While other social media platforms might be “up and coming,” it’s Facebook that is the current social media giant with 2.07 billion (with a b) monthly active users and 68 percent of US adults having an account, according to a stats round-up by Hootsuite. People connect, post, and read about each other’s lives all the time, all while being bombarded by native, organic, and paid advertising. But if you’re selling B2B products or services, you might be feeling out in the cold when it comes to the B2C-centric advertising of Facebook and wondering if there’s even a place for you on Facebook. Good news: there is, if you’re willing to take it seriously.
Know Your Market and Identify Your Fanbase
Remember that stat about 68% of US adults having a Facebook page? While a good percentage of them could be interested in a product for themselves, only a tiny fraction is going to be A) business owners, and B) interested in your product or service. Assuming your sales team has already outlined your ideal client profile, it’s time to apply that to the landscape of Facebook in two key ways.
Create Content People Want to Share
Just like you create content for your website and advertising with your advertising medium in mind, you need to do the same for social media. The best way to build a fanbase and get your social media to reach your target audience is to produce great content tailored to social media. A few ideas below can be tailored to your products or services:
- Blogs that solve problems. Show your expertise by having blogs that answer questions that people actually have, using accessible language and topical subjects.
- Graphics that catch eyes. Pictures can go big on social media, especially funny or useful infographics. Video has truly transformed Facebook and is now one of the leading ways to engage. Both can produce content ready to go viral and help you stand out from the crowd.
- Phrases that inspire… or cause laughter. Don’t have time or budget for content creation? Turning phrases, re-posting content with added thoughts, or using humor in the right place at the right time are all great options, assuming they add substance. Remember, Facebook is a more casual
Dive into Facebook Advertising
One of the most powerful tools for targeting your audience on Facebook is using their advertising platform. Facebook collects thousands of data points from their users, from basic demographics like age and location to deep-delving statistics like jobs, interests, and when they are online. You can use these tools to better target that ideal client profile through a variety of ways. This includes things like job titles (Owners, CEOs, etc.), industry interests, and even targeting individual companies. Here are a few examples:
Boosted Posts
Have a great post, but want it to go further (and to the right people)? Boosted posts are an easy way of combining a post with a targeted audience and a budget to send your post directly to targeted individuals online.
Referral Traffic Ads
Want to get traffic to your website? You can use specially tailored ads to generate traffic to your website instead of engagement on Facebook. This can lead to your online sales funnel, lead generation forms, special events, or even your online store.
Lead Generation
If you’re looking to engage users on their favorite medium (Facebook) but still want to get leads, using lead generation ads could be right for you. This pops up a form for the user to fill out, already pre-loaded with most of their information. Great for starting a conversation, getting people to sign up for a newsletter, or other starting forms of lead generation.
We hope that this article has given you some starting insight into how you can use Facebook to promote your B2B products and services. Just like your business, if you work at your Facebook strategy to produce polished and engaging content, you can reach your prospects, especially with the use of targeted ads. If you’re interested in learning more about engaging on Facebook or other social media for B2B products or services, think about contacting us at Vision. We can help you work out a plan for success and help you implement it with our social media specialists.
