Businesses Connecting with Customers via Facebook…

I spend a lot of my time out and about talking to folks about how they’re using social media within their lives and the lives of their businesses.

When it comes to businesses using social media, seems like one response I’ve been getting a lot of lately is… “We have a page on Facebook.  I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do with it but we have one.”

Seems like most people who’re approaching social media see the tools as just boxes on a check list that they need to check off and are not thinking about how they are actually going to use it.  How are you going to use your business’ Facebook to reach to new audiences and generate better relationships with your existing users?

But who’s actually doing this? There are many pages for businesses on Facebook but once I’ve become a fan of the company, what next?   Do you send out “fan updates”?  I’ve become a fan of so many pages that those are really hard to keep up with and have become noise.

Some businesses create branded Facebook apps but those seem to be more “throw-away” apps.  I’ll use them for a few days and then I’ll get bored with them and move on or “throw them away”.  How can you use Facebook to create long term engagement between you and your business?

So… have you seen any examples?  What am I missing?