Effective Communication on Facebook

One of the keys to effective communication on Facebook is contacting people you know or having a specific reason to contact people you don't know. If you are getting back in touch with long-lost friends or coworkers, always send a message with your friend request to say hello and ask how they are doing. If you are contacting people for business purposes, be specific about why you are contacting them and mention if you have a mutual friend on Facebook.

Facebook pages are an effective way to promote a brand, website, blog, company or even a personality. When creating pages on Facebook, fill out the page profile completely and with as much information as possible. Add relevant photos that make it clear what the page is for. Facebook pages are far more effective when you wait to create a page and invite people after you have established a large network of friends on Facebook; otherwise your page may get lost in the masses with too few fans.

You can post links, photos, video and other content to your Facebook profile to share with friends and family or promote your business. Avoid over-posting, which tends to flood people's news feeds and may result in your being "hidden." When posting material to Facebook, think carefully about what you want to share. Facebook's terms of service and privacy policies have been under criticism and there is no guarantee that your photos will be deleted from Facebook's servers even after you delete them.

As important as it is to post relevant material if you want to promote a business, website or blog on Facebook, it is never a good idea to post only material pertaining to your business. This obviously does not apply to large companies, but if you are trying to build readership, traffic or visibility for your business, share related content from elsewhere online along with your own content. For example, if all you post is links to your blog, your posts may be perceived as spam.