If it doesn’t serve you, let it go.
However, we deleted our account for altogether different reasons.
We found over time that our audience just wasn’t there. Now, I’m not saying that Facebook isn’t a great place for businesses to connect with their customers. The ASOS retargeting ads that haunt my news feed are a masterstroke – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left their site with the stern resolve that I won’t buy anything until payday, only to give in moments later when confronted with their ‘summer collection’ on my feed.
But, as an integrated B2B marketing agency, specialising in finance, we found, through many conversations with clients and prospects, that they weren’t finding us on Facebook. We also found that there was a lack of interest in setting up Facebook pages from many of our clients themselves.
Further to this, we believe, that in order to follow best practice, each social media channel must serve a business function and contribute to your overall brand image. We needed our YouTube and Vimeo accounts to create and host video content. Our LinkedIn page is the perfect place for connecting with clients, prospects and industry peers. Our Twitter page is an excellent way to distribute content, drive traffic to the website and connect with the media, and our newly created Instagram page is an ideal platform for showcasing the creative aspects of our business.
Then, there was the SEO aspect of it. After many years, our Facebook page, which is usually a high-ranking site, had not even made it onto our Google Page One. This meant the SEO benefits were negligible. Perhaps we did not put enough time into it, perhaps it was the lack of a relevant audience, maybe it was a mixture of both.
So, we decided that we would focus our efforts on the channels where we saw tangible results. Our whole ethos is an integrated and measurable approach to marketing, in which we prove ROI to clients, add value by running campaigns that move the needle, and get rid of anything that doesn’t serve them. We wanted to do the same for ourselves.
The lesson here; less is more, when done correctly.