5 reasons B2B tech companies should treat Facebook more seriously

MarketingProfs recently released data that showed that about a third of B2B companies have a presence on Facebook. But the same data showed that almost half of B2C companies are on Facebook.

B2B companies, especially in technology, need to take Facebook more seriously. Forrester found that the greatest growth in the usage pattern of social media was in the "Joiner" (i.e. people that participate in social networks) category. It also added a new profile of social media usage -- "Conversationalist" -- or people that send status updates through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn at least once a week.

The MarketingProfs data showed that B2B companies are on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in equal numbers. The other question is, what is the relative amount of time these companies invest in their presence on each of these channels? I'd bet it varies much more significantly. So, when I say B2B companies need to take Facebook more seriously, I'm talking about investing more relative time and effort in leveraging this as a channel.

Here are 5 reasons why. The great infographic below that I came across this week illustrates many of these facts very nicely.

1. Sheer user base

There is that overused cliche that if Facebook was a country, its population of more than 400 million would make it the 3rd largest in the world. That is compared to between 60 million and 75 million for Twitter and LinkedIn, respectively.

2. Facebook members most active

50% of Facebook members log in at least once per day, with the average user spending 55 minutes per day on the site. Compare that to the fact that Twitter has an overall retention rate of 40% with many users dropping the service after 1 month. This means that there are more 200 million people checking their Facebook news feeds at least once per day. If they are a Fan of your company, chances are extremely high that they will see that status update about your event, blog post, tip or news.

3. Facebook members most engaged

35 million Facebook members post status updates at least once per day. Compare that to Twitter, where almost 80% of all users either never have posted an update or less than 10 updates (ever). If the return on social media is going to come from interaction and engagement, these numbers show that the ROI will come from Facebook vs. Twitter.

4. Facebook members accepting Fan Pages

The average Facebook user becomes a fan of at least 4 pages per month. If there is a customer of yours on Facebook, there is a great chance that they will become your fan, but this means you need to give them a reason to do so through great content and incentives. As the numbers above show, once they become a fan, you'll have an audience that is perhaps more captive than your web site.

5. Facebook vs. Google

On Wednesday, Lois related the news about how Facebook beat Google in weekly visits for the first time ever to some very personal experiences this past week. To be sure, it is only one week, but the chart in Lois' post shows the overall trend very clearly. Companies now need to invest as much in Facebook marketing as search marketing.

What do you think? Do these numbers convince you to treat Facebook more seriously than Twitter? The comments are yours.