While searching for information on best practices in terms of B2B uses of social media sites, in particularly, Facebook, I found Jeffrey L. Cohen’s post,”10 Examples of B2B Facebook Fan Pages“. In the post, Dell Computer’s Facebook Page was listed as a best practice in December 2009. Figure 1 is an illustration of the page that was mentioned on the blog.
Figure 1: Dell Computer’s Facebook Page
Click On Image To Enlarge
Upon going through the posts by people who “like” the page, one has to wonder if the page is targeted to the B2B market segment? Figure 2 and Figure 3 are some posts to evaluate if Dell is engaging retail consumers or business clients.
Figure 2: Posting Regarding Summer Tune-Up Tips
Figure 3: Posting Regarding The Use Of Desktops
Ironically, Dell addressed the B2B vs B2C page issue with the following posting on June 2nd, 2010.
Figure 4: Posting Regarding Dell For Business Facebook Page
The change in strategy might be an indication that the company was not reaching and engaging with its B2B customers. Its new page, Dell for Business, contains such messages and images as seen in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Figure 5: Postings On Dell for Business Facebook Page
Figure 6::Dell for Business Home Section On Facebook
Companies who are dipping their collective toes into the social media marketing sea for B2B marketing must differentiate their B2B page from their B2C Facebook page. Attempting to reach both segments with one single page will lead to confusion on the part of all clients and the inability to identify users’ needs. Not having a firm grasp of users’ needs will prohibit firms for engaging clients efficiently.
Good recap Ian. Lots of B2B marketers are facing this type of question, though it seems few are taking such the step to segment like this. And most of us don’t have the budgets of Dell. Other factors often complicate the question.
Would love to see more like this.