These days, no matter what the size of your B2B business, having an active social media presence is a must. And one of the best social media platforms for reaching a large audience is Facebook — depending on your industry, many of your prospective customers and clients have Facebook accounts they check regularly. When used properly, your company's Facebook posts can generate new customers, bolster brand loyalty, and spread the word about your company's products and/or services. 

Unfortunately, many B2B manufacturing marketers simply don't understand how to create engaging Facebook posts that'll generate interest for their brands. In fact, a 2014 study  found that the average reach of business Facebook posts has fallen to just 6%. Are you making some or all of these all-too-common mistakes when you post to your company's Facebook page?

1. Coming on Too Strong

The goal of your Facebook page is to promote your company, right — to clients, to prospective engineers, and to future customers? So why shouldn't your posts be promotional in nature? Well, simply put, because that's not what social networking is all about. You don't log into your personal Facebook page to be bombarded with advertisements, so why would your own prospective customers want that?

Rather than only posting about your company's services, products, and promotions, focus on the "social" aspect of Facebook by posting updates that get people talking about topics relevant to them. This could be anything from an interesting news story related to your industry or even a poll that invites your users' feedback.

2. Not Enough Page "Likes"

You could be posting all the right things on your business Facebook page, but if you've got no audience, you're wasting your time. Every Facebook page has to start somewhere, but it's up to you to build your following so that your posts have greater reach. Specifically, you can do this by:

- linking to your Facebook page from your company website

- holding contests that encourage users to "like" your page

- placing an ad to promote your page on Facebook

3. Not Posting Enough

Another important component of getting your Facebook posts seen is posting frequently enough to keep your page on the radar. You can't let your company's social media presence sit on the back burner if you want it to be successful, which is why many businesses these days have dedicated social media teams that are responsible for posting updates regularly. If you don't have the time to post daily, it's time to bite the bullet and hire somebody who can.

4. Failure to Understand Audience

In order to craft Facebook posts that are relevant and interesting to your company's prospective customers, you need to have a strong understanding of your audience and how they utilize social media. For instance, if your audience is primarily young adults (who tend to be more technologically savvy), then you'll need to focus more of your efforts on your social media presence than if your target audience were seniors over the age of 65.

5. Your Posts Are Boring

Finally, work on creating Facebook posts that are engaging for your audience. Today's consumers want to be involved in the conversation, so focus on posts that will get your users to notice your post and want to chime in. For example, consider attaching an interesting photo that's relevant to your post, or ask your readers to come up with a fun caption for a photo you've taken. After all, studies have shown that Facebook posts with photos attached tend to receive 53% more "likes" than those without photos.

Facebook Isn’t a Fad…

Learning how to use Facebook to your company's advantage will take some time and effort on your part. However, by working on understanding your audience, writing engaging posts, and shying away from outright promotion, you'll be on your way to successful social media use in no time.