The One Effective Use of Facebook for B2B Marketing
March 9, 2010You’ve seen the eye-popping statistics: Facebook now has more than 350 million active users. If it were a country, it would be the third most-populous on earth, behind only China and India. TechCrunch predicts that “by this summer (2010) well over half of all Internet users will likely visit Facebook each month.” It’s now the second most-visited site on the web, behind only Google.
Given that level of popularity and traffic, it’s no wonder that marketers have embraced Facebook in a big way. What’s curious, however, is that of the top 50 brands on Facebook according to Slate magazine, not one is a b2b vendor. Not even close. And as Mark Schaefer has noted, b2b Facebook success stories are notoriously hard to come by (he found one).
With a mammoth audience and the acceptance, even embrace, of brands there, why is Facebook success so elusive for b2b marketers? It isn’t demographics. Granted, the potential pool of customers for most b2b companies is minute compared to that for major consumer brands, but given the sheer size and ubiquity of Facebook, there are still a lot of b2b buyers using it.
The challenge rather lies in the way Facebook fan pages are used. I’ve heard countless people, within the b2b community, express the sentiment that “LinkedIn is for business, Facebook is for friends and family.” As such, it’s not surprisingly that many of the entries on Slate’s top Facebook list are lifestyle brands. If you buy a new Audi, you might use Facebook to show it off to your friends, but if you’re part if a buying team that just acquired a new enterprise software system—eh, not so much so. And as one more bit of anecdotal evidence, I have my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook badges all displayed in the left column of this blog. I pick up a lot of new Twitter followers here, and a fair number of LinkedIn connection requests, but rarely a Facebook invitation.
Still, this doesn’t mean that Facebook can’t serve any purpose for b2b marketing. It can serve one helpful role: humanizing a company. As a very wise b2b sales executive said to me several years ago, “people don’t buy from companies. They buy from people.” With the emergence of social media as a marketing tool, that sentiment is arguably even more true today.
Because of the intimate, informal nature of Facebook, it is the ideal venue to showcase personal content related to your company that may not be appropriate on a corporate website or even a LinkedIn profile. Many employees within b2b companies have email communication with customers and prospects, but never actually talk to them. Or they have phone conversations but never meet face to face. Facebook provides an excellent means for sharing photos and even (limited) personal information, to help put a human face on an organization, and “put a face with the name” or voice of an employee for customers and prospects.
Just a few examples of content that work better on Facebook than in more formal settings are:
- • Photos of employees in casual office settings;
- • Photos of employees and customers interacting, or casual shots of a customer using a product (with permission, of course);
- • Trade show photos;
- • Pictures of employees working on community service projects;
- • Company executives speaking, accepting awards, meeting with VIPs, etc.;
- • Photos of production facilities (for manufactured products);
- • Photos taken with resellers or channel partners;
- • Informal or even humorous videos, such as HubSpot’s spoof of The Office or Resco’s “border battle” video shot before last season’s first Vikings-Packers game;
- • And of course, interaction! Most customers and prospects probably won’t want to interact with your brand on Facebook, but for those who do, it’s important to engage them through this channel.
In short, Facebook provides a place to show the human side of your company, to cut loose just a bit and have some fun. While it may produce a lead now and then, it isn’t a very effective lead generation vehicle. Instead, by humanizing your company and giving a glimpse inside, it’s business value lies primarily in lead nurturing—helping move leads through the buying process. It’s more about making current sales cycles more productive than about generating new potential business.
Because the ROI is likely to be difficult to measure with precision, it’s best to keep the “I” fairly modest. Still, with realistic expectations, using Facebook as a means to put a human face (or faces) on a B2B brand can be one effective component of an overall social media marketing strategy.
Tags: b2b marketing, b2b social media, b2b success with Facebook, brands on Facebook, Facebook, Google, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Mark Schaefer, Resco, TechCrunch
28 Responses
Mark McClure
Give it time! I suspect it will be the smaller, more agile b2b (tech) companies that’ll experiment with and drive the use of FB as part of their social media strategies.
Another aspect is that the people calling the shots (management?) are still struggling to understand (let alone, use) these forms of relationship marketing.
