A majority of Gen Yers now consider Facebook as the grandma channel. Despite that, Internet marketing agencies are still pushing their clients hard to use Facebook, both for content and also as an advertising platform. For certain types of businesses, it is indeed true that Facebook can be an effective medium to reach a wide audience, globally.
However, in many instances, it would be a waste of your hard earned dollars to do so. It helps to know whether these instances may affect your business. And you should know this BEFORE you venture down the path of creating content, testing, monitoring.... and spending money needlessly.
B2B Audience Does Not Use Facebook
You would think this was a no-brainer. Yet, some companies are so hypnotized by the hype around Facebook success that they ignore this killer fact. You will end up throwing money around an empty room using Facebook for distributing your B2B content.
Ask yourself if your audience uses Facebook to find content aimed at the C-Suite—articles meant to educate and inform executives and managers; white papers you have worked so hard to produce; watch a 10-minute executive presentation or an archived webinar? It’s unlikely.
The Facebook Goldfish Syndrome
Although it is a given that many Facebook visitors spend HOURS on the site, the reality is that any content which is longer than a sentence or two, more than a cute photo of a kitten, a short humorous video, or a joke to share with friends is misplaced on Facebook. The average Facebook user is not there to read an encyclopedic entry concerning the benefits of your latest best-selling product. Many Facebook users also do not like any hint of a hard sell, and will deliberately tune out advertising that has not come directly from a brand they already love or are actively researching.
You need hard hitting, short, possibly even off-topic content to attract attention to your brand. If your target is B2B, you would be far better off spending time and content marketing resources on LinkedIn, SlideShare and Twitter.
Lonely?
Building a community or following is incredibly difficult, even with 1.5 billion active monthly users. Smaller companies need loyal evangelists and influencers to help you reach other people´s timelines and be noticed. Niche products and industries will need to put in additional work (and dollars) to grow that community and reach beyond the “preaching to the choir” point. Otherwise, you look like a small company (however large you may be) who has just not mastered social media. And that will make you very few friends.
A Lack of Facebook Knowledge
Of course, there are agencies that will run your Facebook presence for you. However, it is frequently obvious in these instances that the voice of the company is somehow distant from the real company. No third party can ever mimic your company´s marketing efforts fully, and maintain that voice day after day to a receptive audience. Should you decide that your target audience is on Facebook and you need to meet the potential customers in that space, it is far better to train in-house personnel who can represent your brand appropriately on Facebook. At the very least, if you use a content agency, let them provide the content that you review, approve, tweak if necessary, and then post on Facebook.
At MintCopy, we write social media content for a number of clients across many industry verticals. But we don’t “run” your social media campaign. We can help with housekeeping; we can’t own the house or make it ‘home’!
Not sure whether you are spending your money wisely on Facebook? Need suitable content and advice on leveraging social channels for better content marketing results? Call us at 888-646-8003 or send us an email.