• by Rob Jewell , February 21, 2013

Remember the old adage? If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Consider the adage when you apply it to your Facebook strategy. 

For most businesses, setting up a Facebook brand page is almost mandatory in this age of social media. The benefits for setting up a brand page have been written up countless times, but at its core, the benefits a Facebook page can bring to brands include:

• Express a brand’s identity: use the page to give a brand a personality by showcasing a persona through the posts and digital assets shared.
  
  
• Allow a brand to build and foster relationships with a fan base: use the page to capture and grow an audience. 
  
  
• Create word of mouth at scale: create an engaged community that will allow fans to speak and become ambassadors for the brand.
  
  
• Serve as a CRM platform: social media has usurped mail and phone as the only channels dedicated for customer service. Use the Facebook page to respond to questions, complaints, and compliments.

When Facebook introduced Edge Rank, the algorithm that decides which stories appear in each user’s news feed by factoring affinity score, edge weight, and time decay, marketers were left to become even more creative in the types of posts to publish on a brand’s page, and to really ensure that the posts that are published are truly engaging.

As creative spawns from page posts that are most effective ads for WOM at scale, below are eigh suggested recommendations for posting effective Facebook posts on your brand page that will foster engagement and activity from your community:

• Be succinct: Studies have shown that the longer the post, the lower the engagement rate. Conversely, the shorter the post, the higher the engagement rate. We suggest keeping your posts on average to between 100 to 150 words.
  
  
• Post regularly: The greater the frequency, the better the odds of sustaining visibility. Ideally, brands should post regularly, but don’t force it. It’s better to not post than post something that will alienate your community.
  
  
• Post at optimal time: Depending on the brand’s core audience, you’ll want to publish your posts at are the most optimal times where your customers are most active on Facebook. Typically, we see early morning or late in the afternoon as the best times of the day to garner effective engagement.
  
  
• Be relevant: This goes without saying but truly understand your audience is a key first step to understanding and knowing which types of content to post on a brand’s page.
  
  
• Be seasonal and timely: For the most part, leverage current events and happenings in our posts, but above all else, always use a sense of sensibility in the approach, nothing considered tacky or in bad taste that will cause audience to unlike the page.
  
  
• Visual impact: Photos, videos, images that feature bold visuals are more likely to yield engagement. For example, the Washington Post posted a panoramic view of the audience at the U.S. Capitol for the 2013 Presidential Inauguration and invited those in attendance to tag themselves.
  
  
• One brand voice: Consistency is the key here and is tied back to showcasing a brand’s identity. Make the page feature a voice that is unchanging.
  
  
• Give fans benefits: Timely promotions in the form of new product launches, exclusive offers and events, have been proven to be effective in sparking engagement and delivering added value to your audience.