If you’ve got a successful business, chances are you have a thriving social community on at least one of the major social networks (and if you don’t, you should. These days a social media presence is a must!). Congrats! Your fan base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or Pinterest is a valuable asset and should be treated as such. That’s why you need the right people to manage it for you.

Facebook Pages are a great tool, but once your fan base grows into the tens of thousands and beyond, it can get a little unwieldy. The larger your fan base, the higher the chances of personality clashes among members, troll invasions and flame wars. Large, high traffic social media pages also attract spammers. Dealing with these issues the right way will earn you respect and loyalty. Go about it all wrong and you’ll soon be watching your fan base shrink.

So what is the right way? It starts with a page admin who is experienced, patient, and has restraint. Spammers need to be deleted, flames extinguished and conflicts smoothed over. All of these things should be done discreetly and without adding to the drama. Avoid confronting troublemakers, it only encourages them. Try and handle issues privately via PM and don’t be afraid to ban people if necessary. Be fair but firm!

Speaking of encouragement, how do you keep your fans interested and active? Post often, but not too often. Several times a day is good, several times an hour, not so much. You don’t want to flood news feeds. When you do post, make sure your content is interesting, fresh and encourages interaction, but avoid click bait type tactics and begging for likes, both of which are big turn offs to most people. One good way to capture interest is to offer a discount or special offer. Images and videos almost always get more engagement than plain text. Experiment with different kinds of posts to see what works for you!