If you are administering a Facebook page for your business, here are some helpful tips:

1. Be timely
It’s important to respond to inquiries in real-time. Customers don’t want to wait, and rapid replies (even if it is acknowledging the inquiry and saying that you’ll get back to them later), is extremely important. It shows you care.

2. Be honest
If you made a mistake, apologize. Whatever you do, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well into the online space either.

3. Be transparent
Explain who you are and your relationship to the business. Customers will see through you and expose you if you try to hide your relationship. If you own the business, post as the owner. Transparency is rewarded with loyalty on the web.

4. Don’t be defensive
If you made a mistake, fix it. Explain how you will make good. Don’t be defensive. Instead, by understanding.

5. Moderate
Don’t be afraid to moderate. If there’s a violent or offensive post, delete it and block the user as soon as possible. But, don’t delete everything that is negative. If customers don’t see a balance, they’ll think everything is fake.  Typically your loyal customers will come to your defense, and that’s a strong offense!

6. Don’t reply to everything
You don’t have to answer or chat with everyone. Let your customers do the talking for you. It’s more valuable when a customer answers another customer’s questions. Just moderate for accuracy. Be lenient. Don’t bud into other people’s conversations unless absolutely necessary.

7. Don’t engage the nasty people
If someone is really negative and you don’t delete or block them, don’t engage them either. You won’t change their mind; you’ll just antagonize them further, making your situation worse.

8. Be fun
Facebook can be fun and cool. Don’t be afraid to make a joke or be silly. After all, it’s the internet.

9. Be careful
Just because you delete something dosen’t mean it’s gone. Someone could have saved the post, taken a screenshot, or reposted it. So watch what you say.

10. Coordinate
If you have more than one Facebook admin, it’s okay to post in different styles, but make sure you are all on the same page (with the bullet points listed above). Otherwise, one of you might be defensive, while the other isn’t, and that creates confusion online.

Here’s another great article about Facebook policy management:
http://mashable.com/2011/01/31/facebook-engagement-policy/