Facebook is an interesting species – it’s got the most users (by far) of any Social Network out there – yet – when you chat with Social Media professionals and marketing reps, there’s a collective head scratch when it comes to maximizing the potential of ‘the Book’.

Facebook is still a more ‘personal’ space – whereas Twitter is very social and community-oriented, LinkedIn is outstanding from a professional standpoint, Facebook remains that place where you keep in touch with your old buddies from High School, you waste half your day looking through photos of that one guy’s bachelor party or fight off your Mom’s invitations to FarmVille and Family Fued (sorry Mom).

One of the biggest obstacles is how to overcome the issue that Facebook remains, for many, a very personal space. And, even if you have built a community around your brand or business via your ‘Like’ page, the question remains, “How do you get people interacting with you, and maybe more importantly, with each other”?

I’ve been wondering how to capitalize on the 1,200+ ‘likes’ of my personal blog, Life Without Pants, and after attending a session at the latest Social Media Breakfast in Chicago, here are 10 key take-aways and ideas you can and should be putting into action when it comes to effective Facebook marketing:

1. Ask Questions

This was by far the biggest takeaway from our discussion at Social Media Breakfast, and it’s the one thing I’ve seen as most effective in my own Facebook marketing and even personal interaction. Questions are calls to action, you are explicity asking your community to answer something, which makes it much easier to actually get a response and see interaction. Instead of using Facebook as a pedestal to shout opinions from, ask questions and let your community do the opinion sharing.

2. Don’t Give People Too Much to Think About

Facebook isn’t a blog – if you’re throwing too much at your community, if you’re posting updates with multiple questions and several links, you’re going to lose them. The best way to illicit response is to keep things simple and tackle one thing at a time. You may be crowd-sourcing feedback on many different topics or promoting a lot of different things, but space out your PR and don’t give people more than they can (easily) handle.

3. Understand Your Audience

If you’re Facebook account is anything like my own, it’s probably made up of very different people from who you’re connected with on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other places around the web. It’s important to know WHO you’re talking to before you do any talking. If you’re automatically feeding your Twitter stream through Facebook, my advice is to stop. Take a little extra time to craft your marketing strategy on each platform to meet the culture of that specific community.

4. Stay Consistent

As with everything else you’re doing online, consistency is the single most important thing. Yes, life will get in the way. Yes, they’re are other more pressing projects that come up and force you to push Social Media to the back-burner. But, since you know those things will indefinitely come up – start planning for them. Social Media Marketing takes time, just like any other form of marketing you pursue, with third party applications like HootSuite and others, it’s easier than ever to schedule your Facebook updates in advance. If you can’t be present, take advantage of the tools out there. Set it and forget it…

5. Post Exclusive Content

Your Facebook ‘Like’ Page wall should NOT be a regurgitation of content. Yes, you can and should use your Facebook wall to promote current projects but it needs to be more than that. Run a Facebook-exclusive contest, instead of simply feeding your latest blog posts to your wall, post things manually and pair it with a question that gets people talking. While maintaining brand consistency is important, keeping things ‘fresh’ on every channel is what makes me want to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, AND connect with you on Facebook.

6. Target Your Ambassadors

If you have a Facebook ‘Like’ page already set up. Ask yourself this: Who are my ambassadors? Do you know who your most active Facebook community members are? That guy or gal who ‘likes’ just about everything you post? These are the people you need to specifically target and interact with. In the marketing world we talk a lot about building brand evangelists. Why? Because people (you and I) are much more likely to trust our friends, family, and colleagues than we are to pay much attention to a brand. Target your ambassadors and let them do the promoting for you.

7. Be Yourself

This applies to everything you’re doing on the web and it really is as simple as it sounds. Your fans/likes/followers don’t want to talk to a brand – they want to talk to an actual person. We, as humans, want that human interaction – so yes, even if you’re a clothing retailer, it’s OK to poll your community on how many more centuries it’ll take for the Cubs to win the pennant. Be funny, be engaging, be you.

8. Create Alliances

This is something I’ve done and know many others who have tapped into this concept of building ‘strategic alliances’, Facebook ‘tribes’, whatever you want to call them. Basically, I’ll promote and ‘like’ your Fan Page and recommend it to my personal community with the understanding that you’ll do the same for me. Use your current community and friend-base to your advantage!

9. Focus on the ‘Big Picture’

At Social Media Breakfast we talked about this in detail. Take Starbucks for example; instead of focusing on everything directly Starbucks related on their Facebook page – they focus on the love of coffee, they focus on the concept of the ‘third place’, the home away from home. When you go to a coffee shop, it’s usually about the experience  - you’re meeting a friend, conducting a business meeting, or have your headphones on, listening to your favorite tunes getting things done. Rather than using their Facebook page as a sounding board for deals and announcements, they focus on that overall experience, and, for the most part, let their ‘likers’ do the talking. If there’s a concept or idea you can focus on outside of your brand – take that and run with it.

10. Respect Privacy

As was mentioned initially, for many, Facebook is still a very private place – it’s important for you to recognize and respect the privacy of others – don’t go spam their inbox, don’t send a mass message to all of your ‘likes’ every day – don’t post on your wall 100x per day. If you’re trying to piss people off and lose your ‘like-base’ by all means go ahead. Promote tastefully and respect that for many, Facebook is their personal space on the web.

Facebook doesn’t have to be the “What the hell am I supposed to do here” platform. There’s a lot of value to be had from a personal and professional standpoint through each channel.

What are you currently struggling with on Facebook? What’s worked well for you? What advice would you give to those reading here?

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