Facebook management, when done right, really is an art. Small businesses that fully use all of Facebook’s features — along with the platform’s conversational style and ease of posting images — truly put themselves on a different level. Check out the Facebook page of some of your favorite local, indie haunts and I’m sure you’ll find one or two that is killing on Facebook and taking social media to another level. For me, it’s my favorite coffee joint that is truly inspiring me to be better at Facebook for business.

The Market, located in downtown Denver, has been serving locals and tourists kick-ass coffee drinks and mind-blowing pastries since 1983. The spot serves everybody from uptight businessmen and slacker students to artsy musicians and neighborhood families (and everyone in between). Yet somebody must have figured out that just being a local favorite isn’t enough, so in order to keep up with newer cafes, The Market would have to embrace social media. And embrace it they have. The Market is a community staple, so Facebook is the perfect channel for it to behave as such. More so than Twitter, Facebook can really be an instant way to alert customers about the happenings inside your company. The Market’s posts include lost-and-found belongings left behind at the cafe, updates on new menu items, deadlines for ordering cakes, hours of operation changes, chatty posts like celebrity sightings (Prince Henry was recently there) and witty observations from the baristas. In short, The Market’s Facebook page is as warm and inviting as the place itself. The focus on The Market’s Facebook marketing is less about a hard sell and more about talking to their customers in a friendly and approachable manner.

What this is, beyond being great social media marketing, is terrific and solid branding. The company’s message is the same online as it is at the counter. To offer a similar experience on Facebook as you do in person takes some real prowess and impressive skills and my favorite local cafe has it in spades. The Market has inspired me to be consistent and creative with my own Facebook marketing efforts. And mainly not to try to pound my followers with sales messages. As a brand and a social media marketer, I can chat with my followers and make Facebook visits more interesting and friendly.

So, readers, how does one of your favorite businesses use Facebook that really inspires you? Post below!

If your business is having a hard time making Facebook marketing work, take heart. Many companies, even many of the big guys, abandon Facebook efforts after a few months. The truth is this: Memorable Facebook-for-business campaigns take a lot of effort, creativity and time. The daily Facebook game can feel overwhelming, especially when even your best efforts are failing to yield results. Yet before you dramatically delete your page and log off of Facebook for good, here are three Facebook marketing rules that could change the way you use the social network.

Share: We’ve all ended up with “those brands” in our newsfeeds. You know, the ones who just blast us with boring advertisements and never really post anything worthwhile? The antidote to that is to share. Sharing cool images, relevant videos, important company milestones, new product photos and the like is far more interesting than just beating your followers over the heads with branded messages. Share the kind of posts you yourself would want to read and chances are your followers will want to read them, too.

Engage: “Engagement” is one of those buzzwords in Facebook management and marketing that we hear all of the time. And there’s a reason. Brands that can really get their followers engaged on social media have truly succeeded. Facebook posts that demand a response (like trivia questions or polls) get users involved, but that’s just the beginning. To dip your toes in the Facebook engagement waters, start with pictures. Photos are a simple and dynamic way to keep your users engaged. In fact, cool and talked-about pictures are 10 times more likely to go viral for a brand on Facebook than posts without images.

Interact: With social media, brands of any size have been given the golden opportunity to really reach out and talk to customers, critics and followers. Use Facebook to get consumers’ thoughts, to address changes in your business, to alert followers of last-minute deals and specials and mainly to find out what’s on their minds. Don’t have Facebook be a one-sided conversation. Use it as a tool to really get inside your followers’ minds and find out what is important to them.

Not that long ago, Facebook marketing mavens were desperate to get “Likes.” The pursuit of likes for companies of all sizes became priority numero uno. Facebook management strategies for mega-brands and indie shops alike had likes on their minds and weren’t going to stop until they figured out how to be the most liked page on Facebook. Then we all kind of realized that likes didn’t always translate to dollars and moved onto the next thing. Yet likes for your company’s Facebook page are still important. The visibility a simple like brings to potential consumers is incredibly powerful. Why? Because each time a customer likes a brand’s page, it shows up in their friends’ newsfeeds, meaning endless potential for reaching out to new followers and consumers. We think you can (and should) still be on the hunt for likes, and here are some ethical, creative and even inspiring ways to get them:

The Maple Ridge Vet Clinic in Geneseo, Ill., for example, used some good deeds to get Facebook likes. Owner Dr. Matt Nelson recently called upon Facebook fans to help the local humane society. For every like the Maple Ridge Vet Clinic received on Facebook, Nelson pledged to donate a pound of cat food to a nearby animal shelter. Animal lovers couldn’t resist such a heartfelt promotion, so the clinic ended up with 150 pounds of cat food and The Maple Ridge Vet Clinic got more likes in the process, too. Nelson got likes for just being a nice guy. There’s a groundbreaking concept!

“Like lottos” are another good way to inspire more likes for your page. Authors can give away books. Theaters can give away tickets. Bakeries can give away cupcakes, and so on. Like lottos are easy to run — set a prize and give it away to the follower who is your desired number of like. Just keep it realistic. Facebookers won’t play if your goal is several hundred likes away. You want your followers to feel like they have a real chance of winning. Instead, go for 50 or under.

And yet you can have all the great giveaways and cool charity donations in the world and if your page doesn’t have good content, no one will care. Dynamic, frequently-updated content is still the best way to get likes. If you post interesting blogs, eye-catching images and unforgettable with regularity, there’s no question that your branded Facebook page will garner more likes.

We comb the industry journals and insider blogs to get great ideas for Facebook marketing. Outside ideas that nail the platform are always welcome, because even though a billion or so folks use Facebook all day long, it isn’t always easy getting them excited. Nor are the marketing muckety-mucks always the ones cooking up the fabulous Facebook campaigns. For simple yet brilliant Facebook marketing, perhaps the family up the street is a better place to look.

A few months ago, the Urbano family was a house divided. Seven-year-old Remi and his 3-year-old sister Evelyn desperately wanted a cat, and while their mom Marisa thought it was a good idea, dad Dan wanted the family home to remain cat-free. After some negotiating, dad caved and came up with a compromise. He told the kids that if their cause could get garner 1,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook, then the family would adopt a cat from a local shelter. A long with some help from mom, the kids posted a photo of them holding a sign with the following message: “Hey Facebook! My sister and I really want a cat. Our papa promises we can get one if we can get 1,000 likes.” The Urbanos expected folks to be touched by the two kids’ plea for a feline friend, but they never expected that the darling duo would get their 1,000 likes in just two hours. The photo went on to collect more than 100,000 likes and the story made national headlines. More importantly, Remi and Evelyn got their kitty and saved a shelter cat’s life.

The amazing thing here is that this family’s Facebook campaign is totally on trend with the things we’ve seen work for big brands. Oreo, Levis and H&M all have had huge success with photo-driven Facebook campaigns. When it comes to brands, the ones that get talked about on Facebook are the ones with memorable images — and the Urbano family nailed it. The photo also garnered thousands of shares. Having your following like something is one thing, but having them like it so much that they share it is the kind of gold Facebook management gurus are eternally hunting for. Lastly, the Urbanos’ campaign knocked it out of the park by including a call to action. People responded to the Urbano kids not only because they’re cute, but because they get followers involved in the post by asking them to do something.

Whether it’s starting a conversation, posting a photo that segues into a “love it or hate it” poll or asking for Likes, photo posts that aren’t just passive live longer lives on Facebook. And in this case, nine of them.