One social media platform that should not be ignored is Facebook.
I find the idea of Facebook for business is frequently met with resistance and comments including:
“We are a tech company, we don’t need Facebook.”
“We are B2B, Facebook is not the right platform for B2B companies.”
“We are very focused on our industry, and in our industry, our customers aren’t on Facebook.”
“Facebook is for selling shoes or makeup or something fun. We are not selling anything fun, in fact, we are selling a service!”
Maybe Facebook isn’t right for you, but maybe it is. Consider the following…
Facebook Business Page for B2B Companies
Consider this example of a company that is using Facebook to their advantage. This company is as B2B, serious, down to business, and focused as it gets. This company is Maersk, a logistics company dealing with land and ocean shipping.
As an example of what Maersk does, picture a large container ship arriving from another country, docking, and then an on-the-road logistics team takes over and transports the cargo where it needs to go. The work that Maersk does is likely to go unnoticed by the everyday consumer. It is very likely Maersk shipped your computer or cell phone, and unless you are in B2B you probably don’t realize how much this company has contributed to ensuring the items you use every day, are available.
I invite you to take a look at Maersk’s Facebook page and you will see that (at the time of this writing) 3.1 million people like their page. This is a B2B company. You can’t buy products directly from Maersk as a consumer; you can’t use Maersk to ship your individual products. It is not like FedEx where they will take individual packages, ship and deliver the next day. This is a very, very significant B2B company, and they have 3.1 million people liking their Facebook page.
Using Your Facebook Business Page as a Recruiting Tool
What Maersk is doing with Facebook is essentially using it as a recruiting tool. They use their page to show potential employees what it is like to work at Maersk, to appeal to future talent and to attract new employees. They do this by showing what they are doing as a company.
You can see that social networks don’t only have to be used to sell goods, services and attract customers to your company; social networks can also be used as a recruiting tool.
Using Your Facebook Business Page as an Advertising Tool
Clients ask me, “How do I get my ad in front of someone who already knows my company or likes my company?” One of the easiest solutions is to have a Facebook page. Sounds easy, but I also find there is a sense of nervousness or uncertainty when using this social media tool.
Let me walk you through how this would work.
Let’s say currently, you have a business Facebook page which is linked to your website. So, imagine when a potential client or customer lands on your website, they look around and see you have a Facebook page. They click on the Facebook link and check out your Facebook page. For someone to take the time to go through your website and decide to find out more about your company on Facebook, they have to be highly interested in your company and what you are up to.
Once they go to your Facebook business page, you ensure the Facebook pixel code is set up on your website, which enables you to set up an advertising campaign that will only show ads to those people that have accessed your Facebook page through your website.
The beauty of this approach is you are advertising to people that already know of, and have an interest in, your company. Therefore, your ad message to those people can be a little more targeted. They already know something about you. So, you can get directly into how your company can help, what your company does, that kind of thing. It is something to consider if you had previously thought, “I am not sure what Facebook can do for me, I am a B2B company.”
Jen Kelly is a marketing consultant in Toronto and CEO of New Initiatives Marketing Inc. (NIM) serving growing businesses in Canada and the USA. NIM is the team to call for marketing execution excellence. For companies that don’t have a marketing department, we become your marketing department. For companies that have an existing marketing team and are challenged adding capacity and skills to their team due to a head-count freeze, we act as your marketing team’s right-hand, supporting the skills needed on a monthly basis. Contact us today for a conversation about your company’s marketing needs.
