{"id":734,"date":"2017-01-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demandzen.com\/top-reasons-b2b-marketing-strategy-include-facebook-live\/"},"modified":"2020-03-05T11:21:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:21:48","slug":"top-reasons-b2b-marketing-strategy-include-facebook-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demandzen.com\/top-reasons-b2b-marketing-strategy-include-facebook-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Reasons Your B2B Marketing Strategy Should Include Facebook Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Released to all users in January of 2016, <\/span>Facebook Live<\/a> is barely one-year-old and is still unknown territory to many. However, its importance to businesses, big, small, and any size in between, shouldn\u2019t be ignored. We\u2019re here to give you 5 reasons your B2B marketing strategy should include Facebook Live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campaign ROI<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Facebook Live is completely free, making any return on investment from it extremely valuable. Add on your ability to use it to target those already interested in your business, you\u2019re set to run a successful campaign with a great return.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, any successful marketing campaign takes thoughtful planning, strategy, and execution, and Facebook Live is no different. If you want to get the most out of your effort, you need to consider these questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we planning to do a Facebook Live?\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Are you planning a product demo or an interactive FAQ session? Is your team capitalizing off a recent press release and going Live to casually and quickly talk about it?<\/p>\n

The answer to this will stem from <\/span>what<\/span><\/em> you are doing and will determine if going\u00a0Live is right for this particular endeavor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are we doing on Facebook Live?\u201d <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Are you going to have to\u00a0sit in a conference room for a QA session? Are you going to walk around the trade show floor? Interview a colleague?<\/span><\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a right or wrong way to this part. Your reasoning is reflective of your team\u2019s overall strategy, and it may vary from campaign to campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to this question will stem from <\/span>why<\/span><\/em> you are choosing to go Live and your chosen strategy. It will also determine if the Live session will be announced ahead of time or launched on the spot and what (if any) the CTA will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen is our organization going Live?\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even if you choose not to announce that your organization is going Live ahead of time, <\/span>your<\/span> team<\/span><\/em> still needs to know when it\u2019s happening. No one important should be finding out about your Live session when the rest of the Facebook world does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Making sure everyone on your team is on the same page allows everyone to be prepared for the final product. While not being spontaneous may seem counterintuitive to going Live, it is important. If everyone is ready to go, you can mitigate risks for mistakes which could negatively affect campaign performance and, subsequently, ROI.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking for ideas on where to start your brainstorming session for Facebook Live? Consider some of the examples above: short product demo, interactive FAQ session, capitalizing on a recent press release to show how excited the office is, or showing some of the faces behind a recent article. Your team could even go Live at a trade show your organization is attending, giving those unable to make it an in-person experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Live utilizes short-form content <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Content creation can be one of the biggest bottlenecks in campaign execution. White papers, infographics, videos, and testimonials all take a lot of time and money to research, develop and design. But Facebook Live has changed the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, creating short-form content, like a short video clip, could mean investing hundreds of dollars to film, animate, and edit a 30-60 second video. In the end, your team has a new piece of valuable content, but it took a lot of time, considerable budget, and specialized skills to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s another option to that video process, where your team gets short-form content perfect for audiences with short attention spans. Facebook Live videos are a great alternative to traditional video marketing investments, still fulfilling the challenging need of attention-grabbing content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Live content is even more appropriate when we think about people\u2019s attention spans. In 2015, TIME magazine announced<\/a> that humans now have a shorter attention span (8 seconds) than a goldfish (9 seconds). The 4-second decrease since 2000 means digestible messages and short-form content are crucial to marketing success.<\/p>\n

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Facebook Live requires very little commitment from both parties — marketing teams don\u2019t have to allocate the budget to create a short video clip, and viewers don\u2019t have to carve out an hour of their days to sit down and give their undivided attention. Facebook Live allows you to reach your audience (and millions of other Facebook users). Those viewers get the information they want in the format they need it: short, consumable, and to the point. In the end, that means \u201cgoing Live\u201d on Facebook for only a few minutes is not only justified, it\u2019s encouraged.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Easily engage a quality audience at scale<\/strong><\/h2>\n

B2B organizations of all sizes tend to ignore Facebook for marketing initiatives (maybe besides the occasional content sharing). The most common reason we hear is, \u201cOur audience isn\u2019t on Facebook.\u201d Except…everyone is on Facebook. There are <\/span>1.79 BILLION active users worldwide<\/a> every single day. Surely, of those billions of people, your organization\u2019s target audience is in there somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rationale for this objection stems from Facebook being more about social interactions than developing business relationships. But those two ideas aren\u2019t as black and white as they once were. Your audience is on Facebook, but they aren\u2019t there just to stay in touch with friends anymore. Facebook users are looking for content that interests them, even in B2B industries. In fact, 81% of B2B decision makers use online communities to help make purchasing decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

With that statistic, we know Facebook users can be quality buyers if you target correctly. Facebook allows you to create targets based on location, job titles, and even interests to forming the perfect audience for your business. You can get them interested in learning more and building a relationship with your organization by providing content they\u2019re interested in, and it\u2019s not one at a time. You can reach them, in the masses, quickly, easily, and for free with Facebook Live.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a side note, those billions of people spend an average of 50 minutes on Facebook DAILY. That\u2019s more than 6% of a person\u2019s waking time! In a world filled with constant distractions, Facebook\u2019s users are on the site for nearly an hour each day, giving your organization ample opportunity to go Live and easily grab the viewer\u2019s attention without interruption.\u2026Now it\u2019s your job to engage with them!<\/span><\/p>\n

4. New Facebook app design gets your audience\u2019s attention every time you go Live \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Recently, Facebook released made some big changes to user notification settings. Facebook combined friend requests with other notifications, including \u2018likes, shares, comments,\u2019 etc. With this update, <\/span>most<\/span><\/em> notifications appear together under the globe icon at the bottom right of screens.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Live notifications only, Facebook added a \u2018play\u2019 icon on the bottom left of your screen. Whenever a page you follow or person you\u2019re friends on Facebook with \u201cgoes Live\u201d, an individual notification will appear to let you know. In addition to the red pop up notification, all Facebook Live videos will still show up in News Feeds, with the option to \u201cpop out\u201d a miniature version of the video and watch while continuing to scroll through the rest of the News Feed. These changes give Facebook Live the advantage over other types of posts to engage some of the billions of Facebook users.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if someone in your audience misses you while your company is Live, he will still get the notification and be able to view, save, share, and interact with your video. So, when will we see you Live?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5. Maximize Content Lifespan and Reach through Repurposing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Facebook live also makes it incredibly easy to repurpose content and maximize its lifespan. Once the Live video is complete, you can save it and use it for other marketing campaigns, promotions, website material, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

Check out these ideas for ways to repurpose strategic Facebook Live videos into professional marketing materials:<\/span><\/p>\n