We recently added a Fan Page on Facebook for Valor Corporation. I wasn’t certain what we would do with it since Valor is a B2B Sporting Goods supplier. Valor does not sell to the public. Without any mention of it we had a following of about 20 people within 2 weeks. Not big numbers by any stretch, but numbers none the less.
We began by syndicating our Blog Posts to the page along with some videos. Still not sure what we would do with it beyond that, I kind of let it sit for a month or so. We had more fans come along, mostly employees from long ago and current employees.
So two nights ago, I put a “badge” in th footer section of Valor’s website and almost instantly we added fans. So what so we do now? There are some drawbacks to being a B2B and operating in public like a page has you do.
Cons
- B2B knowledge between distributor and dealer needs to remain private
- Prices have to remain private too
- There is no real way to determine who is a customer and who is a casual fan of the items we sell
Pros
- Helps your brand by having your name out there no matter the business
- People who are looking for us have one more place to find us
- Great tool for bringing industry members together
So what would make Facebook more user friendly for B2B?
Controlling membership
It would be nice to be able to keep the fans of Valor limited to our dealers. If we could do that, we would be able to share more info that we don’t want to share with the general public.
An import method to import our database to facebook and invite our customers to become fans directly in Facebook.
You can invite friends to be your friend, why not offer that ability to companies that are able to invite thousands.
I will do some more snooping around and try some different marketing tactics and report back as to what works and what doesn’t. Plus where the fan page is in a few months.
Do you have a fan page for your business? If so, what do you share on it?
What would you like to see from Facebook to be more B2B friendly?
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onBlulyne.com » Is <b>Facebook</b> a place for B2B Marketing?Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
I am starting a B2B company that consults businesses and politicians on effective use of research data in advertising and political campaigns. I have been struggling for a month or so over whether I should start a FB fan page or not. Not sure yet what the benefits could be other than just open another potential communications channel…My company's site is actually a blog – i do not have a “website” in the more common sense. Twitter is another option, much more limited but easier to maintain as well. Just daily twits regarding business activity…
when you said that Facebook is a great tool for bringing together the industry, I totally agree. I'd go a step further in saying that it has the potential of changing how we interact with company's forever. If there is transparency & a common ground between consumer (b2b or b2c) and company then wouldn't life be even simpler?
In a perfect world, yes. But you need to separate the companies that are using it strictly for marketing and the ones that are actually trying to connect with their customers. If they are genuinely trying to learn what there customers wants and needs are, then it does change how we interact. But if it just another marketing tool, it will go away just like aol.
Ben – I suppose you are correct. Guess my comment is more of a hopeful wish than anything else.