An effective Facebook marketing strategy requires a lot of planning. Certain very important steps must be taken during the planning and implementation of Facebook marketing strategies. Let's go through some of them. 

• Have Clear Goals
  
  This is the logical first step for any business that wants to implement any effective Facebook marketing strategy and grow its business. After the preliminary work of opening  a Facebook account is done, you need to sit down and think hard about what you are hoping to achieve by your marketing efforts. It's called beginning with the end in mind. Setting clear goals will help because then you have a yardstick with which you can compare projected versus actual results. 

Different businesses will have different goals in mind when embarking on a Facebook marketing strategy. So ask yourself these questions. Is the primary goal to increase brand awareness or do you merely focus on increasing engagement with your followers and customers? Maybe the aim is to increase sales and revenue or it is a combination of one or more of these. Whatever the case maybe, just have your goals clear.

How does one then go on addressing these goals. For example, if you are aiming to increase sales then you need to improve your targeting. 

• Understand Your Audience
  
  Once you have set your goals, you want to move on to the next level which is ascertaining exactly who you want to target with the content you are going to post. This is of critical importance. It is recommended here to make use of assessment of social demographics. This study gives some useful insights into information about where Facebook users live, their education levels in particular areas and  the languages spoken in particular areas.

It is also vital to understand the particular section of the population you are targeting. Is your brand, product or service meant primarily for young males or young females? Is it for pensioners or for middle aged housewives? Is it for the poorer sections of the community or do you sell luxury goods meant for the wealthier classes. Have clear answers to all these questions as you go through your methodical step by step implementation of a Facebook marketing strategy. 

• Engage Proactively
  
  This should be a key element in your overall Facebook marketing strategy. The Facebook online platform like many of its sister platforms was designed to allow two way communication between content creators and users. Initiate and encourage conversations and discussions. Facebook is an ideal platform for holding discussions with users and other industry players. You could start off by simply asking people to engage, give feedback and to make comments on your page or posts. 

• Decide on the Best Days and Times to Post
  
  Knowing the best days and best times to post content is crucial as well. Optimal posting times for Facebook  like for and online social media platform are at best educated guesses which should nevertheless  never be disregarded or ignored . It has been shown that between 11am  and 1pm on Wednesdays is the best posting time on Facebook and  that the worst day to post is Sunday. These are rough guidelines and they  should not be considered in isolation.

• Regularly Update your Content
  
  Times change and so does tastes, fashion and trends. What's trendy and fashionable might not be so in six months or in a year's time. So your content also requires regular updating for it to remain relevant. The key word is relevance. You need to stay relevant and remain consistent in your content. 

You can never go wrong with these tips if you are looking to grow your business.