1) Run a creative contest – Think of a competition that would appeal to your community, that would mobilize them to get active with your brand. For example, on our HP page we celebrated HP’s partnership with Warner Bros. and product placement in the Sex and the City II movie by running a competition on our Facebook page where we asked people to show us the Carrie Bradshaw in them. We asked individuals to write Carrie’s column in the most creative manner possible. The submission that would make us laugh, cry and feel the Carrie Bradshaw within, would win a trip to NYC to visit all of Carrie’s hangout places.

When doing a contest, make sure to give an adequate prize and make sure your contest is run via a Facebook application as it is against Facebook’s rules to run a contest on the page itself.

2) Mix things up with offline events for the community – Get your community to be more cohesive by inviting members to offline events. For example, we invited folks from our Facebook page to the Sex and the City II movie premiere:

3) Special privileges for community members – Give your community members special privileges that others don’t have. Like a discount on products, first sneak peaks, free accessories. People love getting perks and it reminds them why they liked your brand in the first place.

4) Use Facebook Questions – Facebook has recently launched Facebook Questions. Activate the community by asking them interesting questions. Mashable wrote a good post with all kinds of tips for how brands can maximize this feature on Facebook.

5) Consistently upload interesting and relevant content – Engage with the community by uploading content that is valuable and appealing to your community members. If you’re running a cosmetics page, write a note about your top 10 facial cosmetics, if you’re running a restaurant page, give a special recipe for the holiday coming up. Provide your community members with value for being a part of your community.

With so many brands vieing for our attention on Facebook, companies need to be very smart about the way they manage their social presence. A deserted or spammy community can really hurt a brand’s reputation whereas a flourishing and live community can really raise a brand’s positive awareness. Make sure to always keep up with the latest Facebook features, provide value and keep things on the move if you want to be the latter.

on Sunday I gave a lecture at The Marker’s Customer Experience Conference. I spoke about: “The relationship between the brand and the consumer on social networks: From flirt to love.”

How should brands engage with consumers on social networks? You’ll see that the relationship between brands and consumers on social networks is very similar to the relationship between couples.  The presentation displays three examples of  brands that handle their social media efforts differently. HP, the third brand, clearly exemplifies how giving back to your community, being responsive and listening before selling is the best policy. Please note that the presentation is in Hebrew.

To all my devoted readers: I wanted to let you know of a new campaign that we just launched for our client HP Israel. We are giving away an awesome laptop: Mini 110C-1120EJ. For a chance to win it, all you need to do is go to HP Israel’s Facebook Fan Page , tell us where you would take it and we will help you take it there!  To my readers who are located outside of Israel – sorry guys, this campaign is only available for people located in Israel. Tell your local HP that they should learn from HP Israel!

So what are you waiting for? Check it out now and let us know to which exotic location you’d take your mini…