How do you make Facebook work for your brand?

Every marketer has this nagging feeling that they need to have a presence on Facebook as the social juggernaut has now passed the 200mm mark. And although it’s not rocket science, so many brands continue to fall short in this space.

They either fail to build a large enough fan base, or neglect to actively engage with the fans they do have.

For smaller brands or brands who want to connect with a core community, the number of fans may not be the most important criteria.  For other brands who want and need to interact with a huge community, building critical mass becomes important.

Here are five critical steps to build your fan base and better engage with the one you have.

1.    Spend some money

Don’t be afraid to spend money.  Some will tell you that social and spending money is an oxymoron and that great content alone is enough to drive a fan base. That may not always be the case.  Spend a small amount of money with facebook out of the gate with the simple goal of driving a large and quantifiable fan base. The Become a fan engagement ad is your core marketing platform.

2.    Leverage other marketing assets

This one is so easy. On your home page, simply promote your social ecosystem (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…) and encourage consumers to become a Facebook fan.  Surprisingly, most brands with Facebook public profiles (yes, this is what Facebook is calling it know) are not marketing their Facebook brand with their internal assets.

3.    Be fan centric (vs. brand centric)

This is about pushing out valuable content and not simply pushing out corporate PR (BS) and posting your :30 second TV spots. Quite frankly, I already fast forwarded your spots on TV with my DVR — what makes you think I want to watch them on Facebook. The key is relevant messaging and exclusive offers/content only offered in this space. Follow these two rules and you will be ahead of the majority of the brands in the space.

4.    Use video

Video is becoming more and more social, yet the majority of brands are not creating truly unique and customized video on their Public Profile. The video is low cost production and there is company called Demand Media that does a great job with social video. Remember, we live in a USA Today, sound bite environment. Consumers don’t want read dense prose.

5.    Bag the applications

Applications take a lot of time and angst to build and are hard to find. If you want to use apps, don’t build your own and instead ride the coattails of an app like Living Social’s Top 5. They already have 2.36 mm active users.

What do you think?  Do you have Facebook working for your brand?