If you clicked this link thinking you were going to read an affirmation that your advertising, marketing or public relations agency should stay off of Facebook, well, prepare to be disappointed. As it turns out, there are several successful B2B social media examples we can point to, including B2B Facebook pages.
Here’s my list of compelling reasons your agency should invest in a space not commonly thought of as key to sustained digital B2B growth.
It’s a culture thing
You’re always struggling with the challenge of clearly communicating your culture to the masses – demonstrating your cool factor while maintaining a sense of professionalism and quality of work. What better way than with a social network designed to showcase personality? Uploading fun pics of life around the office and encouraging employees to share their own inspirational content drives cultural awareness and perception.
The best talent gravitates to their network
It’s hard finding good people these days. It’s even more difficult when the ultra-wealthy agencies and funded tech startups are snapping up the best digital people, offering perks and pay well above your comfort level. You’re busy enough vetting top talent to make sure your investment doesn’t go to waste. Wouldn’t it be great to also pull new talent in at the same time? If your page is curated correctly you’ll be a known quantity to the best talent in your space, and that makes a big difference the next time you want to make that new hire.
The barrier to entry is low low low low
The only cost to you is the time it takes to create and manage your B2B Facebook page. Beyond that development and coding is straightforward. There are a number if WordPress plugins designed to help your existing blog play nicely with your new B2B Facebook page and lower the bar further.
Ads are cheap
When you’re ready to let everyone know who you are and what you do Facebook offers cheap options for ad targeting. Quickly and easily let Facebook know about new job openings, company news or just the fact that you’re awesome. Sneaky agencies are even using Facebook ads to target your employees with lucrative job offers when you’re not around to remind them of how great their current position is.
It’s optimized for mobile devices and comes with a built in app
Not only will everything you do on Facbeook be automatically optimized for the latest mobile devices, you’ll also have an app installed on millions of smartphones around the country. You might even consider your Facebook page the mobile version of your website.
Prospects love it
Seeing your capabilities deck and meeting key senior people is a great first step, but giving that next big prospect a window into your culture helps reduce time to close the sale. As B2B consultants we’re always looking for ways to help our advertising, marketing and public relations agency clients reduce that 6-12 month sales cycle using digital tools. A great Facebook page showcases your expertise in the digital space while providing that next client-to-be an uninhibited look at the people and processes behind your capabilities discussion. Once you close the sale it’s also a great way to show your new client some love by adding their Facebook company page to yours.
It’s an instant data collection channel
When your audience is large and diversified you can quickly and easily conduct informal polls. We recently asked our network what they would pay for a new mobile app. This gave us another instant data point to use in a pricing discussion for one of our new mobile apps. We also wanted to know how many Apple devices our network owns – the data we received help drive discussion around platforms.
Be sure to check out lonelybrand on Facebook to see how we operate a successful B2B Facebook page. You can also learn more on how to launch successful B2B Facebook pages with our white paper on overcoming digital doubt. What other ways are you seeing B2B Facebook pages driving interest, displaying culture and collecting valuable data?
