Using Facebook for B2B and Industrial Internet Marketing

Social marketing requires diligence. For an effective push, you should aim to modify your profiles almost daily. A profile could include a Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile and even a Twitter account.  The popular social networks are made for people who regularly visit and update their profiles, or add information to the network such as questions, discussion points or links. User generated content from social networks can be a strong driving force for traffic. Updating profiles often could seem daunting, especially if you’re in the industrial and B2B sector and not accustomed to social marketing. For an easy yet effective start, choose one popular social network to focus on. This is a great way to start your social marketing campaign.

I recommend Facebook as a social network to start with for new online industrial marketing campaigns. The service is usable and mixes a healthy combination of commercial advertising, brands with personal accounts. Facebook, has recently modified its settings to its Fan Pages, which are the profiles which businesses can create. They are places for more commercial groups, companies and brands to set up a profile. You can create a profile for your brand and your employees, customers and friends can become fans of your brand. The fan pages are much like the typical Facebook profile page. One can add a photo, information, and post links videos and events. The great new development of a Facebook fan page is the ability to appear in your fans’ news feed when you update your fan page content. Before, a fan page’s only method of reaching a mass audience was to send a private, official message to fans. Now, with the news feed appearance ability, your fan page actions will show in your fans newsfeed, which will help draw attention to your actions without the need to directly message your fans. You can be inobtrusive, yet still maintain a presence through Facebook, via the newsfeed.

Facebook fan pages are a great way to jump in on b2b and industrial social marketing. If you’re not sure what content to post on your page, or if you have enough ammunition to create a worthwhile profile, consider these ideas: when you have a new product, an event or any announcement you can use your Facebook fan page to send an alert to all your fans; you can post interesting industry links to add value to the marketplace Beyond the normal features that come with a fan page, there are a variety of applications you can add to the fan page to make it more fun and more search-engine friendly.

Facebook pages are now being given SEO-friendly URL’s which means the page addresses are more easily indexed by Google. As for the possible backlinks from a Facebook fan page, if you place a link to your main site from your Facebook fan page, that link is “nofollow”. That link will not be recorded by the search engines. However, if you add the RSS feed application to your page and start pulling in posts from your blog and press releases, those links will provide a kickback, or an additional link to your page.  The keywords from the RSS feed will start enhancing your fan page’s searchability and subsequently give you more exposure. Other great Facebook applications include quizzes, Flickr photostreams, video applications and more. Have fun and add value to your page, and your visitors will follow.

If your company has a young workforce, you likely have social media experts right on staff. Getting everyone in your company involved on your Facebook fan page will help delegate some of your social marketing time. Encourage your employees to become fans and encourage them to post photos from company socials, seminars and other work related and more casual links. Social networks are meant to be fun yet informative. Have fun with your venture into social marketing!