#DearB2B Is Facebook really for B2B image

#DearB2B: Is Facebook really for B2B?

Q: I’m not convinced Facebook works for B2B. I can’t seem to get any traction. What am I doing wrong?

A: Thank you for your question. Optimally utilizing Facebook for B2B marketing has been a popular question for years. B2B marketers have commonly, and incorrectly, applied successful techniques they’ve experienced in other channels to Facebook. Even though, for example, LinkedIn and Facebook are both social platforms they almost need to be treated as completely different channels.

Our data and those from independent surveys suggest that your brand should have a presence on Facebook. In a 2016 Content Marketing Institute study, Facebook is gaining ground on Twitter as one of the top used social platforms (87% of respondents use Twitter for B2B purposes, and 84% use Facebook. That’s pretty close!).  

How you approach Facebook as a B2B platform will certainly differ based on your type of company (small business, enterprise, etc.), objectives (brand awareness v. lead gen) and your target audience.

We’ve seen strong brand and demand results when we’ve applied the following principles:

1) Unlocking Facebook’s true B2B potential lies in understanding where and how the platform is most commonly used in the buyer journey. Is your audience utilizing Facebook more at early stage (i.e., awareness) or later stage (i.e., consideration)? Understanding this aspect will help you utilize the most appropriate messaging and call-to-action.

2) Consider marketing in social with social. Utilize call-to-actions that are social specific, such as likes and shares.

3) Along the lines of  No. 2, consider non-gated calls-to-action. B2B social media users expect the content they see to be open. So, consider not putting a form fill in the front of the content and/or using snackable content such as infographics or videos.  

4) It’s imperative to stay on top of the evolving opportunities within individual social platforms. Consider piloting Facebook programs that take advantage of new targeting or communication technologies such as Facebook Live.

Finally, with the discussion of any channel or platform, we have to talk about attribution. Even though a user didn’t engage with your Facebook ad or post, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t influence their engagement later on in their journey. If you have the resources and analytic capabilities, you may want to conduct attribution analysis for all your channels – not just Facebook.

Join the conversation on LinkedIn or @MarketingB2B on Twitter with #DearB2B. Or email [email protected] to get help with your toughest B2B marketing challenges.

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