Audience nurture should also include posts that are simply helpful. You don’t want to exhaust people with endless asks for more of their time, attention, or money.

Also, consider using posts that are helpful-only, (without CTA’s) as opportunities for developing relationships with influencers. You can share an influencer’s content as a way of helping your audience. In the process you will raise your profile and offer something of value to the influencer.

There are so many different options for boosting posts. Do you recommend using the boost button or going through ads manager?

The Boost button works best with saved audiences, Mari says. So, maximize your results with the boost button by setting up saved audiences in ads manager. Then, you can choose the saved audience you’d like to target when you use the boost button. If you’re interested to learn more about finding audiences to target, check out BuzzSumo’s guide on how to use social media to research your next customers.

Can you give some examples of Facebook pages where the page owners actively chat with their audience and asks questions well?

The interactions at Mari’s page is unparalleled!

Also take a look at Burt’s Bees and Social Media Examiner.

The folks at Bufferapp have a lot of conversations with their audience, too.

Does it make sense to start a Facebook page for a company that sells a software for small-medium retailers?

Yes. Facebook is the largest social network, with 1.79 billion active monthly users in 2016, as reported by Statista. In the US, 79% of all adults who use the internet use Facebook. This is a much higher than the percentage of people who use other social networks, according to the Pew Research Center. And, the number of US-based Facebook users grew from 2015 to 2016.

Given the absolute prevalence of Facebook in the daily lives of so many people, it makes sense for businesses to have a presence there. The size and scope of that presence may be dictated by the resources you have available to devote to social marketing and by the ROI you see generated from Facebook. But, following Mari’s advice to establish yourself as an expert in a narrow field who provides educating, entertaining posts for a niche audience is a great place to start. As you establish your audience on Facebook, experiment with ways to move these new contacts closer to your goal –purchasing software.

Do you have any data in terms of demographics? Is there a significant difference in the way younger vs older audiences interact on social media, where they share, and how much time they spend on posts?

Pew Research recently published its Demographics of Social Media report for 2016. As noted above, Facebook is the dominant social network for all adults in the US. The number of older adults, 65-years-old and up, using the network increase 14 percent from 2015. And, 77 percent of upper income earners use Facebook. Other demographic data is summarized in the chart below.