Facebook for B2B ?

Peterdalkey

Hi

I am doing some research to try and see if Facebook could be actually be useful to our online sales efforts. I can see how consumer products could work well especially if we are talking brands and fashion/style type products and services.
Everything I read on the subject tells me SMEs must get into Facebook and social media, but hey... industrial/commercial supplies? I would really like to hear of any relevant experiences and hints/ideas from those who have succeeded and the experiences of those who have found it ineffective.

Perhaps with more companies listing on Linkedin, it might be the better commercial social network?


I did a piece for www.thejournal.ie on my recent website experiences which has brought me on to this social media thing! http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/colu...-how-i-did-it/

Thanks

Peter

I posted this in "design" but think it might be more properly located here.

Chet Zar

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Hi

I am doing some research to try and see if Facebook could be actually be useful to our online sales efforts. I can see how consumer products could work well especially if we are talking brands and fashion/style type products and services.
Everything I read on the subject tells me SMEs must get into Facebook and social media, but hey... industrial/commercial supplies? I would really like to hear of any relevant experiences and hints/ideas from those who have succeeded and the experiences of those who have found it ineffective.

Perhaps with more companies listing on Linkedin, it might be the better commercial social network?


I did a piece for www.thejournal.ie on my recent website experiences which has brought me on to this social media thing! http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/colu...-how-i-did-it/

Thanks

Peter

I posted this in "design" but think it might be more properly located here.

Hi Peter,

Nice article in the Journal. Enjoyed the read.

Short answer - Facebook not so much for your B2B focus - you need to get on Twitter. A goldmine for potential leads, as well as amazing for general networking and interaction, and getting your name out there.

Do it and you can come back and thank me when you don't look back!

Peterdalkey

Thanks Chet Zar

Well at least for the compliment, it is very generous of you to make it, thank you.

While I struggle with Facebook, the Twitter thing is a complete mystery to me. I have 2 1/2 Facebook pages up, one personal to learn the ropes and 1 and a bit as product pages, they are all generating nothing! I have 2 Twitter identies up and running, one for myself and 1 for a specific marketing product.....all doing the same as Facebook...Rockall! You will see from my journal articles that I am not shy about coming forward but I have no idea how to build "followers".

At least I am old enough to listen and learn, so please treat me like one from Junior Infants, or Low Babies as it was in my day!

Cheers

Peter

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

It's totally dependent on the business sector in my opinion. Via facebook some products don't work - No-one wants to like a business that sells Mobility Products for example (Mary likes incontinence products isn't a good look!), but my other companies can and do get great sales b2b and b2c on fb.

Generally it's all about how you use the platform and how much time you are willing to put into it.

One big danger about having a presence on social media is if customers decide to contact you via that medium but you havent dedicated staff checking extremely frequently you can loose leads as fast as you pick them up as customers feel ignored.

The nice thing about facebook, although the ads cost a lot more than other avenues in my experience, you can be laser focused ie. targeting only MD's, CEO's etc in your industry. So while the pool is smaller, you can reach the people you want if you have the know who to use the medium.

Peterdalkey

Thanks Ronan
Good stuff.
As we would only have product outlines/promotions on the FB pages the objective would be to get the visitors to see pricing and product options etc by visiting our main websites. is this the way to go?
Any thoughts on how to build the inward traffic to FB sites. I will look at the advertising but we sell boring packaging in Ireland, it is hard to target who actually does the buying. We do quite a lot with online sellers, so I suppose that is one target ad group. The other products are high end Direct Marketing metallic mailers and bags with a primary focus on the UK, we have distributors in other export markets.

Any input appreciated and thanks again for your time and advice

Cheers

Peter

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Sounds like your efforts would be better used focusing on adwords and referrals.

Peterdalkey

Going to try a targetted UK ad on FB at say 20 Euro a day for a month and see what happens. I already have good Adwords campaigns up and running for years.
I did go through the FB ad forms and I must say the targeting is very decent, way ahead of Adwords.

will post my results when the trial is done!

JD Dublin

Any update on the Facebook campaign?

Peterdalkey

Yep

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened/.
Got a huge reaction, nearly 60,000 reads and a ton of comments, some even quite fair!

Now working on some new FB pages and linking them in from our websites. Mostly to use them for examples of one off jobs etc that we do not want to clutter the sites with. I would now see it as a complementary facility rather than as a generator of new business. I suppose you gotta be in that space.

arbitrage

LinkedIn would be a fantastic way for B2B so you can send sample materials directly to the people who influence the purchasing decisions.

I will be launching a facebook campaign in August and I am doing a fair bit of research into it at the moment as I will be putting most of my marketing budget into FB as print media is far too expensive to have a regular campaign.

One major thing I have found is people are far more likely to read the FB ad if there is a person in the accompanying picture instead of a product or logo.

What is your experience regarding the recommended bidding ranges suggested by FB when you are finalising the ad?

Peterdalkey

arbitrage wrote: »

LinkedIn would be a fantastic way for B2B so you can send sample materials directly to the people who influence the purchasing decisions.

I will be launching a facebook campaign in August and I am doing a fair bit of research into it at the moment as I will be putting most of my marketing budget into FB as print media is far too expensive to have a regular campaign.

One major thing I have found is people are far more likely to read the FB ad if there is a person in the accompanying picture instead of a product or logo.

What is your experience regarding the recommended bidding ranges suggested by FB when you are finalising the ad?

I think their advertising offering is crap and the supposed targetting is completely ineffective. My average click bid was around E0.50, mid-point in suggested range. Our objective was to get sales from click thoughs, Adwords is much much more effective for our type of products. My advice is to pick a modest budget and try it, but you do need suitable software to be able to track the source of your web visits to determine real effectiveness.

Good Luck with it

JD Dublin

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Yep

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i-put-my-family-business-on-facebook-here%E2%80%99s-what-happened/.
Got a huge reaction, nearly 60,000 reads and a ton of comments, some even quite fair!

Now working on some new FB pages and linking them in from our websites. Mostly to use them for examples of one off jobs etc that we do not want to clutter the sites with. I would now see it as a complementary facility rather than as a generator of new business. I suppose you gotta be in that space.

Good job! Well done.

tiptops

I have a business that uses facebook, I wanted to get an online presence and this was the free and easy way to keep in touch with all my customers, I recon everyone I know, young and old have a facebook page, Every person/company should have one.

I bought the domain and directed it to the facebook page, As a result I have almost 4,000 freinds in under 12months, about 40% of them have become real life customers, the rest are friends and family of the customers. I feel its an excellent way to stay in touch with your customers. Its can be very 'admin' at times but not so bad if you use a smart phone to stay connected on the go.

Regards

Peterdalkey

Just cleaning up old threads and had to smile as the FB share price was today just above 50% of IPO price. The market appears to have woken up from the dream and realised it was a nightmare.. There is still money for some in hype!