to the “Home” button. Click “Edit Settings” next to “How Tags Work” on the list of options and check your settings for the top two options, “Profile Review” and “Tag Review.” This will allow you to turn on moderation and provide a safeguard against unwanted tagging.

Pages can protect their Wall from competitor spam by clicking “Edit Page” and then selecting “Manage Permissions.” Here you can determine whether or not fans can tag you, and what type of content is displayed on your Wall.

Whether you use Facebook for personal or professional use, as a Page Admin or just an average user, remember that with Facebook’s default settings you will be able to be tagged by anyone in a post, and that post will show up on your Wall. It will not show up in your Newsfeed to all your friends or fans, the way a status update from you would, but they could still see it.

As with any new Facebook feature, don’t get caught up int eh excitement of something new to play with. Think about what this really means for you and update your settings to keep your profile or page within your control.

Facebook doesn’t quite follow the predictable pattern of daylight savings time, but they do update their platform several times throughout the year. And when they do, it’s a good time to check your settings and update your profile accordingly. And I’m not just talking about removing cancelled TV shows from your profile. Take a good long look at your friends, apps and security settings to make sure you are still sharing the information you want to be sharing.

Sometimes Facebook clearly states their recent changes. But their end goal is to provide maximum targeting capabilities to advertisers. So you should always double-check that your settings are actually your own, and haven’t been defaulted back to Facebook’s more open preferences. Set your email preferences to receive notifications that are helpful to you, without always logging in, and don’t be afraid to purge old friends or deactivate unused apps. It’s amazing how many dusty promotional apps I found still attached to my profile when I took a look.

Think of it as spring cleaning for your account. And instead of freaking out about more Facebook changes, use the announcement as a reminder to keep your profile within your control.

The short answer? A little luck. A dash of patience. Employers who were willing to test stuff out. A solid marketing and writing background. And a lot of tasks outside my official job description.

A Strong Marketing Background

I started out an advertising major and graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications, where I concentrated on copywriting. At the time, this was largely focused on print. Facebook was just poking and photo posting, and Twitter was still an idea being hatched on a cocktail napkin somewhere. And while writing ad copy for fictitious print campaigns is not quite the same as social posts, I did learn a lot about writing. (The attention grabbing, to-the-point necessities of a headline also apply to Twitter.)

After graduation, I got a job at a small web development shop writing copy for websites and online ads. Nope, not print ads, and not social either. But I learned more skills they hadn’t taught us in school, such as search engine optimization. After some time there, Facebook began introducing new features, and I found a kindred marketing spirit in a coworker named Dan. Together we began pitching and working on social media initiatives for clients. Twitter was just starting out (I still remember my first TweetUp) and Facebook had just introduced pages.

A Passion for Social Media

From there I moved to a large ad agency. My title, again, was copywriter, and I was focusing mostly on digital ads. But the need for social media marketing across the agency was growing and I was often tapped to contribute to brainstorms for clients in multiple kinds of industries. And the more I worked on social media projects and ideas, the more I knew that was what I wanted to do. My next role was again as a copywriter, but with a large social media component, this time working in-house for a single brand. And from there I went on to my current role as a social media manager.

And The Drive to Do What You Love

The moral of this story? Do what you love, and make your job what you want it to be. As a new field, there is no one right way to approach social media. But the most successful social media stars are those who live it and learn from experience. I did not study it in school, and there are very few classes available even now.  But there is a lot of great information out there, and plenty of potential experience. Read up, utilize as many social sites and tools yourself as you can and find friends, family or local businesses that will let you “practice” on them. You don’t need an advanced degree or a specific check-list. But you do need to know how to go after what you want.