Despite what some old-school marketers and internet bloggers think, Facebook is not a complete waste of time (but it can be). As social media becomes more intertwined with internet marketing every business needs to consistently evaluate the return they are getting on each piece of the internet marketing puzzle. This includes Facebook.
Ideally, you should be spending no more than 15 minutes a day on Facebook (and probably a lot less). When I say “you” I’m referring to your business, so if you want to play around on your personal page after work that’s fine. However, if you want to get the most out of your time on your business’ Fan page then you’ll want to follow these steps:
1) Time yourself: The best way to get in a habit of spending 15 minutes or less on Facebook is to keep track of the time every time you log on.
2) Set up a blog feed: This is an easy way to continuously add quality content to your Fan page (directly from your blog). Simply select ‘edit page’ on your Fan page and then click ‘notes’. Then you’ll want to edit the import settings.
3) Suggest your Friends become Fans: Since you have a personal page associated with your Fan page I would suggest asking these Friends to “like” your business every month or so, depending on how often you Friends’ list grows.
4) Ask your Fans for feedback: At least a couple times a month you should pose questions to your Fans in order to get their feedback. Their responses can help you improve your services, understand your target market better, spark new ideas within product development, and much more.
5) Respond to Fans’ comments: This should take the bulk of your time. The less questions and comments from Fans the less time you should be spending on Facebook. These Fans should be considered potential clients, and for many of them, Facebook and social media is their preferred choice of communication. Do not lose out on a new client by not responding to their questions, concerns or comments on your Fan page.
I know that it can be very tempting to spend countless hours on Facebook, but for your business’ sake, limit it to 15 minutes or less per day, and focus on the Fan interaction. Feel free to add any of your own tips for managing your time on Facebook. We’d love to hear them.
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About The Author: Tom Sullivan is the senior account executive at Turbo Social Media. He has managed accounts for a wide variety of businesses, from small “Mom and Pop” businesses to multi-million dollar corporations. His success in business stems from his entrepreneurial drive and his desire to do “whatever it takes” for his clients to be successful.
Tom received his BA in Business Management Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is a former collegiate rugby player and he enjoys playing softball, golfing, camping, and snowboarding in his spare time. 
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Thank you for the tips. As a sales organization, we currently use our fan page for our reps to stay connected. We try to post relevant tips, articles, good stories to our page two to three times a week. The majority of our reps are between 18 – 24, so they’re on FB all the time, and regularly digest the content we provide.