Earlier this week, in Part 1: Facebook for B2B Marketing we looked at some key statistics from research conducted by Marketo that indicated that many businesses don’t get exposure to most of the people who’ve liked their page.

In this Part 2 we’ll focus on what to do about that and how to keep your audience engaged and responsive after the initial spike of interest.

Getting Back In The Game: Promoting Posts To Your Fans

So you’ve been drifting along, using Facebook for B2B and assuming that everyone’s looking at your Facebook page quotes but in reality, no one has. How do you recover and re-ignite the interest from this fan base to which you are now virtually invisible? The bad news is that it’ll cost you; the good news is that it doesn’t have to be very much. Promoted posts targeted only at your fans or at your fans and their friends are cost effective and precise ways to put your fresh, engaging content back in front of the people who matter.

If you’re unsure what will work for your market, you’ll need to arrange a series of low budget tests to find out. Use a variety of different promoted posts to evaluate what messages have the best effect in re-engaging an audience that has turned off. Promoting several well thought out and very different posts in this way will help you evaluate what works best. In addition to testing, it is essential that you back the winners and promote your most interactive and engaging posts once they have proven their success organically.

NB: When using Facebook for B2B it is essential that you remember that images in promoted posts cannot contain more than 20% text. We recently ran a successful facebook campaign using Inspirational quotes as the posts (where the image is mostly the quote). These work very well organically, but you won’t be allowed to boost them with paid advertising.

What Your Posts Should Look Like Going Forward

All your posts should incorporate one or more of the following elements as these are the things that make posts shareable and encourage interactivity.

• Give: Offers, discounts, deals or contests are nice and viral. If constructed correctly they can lead to greater brand engagement and create an image of generosity (not always common for a B2B firm)
• Advise: Tips, especially about problems that everyone encounters are easily liked and shared as they add value; they also provide the B2B marketer with an opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership
• Warn: Warnings about dangers cause people to share them out of concern for their friends, in a B2B context they can also convey inferred authority onto the originator
• Amuse: Funny pictures and quotes, as long as they’re not offensive are a great idea and work just as well for marketers using Facebook for B2B as B2C, don’t be afraid to try!
• Inspire: Inspirational quotes encourage people to like and share as they have a feel good factor for your fans - they want to enjoy and pass on
• Amaze: Amazing pictures or facts create a “wow” factor that pulls in the clicks
• Unite: Create a post that acts as a flag to carry - a way to illustrate to others (potential new fans) that your group is great, provides value and is doing something positive. People love to say “look at what I’m part of” in relation to something positive and successful, so this tactic can have great results. 

Our 5 Top Tips For Using Facebook For B2B

1. Look at your metrics: Use the analytics tools provided for free by Facebook. This is an easy way to monitor how you are progressing and allows you to track improvement in engagement over time
2. Get detailed: Plan each post carefully, considering exactly how it is going to get the response you want and monitor the results to see if you achieve this
3. Mix it up: Don’t always do posts to get likes, spread your efforts across the different response types and design posts to target each specifically using the sharing checklist above
4. Chase the winners: Promote your best posts to further ramp up your EdgeRank and make the most of your best content
5. Test, test, test: After putting yourself in your customers shoes to get as close to their mind-set as you can, tests will be essential to achieve on-going incremental improvement in results

I thought I'd end the post on a humourous note. More comic than infographic to be honest - the funny guys over at The Oatmeal created a visual on what not to do to increase your likes and shares - a warning to all marketers!

If you’d like more information on using Facebook for B2B marketing or you’d like to chat through your next campaign, just drop us a line. 

Did you see Part 1 to this blog? Check it out: Using Facebook for B2B marketing: Our views on Marketo's research