Facebook for business - A good idea or not?

Bren157

Could exposing a business to facebook lead to negative feedback or is it the way forward? Can you target-market adverts using facebook? I am concerned that facebook may deminish the privacy and integrity of our professional advice services. Any comments or direction welcome please.

Kenny Logins

Depends on what business..

You can be very specific with targeting adverts on Facebook.

StompToWork

I think that Facebook is an excellent marketing tool, but really only for retail-type businesses, and businesses who provide services to Joe Soap public.

I think marketing on Facebook may be somewhat redundant for professional services or business-to-business enterprises.

Bren157

Thank you Kenny and StompToWork for the replies. Our business is financial planning consultancy and as we do not generally see solicitors or doctors advertising on Facebook I would wonder if it could do us more harm than good. Good to know facebook is strong on target-marketing. But would a business owner being targetted for financial consultancy services via a facebook advert respect or dismiss the business by the very nature of facebook? This is my €64,000.00 question!

Peterdalkey

I would very much doubt that it would do any damage, as most of your demographic targets are not on FB. FB advert targetting is absolutely useless especially on business, profession or even sectoral segmentation.
Dont waste your money.

Cheers

Peter

StompToWork

Peterdalkey wrote: »

I would very much doubt that it would do any damage, as most of your demographic targets are not on FB. FB advert targetting is absolutely useless especially on business, profession or even sectoral segmentation.
Dont waste your money.

Cheers

Peter

+1

riveratom

Peterdalkey wrote: »

I would very much doubt that it would do any damage, as most of your demographic targets are not on FB. FB advert targetting is absolutely useless especially on business, profession or even sectoral segmentation.
Dont waste your money.

Cheers

Peter

?

FB has one of the most granular targeting systems for ads out there. You can target by interests, you can target by location, age - we are currently using it to target engaged women!

Peterdalkey

riveratom wrote: »

?

FB has one of the most granular targeting systems for ads out there. You can target by interests, you can target by location, age - we are currently using it to target engaged women!

Well your experience is diametrically opposite to ours. We carried out a detailed analysis last year of a FB advertising campaign and measured the responses for match to selection criteria, they could not even get the age profile correct, let alone the target business market. However our market was B2B and therein I suspect lies the difference. FB do not even collect the kind of information ( occupation!) that we would need to locate people in our target sectors.

Cheers

Peter

Bren157

Thanks again for all your replies. As we would be targetting business owners and other professionals, it does seem from your feedback that on balance, facebook is probably not the place to be all-told?

highlandseoghan

Facebook pages and facebook advertising I find exceelent for getting new customers and extra sales in the retail sector.

Like previous posters have said in a b2b sense I don't think you will get the results you want and could end up wasting money but I don't think it would have a negetative impact on your business.

riveratom

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Well your experience is diametrically opposite to ours. We carried out a detailed analysis last year of a FB advertising campaign and measured the responses for match to selection criteria, they could not even get the age profile correct, let alone the target business market. However our market was B2B and therein I suspect lies the difference. FB do not even collect the kind of information ( occupation!) that we would need to locate people in our target sectors.

Cheers

Peter

Yes well it is not as good for B2B as B2C, any social media / online marketing consultant worth their salt would have told you that and saved you money there! Would LinkedIn not have been your first thought (where I believe you can easily target by level / occupation / sector, etc)?

Peterdalkey

riveratom wrote: »

Yes well it is not as good for B2B as B2C, any social media / online marketing consultant worth their salt would have told you that and saved you money there! Would LinkedIn not have been your first thought (where I believe you can easily target by level / occupation / sector, etc)?

The very same punters here and elsewhere at the time that were promoting that every business should be using FB? Loads of expert advice after the money has been wasted!

P

riveratom

Peterdalkey wrote: »

The very same punters here and elsewhere at the time that were promoting that every business should be using FB? Loads of expert advice after the money has been wasted!

P

You'll have to put some context around that. Who were the experts? People who you could see based on their online presence / company's presence or client list had years of experience and a high level of expertise, or punters on Boards or elsewhere who were experts after reading a couple of online marketing blogs?

'Every business should be using FB' - with a tiny number of exceptions, yes they should.

'Every business should be using FB ads' - I would say not, although running a small test trial, perhaps with the guiding hand of someone who knows what they are doing, is probably not a bad idea for most businesses. Again, it really depends.

Facebook is a very visual channel, it can work very, very well for brands, product and services which fit that mould. I read your Journal article and from what I recall, you are in the packaging business.

Bren157

Thank you all for the advice; really appreciate it. On balance I think Facebook is not for our business. Perhaps there is a reason we do not see professional advice services advertising on it! Thanks again for your help; you may have saved us quite a bit of money from our marketing budget. Cheers!