When creating a node in a social network, it's essential that the business have a strategy. It's about much more than just throwing content up on the site and hoping for the best. Facebook is about facilitating communications about the brand more than about talking to the end users.

Do it right and people will be on the site professing their love of the product.

Do it wrong and the brand voice will ring out stale and false, turning off users from the site and the product.

To succeed, determine how the page will provide value to the audience. Then decide on what content should be offered, based on the proposed business value as well as user needs. After that, launch the site, and make sure that the audience is aware of it and will want to interact.

The popular brand Mountain Dew has a paltry 1,780 friends. There is some interesting content on the page but no real reason or functionality to inspire engagement. While the brand gets great feedback from its devout audience, it stands to reason that a better thought-out campaign could do much more to propagate across the network. On the other hand, Ticketmaster Live has an abundance of great content: upcoming music releases, contests for free tickets and downloads have gathered an audience of 161,202 group members.