It’s super easy to get lost on Facebook. I can attest to that, in doing research for this article, I logged in and within 15 minutes, I had forgotten why I was there. It’s a common occurrence. But where do you turn when looking for business-related topics and keeping up with companies you follow and friends who work for those companies? Linkedin, that’s where. LinkedIn has just recently surpassed 200 million users and there’s no sign of it slowing down. Social media users are constantly looking for smaller niche networks to drill down their interests. Professional networks pique the interest of something most people care about, their jobs. For a small business, Linkedin can introduce you to the people who make the decisions regarding their business. A study done in January of 2012 noticed that 49% of Linkedin users household income is over $100K. That stat tells us that the people who are on it, are likely the decision-makers of the companies that employ them. If your business is a B2B company, you absolutely must stake your claim on Linkedin.
Once you stake your claim, how do you utilize it? That’s the real question, after all, the reason you are making an effort to promote your business is to develop a relationship with potential customers. Just like Facebook, every user has a news feed that keep you up-to-date with your professional relationships doings. If someone has a new job, is looking for someone to hire, or is touting the merits of their work, these will be put front and center. Use these status updates to showcase what your company can do, a blog post, or an announcement. This will be broadcast to all of your followers. Don’t over-do it, posting annoying sales pitches will definitely make sure your follower count goes down. You want to create a relationship and foster open discussion about your company. The people who are following your company are likely to never need your services, but the people they work with, their customers, even their close friends, will. Keeping your company front and center in their head-space is one of the keys to successful online marketing and brand awareness.
Facebook ads have gotten a bad rap. I hear of people complaining of low click-through rates, wasted money and no conversions from their ads. GM even pulled their ads from the social media giant completely, only to announce that they were returning after an 11 month absence. One of the keys to running a successful ad campaign is knowing who you are advertising to and engaging them. You have to remember that Facebookers are not there to see ads, they are there to see what their friends are doing, or the newest cat video. Only if something catches their eye and is in line with their interests, will you see a response. Facebook ads allows you to specify the interests of the people who you are wanting to gain exposure to. We all know that Facebook is a data goldmine. Use that data to your advantage and target only the interests and groups that you know will respond to your product. Otherwise, you’re wasting money. 
