If you’re reading this, you probably already know that your company should have a Facebook page. This isn’t another post about why you should use social media marketing.

Instead, I want you to try something: Take a second, go to your Facebook business page, and stare at the Wall. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Here’s what you want to see:

1. Informative, engaging posts
2. Responses to the posts in the form of comments and likes
3. Posts from your followers, who are hopefully your actual customers

So why do you just see an endless stream of posts from your company, with no feedback? Why aren’t your followers linking to you and posting on your Wall?

You might be making a very common Facebook mistake: Selling instead of engaging.

Keep those little marketing blurbs about why your business is the best on your official website, not your business page.

But what should you do instead? What makes one company so “likeable” and the others…not so much? And how can you start getting your customers to participate online?

Ask Questions

The easiest way to get a response is to ask for one, no matter how silly. Check out the Oreo business page, which has over 22 million followers – one of the most “Liked” brands on Facebook.

The questions and posts are simple, yet several thousand people take the time to respond.
Don’t feel like you have to be silly when you’re asking questions. That’s not appropriate for every brand. But you can still benefit from asking questions. Try asking: “How do you use ___ to make your life easier?” Or, “Which new product are you dying to get your hands on?”

Let Customers Participate in Your Brand

Encourage your followers to upload their own content to your Wall. But give them an incentive: You can offer a prize, or use it as marketing research. For example, Oreo asked their followers to vote for a new flavor…and delivered with a new product.

Offer a Deal

Here’s something that will work for all kinds of businesses, not just snack foods. Offer your followers a coupon, special deal, advance knowledge of a sale, etc. But only tell your Facebook followers. Make them feel special by rewarding them for supporting you online.

Threadless, a relatively small t-shirt company, has almost 350,000 followers. In addition to engaging fans on the Wall, they offer a coupon just for Liking their page.

Remember, most people use social media for entertainment. Your Facebook page isn’t a commercial, and it’s not your company website. But it can market your company – you just have to get people to follow you.

How about you? Which companies do you follow on Facebook?