Despite the enormous interest in social media as a communication and sales tool, many SMEs have only dabbled with the likes of Facebook and Twitter, or can’t see a strong case for using them at all.

In the first of a series of guides, Farhad Divecha, director of AccuraCast - a leading SEO, PPC, social and mobile marketing business, looks at the role Facebook can play in a B2B marketing campaign.

Q: Is Facebook a useful tool for B2B marketing?

A: Absolutely yes! Lots of people dismiss it for being a personal and frivolous network, however, research shows there are more professionals on Facebook than LinkedIn, and they spend more time on the network. What that means is that whatever your target audience is, they are very likely to be active on Facebook - if you not where they are, you’re missing out.

Q: What is its role - should I expect it to generate sales opportunities or is it just a means of keeping in contact with potential customers?

A: Facebook should not be seen as a ‘hard-sell’ platform like Google AdWords, especially not for B2B purposes. However, it allows businesses to very effectively engage their audiences in a way no other platform can do.

Facebook will deliver sales if approached correctly and given time. If you try to hard sell or get too much into the audience’s face too quickly, chances are they will vote with their feet, ‘unlike’ you and you lose the opportunity.

Q: What kind of subjects and content should I be posting to my B2B Facebook page?

A: Variety is very important - it’s OK to post some corporate messages – one or two a week at the most, but make sure these are interspersed with many more non-corporate posts. This should include interesting material – useful tips / articles from relevant industry blogs, news content, and also your opinion.

Humour always works well, even from business perspective, just be careful not to ruffle any feathers. Always view the content from the reader’s perspective - be honest and ask yourself whether you are delivering content which is keeping your Facebook page interesting.  If not, it’s time to come up with some new ideas.

Q: What’s the minimum commitment?  How often should I be posting new content to my Facebook page?

A: This very much depends on the industry and size of your audience, but a general rule of thumb is that you should be posting something new once a week as a minimum, and once a day as a maximum. If you’re posting more than once a day, a lot of the initiative should be user-driven and have a very high % of user engagement - ie, you are posting more because your followers and friends are getting in touch with you.

Q: How do I keep control - what if I get spam comments on my wall or bad feedback?

A: Monitor it regularly – ideally someone should stay logged into FB all through the business day.  That’s not to say you are never taking your eyes from the screen, but it means you can quickly see if something new has appeared which requires your attention.

Delete any spam which appears and block the user or warn them not to spam.  Bad feedback is a challenge, but it should not normally be deleted unless it’s abusive / hateful.  Instead you should:

• Acknowledge the feedback, apologise if appropriate and provide a recourse – e.g. “contact our support and quote this reference to get expedited resolution”
• Accept that problems happen. That’s just human. Other users need to see that you are good at dealing with problems.
• Trying to run away, hide, ignore or delete the problem is almost always the best way to blow it up further – the last thing you want is those users getting even more upset because you deleted their feedback. You don’t want a situation where they then post their unhappy comments alll over the web in places you can’t control.

Q: To what extent do businesses run campaigns themselves?  Is it important to get professional advice?

A: The bottom line is that business owners know their businesses best. Agencies tend to have much more creative ideas, know-how of the network and connections to drive engagement and launch viral campaigns.

The best combination is businesses having dedicated resources that can work hand in hand with professional agencies, allowing business to provide raw material and agency to fashion it into an engaging post

Q: How do I monitor whether it is working for me or not?

A: Monitor ‘Likes’, engagement – shares, comments, ‘people talking about this’:

Facebook provides a wealth of information, including demographic split, geographical split and sources.

Monitor traffic referrals from Facebook on your site stats on a regular basis, and feed all that insight back into your campaign.  What’s working and what isn’t?

Put all that together and you should put yourself in a great position to run a positive Facebook campaign. Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the importance of Twitter in B2B marketing.

Farhad Divecha is director of AccuraCast - a leading SEO, PPC, social and mobile marketing business. For more information, visitwww.accuracast.com, or via Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/AccuraCast