Take a step back and think about it: A b2c marketer’s job is probably easier than a b2b marketer’s job when it comes to successfully leveraging social media. That’s because, generally speaking, people use social media sites like Facebook to connect with their friends and to be entertained—not to figure out how to upgrade their communications infrastructure.
But the fact remains that 84 percent of b2b marketers are currently marketing on at least one social media network. While b2c marketers might have an easy task at hand compared to their b2b counterparts—that of growing their brand, onboarding new customers and generating new leads—that doesn’t mean that b2b marketers strike out on social media. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. By employing a few tips and tricks on social media, b2b marketers are able to thrive.
So what can they do to make that happen? There are over 1.3 billion users on Facebook, so let’s direct the focus of this piece on that social network. By employing the following tactics, b2b marketers are able to sit back and watch their brand grow via Facebook marketing efforts.
Tips and tricks regarding how B2B marketers can shine on Facebook
The audience for b2b marketers is very different from that of their b2b foils, so it’s imperative that b2b marketers who are using Facebook understand their audience before waging their campaigns. Your company’s audience on Facebook will be different from its audience on Twitter, Pinterest or LinkedIn, and that audience consumes content differently. By making use of Facebook Insights, for example, b2b marketers are able to better understand their audience and thus craft customized content specifically targeted toward that audience. By taking a deep dive into the demographics of your audience, you’re able to construct customer personas and target directly to them.
Once that audience is established, it’s crucial that marketers create content that adds value. The Internet is flooded with all kinds of content, and the trick for b2b marketers is to create content that helps their brand stand apart from the competition. Don’t be too self-promotional, because nobody wants their Facebook feed to be filled with advertisements. The trick is to build content that you know resonates with your audience, establishing and maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with your customers. The longer that relationship is healthy, the more likely a business is to realize robust financial benefits from being in it.
It’s important to realize that when your customers reach out to you on social media, you’ve got to reach back out to them. In fact, studies have repeatedly shown that customers expect rather quick responses to their complaints, inquiries and comments on social media. If your business is a Caterpillardealer, for example, a customer posts a message on your status asking for further information about a particular machine that you sell, answer that question in as quick a manner as is possible. You don’t want customers to feel as though you are ignoring them. Worse yet, you don’t want to miss out on a potential sale.
Getting back to Facebook Insights: The tool allows marketers to see precisely when their audience is reading the content that they post. So use it to figure out when your audience is giving you the most traffic, and post content that agrees with their collective schedule. Wouldn’t it be awful to create quality content time and time again only to have that content mostly ignored because you were posting it at the wrong time?
Key Takeaways
Being a successful b2b marketer on Facebook is certainly no easy task. But on the other hand, it’s not impossible either. By getting to know your audience well, creating custom content that adds value, engaging your customers and publishing content according to their schedules, you’re putting all the right ingredients into the proverbial digital mixing bowl.
Whether your customers eat your marketing porridge remains to be seen. But you have no control over that. All you have control over is what you put in the bowl.
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See also: 8 Tips on How to Write a Truly Funny Facebook Status