And I think that very real concerns exist in their minds around reputation risk and competitive intelligence. That’s why it’ll take time and a younger generation who’ve known these tools (for good or less so) to see their productive use and results.
webbiqu1
Good points Mark. I think you’re right in the general sense, although I’ve been surprised by who’s embracing this. I spoke with a 61-year-old CEO today who is very social media savvy. There are still many business people suspicious of or hesitant to embrace social media, but I often see factors other than age or even technological expertise driving these decisions.
Elizabeth Williams
Good and honest insights. I would add that Facebook is also a good place to add value as a content aggregator. My company (big telecom) created a Facebook page for small business which we populate with quality content from subject matter experts in areas such as finance and HR. Our brand is peripherally present and it has been gratifying to see the community that has grown around the content and interacts with its authors. It is also an excellent laboratory for us to study attitudes and it has generated considerable good will among small businesses.
webbiqu1
Elizabeth – thanks. Interesting that FB is working as a content aggregation tool for you. I haven’t seen a lot of b2b companies using it in that manner, but like the idea.
Cain
Looking ahead the main issues I see for twitter will be bandwidth and spam
Sarah
Great article, thanks!
I work for a foodservice equipment company which targets a local market.
I started a Facebook company page but I am confused as to how to get our target market to “fan” us. Since it is a company page, I cannot look for people/companies and “add” them.
We’ll put invitation to connect on Facebook on our websites, email signatures etc and we’ll use incentives but I’m not sure that will be enough. Any ideas?
Thank you!
webbiqu1
Thanks Sarah! Sure, here are three sets of ideas for getting more Facebook fans worth checking out: How to Create a Campaign to Get More Facebook Followers, 11 ways to promote your Facebook Page outside Facebook and 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page Following. Hope that helps!
David Colquitt
Great points, but not so much for a freelance B2B. I’m a work at home graphic designer/web developer and finding ways to engage with my limited FB connections, let alone getting them in the first place, is not easy.
webbiqu1
Hi David – I know exactly what you mean. FB is challenging in the B2B space. It’s tempting because of the large numbers, but those numbers alone don’t make it an effective platform for b2b marketing / PR. I tend to steer b2b clients away from this unless they have a solid plan and dedicated resources.
Jaya Cruz
Majority of the business owners also utilizes the facebook just to advertise the service or product that they are selling.
webbiqu1
True Jaya, but the jury is still out on how effective that is. The key to social media success is interaction, not just promotion. Thanks!
Francis
Facebook is not just the one that works. I trust Twitter more than FB since twitter has its real time updates.
Wayne Pruner
Thanks for the article. It will help me formulate my FB strategy.
Jake Coventry
Nice article. Really interesting point – “Still, this doesn’t mean that Facebook can’t serve any purpose for b2b marketing. It can serve one helpful role: humanizing a company.”
Sam Orchard
If you’re not going to go all out and market on Facabook properly, it’s not worth it. I quite often come across small companies who started it, but didn’t bother following through – it just looks embarrassing and unprofessional to have an empty facebook page with 3 likes.
webbiqu1
So true Sam. And in my experience, it’s tough for b2b companies to generate much activity there.
Brian McC
If you are a business or looking to grow your business then Marketing on Facebook is must.. It’s where all your customers are and if you have the right tools it can be done very easily & successfully.
webbiqu1
For consumer brands, restaurants, local retail…absolutely. But I remain skeptical about the value of Facebook for b2b marketers. I just don’t think people use Facebook to research suppliers of parts, enterprise software or industrial supplies. But I’m open to counterarguments.
Facebook Marketing
Hey Webbiquity,
I was wondering on a similar note,, Facebook marketing can be powerful and a lot of marketers are making sorry attempts at marketing. They go out and start marketing their business opportunity to all their friends. They post their business opportunities on group walls, on friends walls and send messages with offering their business opportunities. They are advertising and prospecting extremely hard with little to no success to show for it.
Good Job!
webbiqu1
Thanks John. There is actually one other use of Facebook for b2b companies, closely related to this one: HR. Use it as a show-the-company-culture recruitment tool. Marketing can check in on the page now and then but it becomes primarily a tool for “marketing” the company to prospective employees rather than actually promoting b2b products and services.
Terrance
It’s amazing since the date of this post…that number has almost doubled, and Facebook will have nearly a billion members in a couple years !!