B2B Facebook Marketing Tips

Many B2B marketers approach Facebook with the knowledge of how to maintain a personal profile, but still shake their heads at how to get results from a business Page for their B2B company. There are two basic things you need to know about managing a Facebook Page for a B2B company. The first is that you must post compelling content that people who like the Page will engage with. This is especially true since Facebook introduced the EdgeRank algorithm, which only shows popular content in the newsfeed. The second thing to know is that you need to include calls to action, both on the Page and ones that drive traffic back to your company website.
Next week I will be presenting a session, along with Deirdre Walsh and Susan Solomon, about Facebook Marketing for B2B Companies at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum. In the process of preparing for the presentation, I found and reviewed lots of recent articles that provide tips that can help B2B marketers manage Facebook Pages. Here is a link to the complete list of Facebook resources, but I have selected and organized the best tips from each article. A link to the source of each tip is included if you want to read more. If you have any additional tips to share, please leave them in the comments below.

Liking the Page

1. Ask your staff, customers, vendors, and partners — who already know you and like you — to “Like” your Facebook page first. (source)

Facebook Content

2. Share lots of photos, and ask your fans to share photos. Facebook’s Photos remain the most viral feature of its platform. (source)
3. Write for the newsfeed, not for your wall. (source)
4. Don’t worry about writing too little. (source)
5. Be strategic and pay attention to signal vs. noise. (source)
6. Write posts that encourage sharing across the network. (source)
7. Boost your comments by asking questions, but stay away from simple Yes/No answers. (source)
8. Mix it up a little between videos, photos, questions and information (source)
9. Use the 80-20 rule to determine how much other people’s content to post versus your own. (source)
10. Use @ tagging strategically. (source)
11. Target by location or language. (source)
12. Tailor your content to mobile users. (source)
13. Diversify your team’s voices. (source)
14. Open the door to user content — but not the floodgates. (source)
15. Keep posts 80 characters long or shorter. (source)
16. Don’t Be Afraid to Show You’re Human. (source)
17. Have a Unique Voice. (source)
18. Diversify Your Content. (source)
19. Post original and relevant content. (source)
20. Post industry articles and blog posts fresh from your newsreader. (source)
21. Share exclusive, behind the scenes information. (source)
22. Write simply and plainly. (source)
23. Think mainstream for content. (source)

Analyze and Optimize Content

24. Use Edgerank to find your best & worst days. (source)
25. Monitor which posts attract the most Likes and comments (eyeball), and use Insights – Facebook’s own analytics tool – for data. (source)
26. Track the Performance of Your Posts. (source)

Calls to Action

27. Treat your Facebook “Like” button or link to your Facebook Page like any call to action – make it easy to spot. (source)
28. Encourage others to share your calls to action, so they show up in their newsfeed. (source)

Tabs and Landing Pages

29. Make creative use of Tabs. (source)
30. Choose a “landing tab” wisely. (source)
31. Have calls to action on your landing tab. (source)
32. The landing page should be relevant to the ad driving visitors there. (source)
33. Offer incentives. (source)
34. Keep it up to date. (source)
35. Provide interesting content. (source)

How and When to Post

36. Watch Your Post Frequency and Timing. (source)
37. There is a short window of opportunity to gain traction with an update. (source)
38. Be careful with automated posting services like NetworkedBlogs or syncing updates through your Twitter feed. (source)
39. Establish a regular schedule for your brand’s Facebook updates. (source)
40. Post towards the end of the week (source)
41. Weekends are more Facebook sharing friendly. (source)

Audience

42. Know your audience well, and when you make a mistake, quickly own up, do right by your audience and fix the problem. (source)
43. Don’t forget to send an update to fans. (source)
44. Allow your fans to tag photos on your Page. (source)
45. Put Your Fans in Charge Every Now and Then. (source)

Interaction off the Facebook Page

46. Integrate Facebook outside of your Fan Page, on your website, in as many places as you can. Create more compelling opportunities for people to buy your product based on their friends’ Likes. (source)
47. Find synergy with other organizations and entities, and then work together to promote each other’s Facebook pages so that everyone benefits. (source)

Optimize Your Facebook Page for Search

48. Link to your Facebook page from your website home page, using your brand in the anchor or alt‐text. (source)
49. Use your brand name in your posts. (source)
50. Get links to your Facebook Page by driving social engagement and “likes.” (source)
51. Use Facebook Shares and Likes to improve rankings of any page on your website. (source)
52. Interlink your directory pages with parallel Facebook pages. (source)
53. Integrate your website broadly with Facebook Social Plugins and Facebook Connect. (source)

Facebook Advertising

54. Restrict ads to people that don’t Like your Page. (source)
55. Invest in sponsored stories – they work. (source)

Resources

56. Find the resources to respond to your fans questions and inquiries. (source)
57. Accept you won’t work a 9-5. (source)

Miscellaneous

58. Assess the business value of your Page. (source)
59. Hold real-world events. (source)
60. Make use of “Add to My Page’s Favorites.” (source)
61. If you have a physical location, use Place Pages and Deals to drive traffic through your doors. (source)
62. Respond to comments. (source)
63. Polls delivered directly to users’ news feeds are not only effective in their reach but also in their ability to drive engagement. (source)

Facebook Mistakes

64. Broadcasting Content. (source)
65. Not Investing Adequate Time. (source)
66. Being Boring or Predictable. (source)
67. Failing to Learn About Facebook Mechanics and Tools. (source)
68. Violating Facebook’s Terms. (source)
69. Assuming People Go To Your Fan Page Versus Seeing Your Posts In Their News Feed. (source)
70. Expecting Welcome Tabs To Get You Lots Of Fans. (source)
71. Overestimating Apps and Tabs. (source)
72. No Budget For Ads To Acquire Fans. (source)
73. Posting In A Self Centered Way, Not Trying To Get Likes And Comments. (source)
74. Not Optimizing For Impressions And Feedback Rate. (source)
75. Over-Selling and Hard-Selling Without Conversing Or Arousing Desire First. (source)

By Jeffrey L. Cohen

Posted in: social media