Want a Facebook Community? Post More.

By John Boitnott

When I am sometimes asked for advice about how best to run a Facebook fan page in order to build community, I tend to advise people to emphasize an agressive number of daily posts. There’s a lot you can do to make a community stronger and all of it is important — from Facebook ads, to participating in discussions on other fan pages or acting as an ombudsman or liaison between your company and the public. But when it comes to increasing the number of referrals from your Facebook community, doing several posts a day is pretty much the most galvanizing thing you can do.

The bottom line is, no one knows you exist if you don’t post. You want fans to be consistently reminded that you are there and have something to say about your various areas of expertise. Therefore, don’t be shy. I recommend 7-10 posts a day. Do them in all the different day parts, from early in the morning, to lunchtime, dinner and late night/overnight. These posts can be links to your site, questions or picture/video posts. For more ideas, check out my Facebook presentation below.

I hear this quite a bit: “I don’t want to annoy my fans or create too much noise for them.” The truth is, a lot of people are yammering on Facebook at all times. If you don’t post around 7-10 items a day, you will be lost in the sea of noise. Over years of experience in this area I’ve noticed that people and publishers who engage the most, consistently over a long period of time, build a stronger fan base. That means nurturing your following by using an array of techniques. I’ll talk more in future posts about that. The key thing is to dig in an care about your community each day. Posting a sufficient amount is a good start.

About the Author: One of a small group of social media consultants with a background in the newsroom, John consults with a variety of sites and publishers on how to build their popularity on the Internet. Leveraging social networks such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon, he helps direct millions of page views each month. John has worked for NBC and Village Voice. John is currently Vice President of Business Development at Hasai Inc.