You need to construct fun interesting posts, on your small business facebook account, that will generate comments from potential customers. You then need to plan what to say when you reply to the comments you receive. Do not try to sell or promote one of your products. That is considered as spam. Thank them for the comment they left then ask them a question or ask advice. People love to share their knowledge on a subject or be asked for their opinion. Later on in the conversation you could add some links to your website or give a recommendation about a product that could help that person solve a problem. Social media marketing is about talking to people.

A good way to start a conversation and receive comments about your posts on facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn is get people to fill in a missing word in a sentence. This exercise should test their knowledge of a subject. In this example below from a post on my fly fishing shops facebook account, I asked the following "Flyfishing History Test - Fill in the missing Word. Victorian Gentlemen fly fishers considered fly fishing with a ____________ fly was unsporting for many years." I got a lot of responses from fishermen because of the subject matter. This was intentional as they are my target audience. I liked each comment and replied privately and started a conversation with them. I asked where they went fishing and what flies they liked to use. I also asked them what they considered the best tactic is to employ when using dry fly fishing patterns. I then responded to their replies and eventually ask them to look at one of my product pages. Social media marketing is all about chatting with other people. You have to put the work in before you can even consider trying to sell a product. You have to get to know your customers. This is why so many old school PR and marketing advertising agency staff get it so wrong.

Another tactic to get a response is to use a provocative statement. You have to be very careful what statement your choose as you do not want to offend anyone. All you want to do is be the catalyst for a healthy argument on line. The example I use in the image below is "Women like to receive wolf whistles. Yes or No?" The cartoon at the bottom shows two young women who have just walked past a group of men. One said to the other "They never even noticed us" the other says in reply, "If there's anything worse than a wolf whistle it's no wolf whistle!". Think of a statement that relates to your industry or products that could stimulate a healthy conversation. When you receive comments reply to them.

Another way to make your social media posts compelling is to find new news on topics related to your products, service or industry. Use Google or Bing to find a good article or photograph. Report what has happened and then comment on it. Give your views. In the example below the social media marketing team that look after Tiffany and Co, the high end jewelry company, used a product placement picture of a 1920's diamond encrusted Tiffany's reproduction headband being used in a newly released Hollywood blockbuster. They then wrote an article about the film, the actress and the jewelry that contained a link to their website. You can so easily do the same. Do not just copy the news article as that is not allowed under copyright law. You are allowed to make a comment on the breaking news and give your interpretation and views on the event. Start a conversation with all the people that comment on your update.

I took the example given by Tiffany's Social Media Team and added fly fishing news reports to my updates to add variety to my posts. Below are two examples I uploaded. The first is about a disastrous pesticide spill in the River Kennet that has damaged the river's stock of brown trout. The other is about the harm caused by farmers who are now allowed to dredge fishing rivers without consultation or approval.