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Social networks like Facebook make it easier than ever to connect with customers and prospects. Once you have launched your Facebook business page, begun posting interesting status updates and started building an audience for your Facebook business page, the final step in your B-to-B Facebook strategy is networking and interacting with other users who can help promote your company on Facebook.

Networking with Other Users
Always remember that social media is supposed to be social. More importantly, interacting with others on Facebook is key to your success, because you need other users to “like” and share the content you post to receive the maximum marketing benefit (i.e., other users must “like” or share your content so that their connections will also see it, which can enable content to go viral on social media). So, be certain that you are engaging with other users – and sharing status updates posted by other pages on your business page’s timeline.

While people who have “liked” your page will display automatically when you log in to your business page, you’ll also want to see when other pages “like” your page. To see which pages have liked your page, click the Pages that like this option.

To engage with other business pages, you can use Facebook as your business page and participate in other page’s status updates (such as liking or sharing status updates posted by partners, suppliers and trade magazines that would be helpful to your audience). You can also “tag” other pages on your own wall (type @ followed by the page name, i.e., @BoommMktg) to mention and acknowledge other Facebook users.

To help you keep up with all of these tasks, it’s best to get a few employees involved with your Facebook business page. To do this, simply choose a few employees who have personal Facebook pages and add them as Page Administrators. This will give them the ability to post content on your wall – and to respond to other Facebook users as your business page.

Monitoring Your Facebook Business Page
Daily monitoring of your Facebook business page is a great way to build stronger relationships with your current customers – and create new ones with your prospects. To make this happen, you need to optimize the timing of your status updates, tailor them to the needs of your audience and closely monitor comments posted to your page.

While the youngest Facebook users are attracted to the social aspect of Facebook, according to HubSpot’s report, The Science of Facebook 2011, older members are more interested in using Facebook for themselves and focus on “liking” pages and using Apps. To attract the attention of these older users, it’s best to share original content from your company’s blog or website that does not directly promote the products or services your company sells (such as a free ebook or white paper). In fact, eMarketer reports that 60% of links shared on Facebook are published content.

Your Facebook business page is a great way to create engagement. Posting status updates that encourage discussion gives your prospects a chance to interact with your current customers and most ardent brand advocates, which can impact their decision to do business with your company. However, always remember that that the end goal is to get your Facebook fans to visit your website, blog or landing pages, so that they can deepen their relationship with your company or brand.