If you’re a B2B business, Facebook may seem like a waste of time. You’re likely heavily vested in LinkedIn (as you should be) if you’re getting in on the social marketing scene (as you also should be). But can Facebook for B2B make sense for your company?
Here’s a little secret: Facebook marketing can be a goldmine when you leverage the platform correctly. You may think your audience doesn’t frequent Facebook, but considering a large percentage of the earth’s population have accounts, you’re probably wrong (you just have to target them). Your audience is there, the ad system is far superior to that of LinkedIn, it’s simply a matter of acceptance and watching the likes roll in.
How do you do it? How do you, as a B2B business, use Facebook to drive traffic? We’re going to go over three strategies to get your company moving in the right direction.
Audience Awareness
This is critical: to get your content in front of the right people, you have to know who those people are. Figure that out. Create an avatar of your target audience if that helps you out. And then use Facebook’s custom audience feature to target those folks. This is a sweet little option that allows you to narrow down demographics to get your ads and content in front of your avatar. Age, sex, location, whether they’ve purchased from you before or visited your website (get the Facebook pixel setup for this – complete cinch to do)…it’s very robust and allows for deep audience customization.
Platform Perception
While we know that Facebook can be leveraged to drive traffic for your B2B business, we’re also aware that there are limitations. You should be too. This allows for ultra Facebook savvy and gives you an edge: knowing how far to go is a necessary quality.
Don’t focus on using Facebook for lead generation. Instead, see it as an opportunity to increase interaction and awareness of your brand. This is going to mean juicy snippets of content that users will share and like rather than lengthy articles people are going to scroll right by.
Visual Vortex
Always keep in mind that Facebook is a visual place. Images are a must. Branded images are even better. A pithy quote (branded), a short, engaging video, photos of a company picnic: these are all excellent ways to connect with and gain likes for your company on Facebook. Another avenue for drawing people in is to stay on top of hashtag movements like #FlashbackFriday and #ThrowbackThursday. Use these as opportunities to share pieces of your company’s history and backstory. People enjoy story and love to hear how their favorite companies came into existence. Moral: be authentic, be likable, and stay visual.
Driving engagement on Facebook is an integral piece of your digital marketing strategy, even if you’re a B2B business. Yes, LinkedIn is a prime spot to connect, but don’t overlook the beautiful opportunity that Facebook marketing can be. It’s always growing and you should be too. Stay connected and prosper.