Get yourself some Neighbors.

This is one of the most important things to do. The FarmVille makers deliberately designed this online game to reward social gamers.
Persuade friends or strangers to start up around you and you get a lot of benefits. You can expand your business more easily and own more land. Also you can help out on neighbor's places and get more XP and coins.
If you go into the Facebook's forums, you often see gamers begging for neighbors and some even promise many gifts in return. Other gamers just get to a good level then ask for invites from people at similar levels. The better the levels of your neighbors, the better the gifts they send.
You can also get a Local Celebrity Ribbon for adding many neighbors which translates into a big reward. If you take pics of all your neighbors you can get a Shutterbug Ribbon.

Facebooks forum:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=203467292623