According to Erika Barbosa of 10 Golden Rules Marketing, over 50% of Facebook’s users log-in on any given day. This equals over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. You do the math– we’re an internet charged generation and this statistic is only growing. The difference between a proficient social media strategy and a successful one? Engagement. Your viewers can see information or they can communicate information. If they’re involved in the brand, they’re more likely to support it.

Five definitions of ROI: money, traffic, followers, donations, email addresses.
All are easier to obtain if viewers have a say in their brand and the direction that it’s heading. Here are some new keywords that should be implemented in your Facebook strategy, no matter whether your company is established or up-and-coming:

Entertain.
Question.
Showcase.
Reward.

How? Make them laugh, appreciate them, give them a behind-the-scenes peak at the action and makings of the brand. Teach your viewers, share their experiences, give them a break from the “blah factor” of social media overload. It’s easy enough to make a page, request your whole friends list, maybe even post a funny status once a day. It’s quite another to search competitor’s pages and do your research. See what works, it’s in the numbers. A successful Facebook page leads to higher traffic of twitter accounts and blog followers.

Facebook Developers suggests a variety of plug-ins which may increase engagement on your Facebook page. The Social Media Examiner also recommends a compelling introduction video. This is a great way to personalize your page and you kill two of the above goals- Entertain and Showcase. All videos should be short and sweet. If you lose attention after thirty seconds, you’ve turned a fan back into a visitor.

Contests are another way increase ROI. Make sure that the prize is a great enough incentive. Andrea Vahl also reminds us that there are many Facebook rules which you need to adhere to:

The biggest rule is that you need to administer the contest through an Application. That means you need to run your contest on a tab on your Page rather than by having them respond to a Wall post or uploading a picture to your wall or similar-type no-nos. Luckily there are several companies who are dedicated to administering Facebook contests while following all the rules.

Check out apps like Wildfire, North Social and Votigo for help administering set-up. They run the gamut in prices but all are easy to use.

With plug-ins like contests and videos, your audience will increase but that’s only one factor of ROI. Ensure that your incentives are the incentives that “just keep giving,” stengthening likelyhood that your fans and clientbase will pass the good news on.

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