Facebook is a prize channel for marketers to start long form conversations with their consumers. Many companies, however, still haven’t got the hang of breaking the ice. In lieu of spamming newsfeeds and developing tech heavy applications, a few marketers have realized that great campaigns can come from putting a clever twist on the everyday habits of users.

To promote opening a new store in Malmo, Sweden, Ikea created a Facebook page for the general manager and uploaded pictures from the showroom. Users could tag items and win them. Simple and cheap, word of mouth about the promotion spread across Facebook, inspiring users to embed links in their profile, become brand ambassadors, and prompted Facebook to revise its policy on picture tagging to prevent such a big event from happening again.

Another buzz worthy idea was using memes to raise awareness by the Breast Cancer Association.  Women randomly posted colors for their status message one day, and proclaimed “I like it in the kitchen,” weeks later, perplexing men with witty wordplay about their bras and purses respectively. Though the magic of each meme only lived for a day, and did not lead users to a destination after the “a-ha” moment, it did serve to generate strong awareness.

To engage the women of Slovenia, Activia developed a campaign to turn users into brand amabassadors. Over a six week period they organized contests that ranged from posting drawings of the product, video pantomimes, and even creating a cocktail to win a hiking trip to Indonesia. Users encouraged friends to vote for them using likes, which helped spread news of the contest, which spread to forums, blogs and newsfeeds, which eventually led to other media.

The trick to starting conversations on Facebook or any medium is to focus on the user experience. Technology and coupons are fine, but it still needs to be easy for users to become involved, and interesting enough for further engagement, and it doesn’t hurt if it makes them say “Hey, look at this!” by embedding a link. A strong focus on your audience's habits will unleash a wealth of opportunities to break the ice and start a buzz around your brand.