In recent months, Facebook has been quietly testing a new premium feature: paid messaging. So far, it is aimed for individual users. However, B2B marketers have been aware of this latest service and wondering whether it would work for them or not.
This feature appears to be a part of Facebook’s mission to raise business owners’ revenue. In October 2012, Facebook introduced its “paid posts” feature that allows users to “promote” a status update, making it more likely to be seen on friends’ timelines. That costs $7 a post.
Moreover, this paid messaging feature is similar: it would allow Facebook users to send a message directly to the Inbox of someone outside their friend list at $1 per message. If the target is famous, that will cost much more. As an example, in January it was reported that Facebook users could send a message to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for $100:
Could this new paid messaging feature be useful to B2B marketers? Jason Miller, social media strategist with marketing automation company Marketo Inc., thinks the chances are slim.
“I don’t think there’s a role for this type of paid messaging when it comes to B2B marketing,” Miller said. “I view this as paying $1 to annoy a customer or prospect. It’s a sure-fire way to paint your company as a spammer that doesn’t understand real engagement.”
Moreover, Miller still called Facebook an effective lead-generation tool, and said, “Facebook boasts enormous numbers of user base of any social network, and it’s essential that you have a presence there.” Instead of Facebook paid messaging, Miller singled out LinkedIn’s InMail as “the best place for social media messaging” for B2B marketers.
On the other hand, Jeffrey L. Cohen, the manager-content marketing at Salesforce Marketing Cloud said that Facebook’s paid message feature will be “not so fast”. “There is a role for the Facebook paid messaging program within the context of B2B social media marketing if it’s handled with a content-marketing approach,” Cohen said. “While it is an interruptive method of reaching prospects, B2B companies need to make sure they are providing content that offers value. The messages can’t be product-focused; they need to build relationships, which is core to the B2B buying cycle.”
Success will depend in part on ROI, Cohen said. At $1 per message, marketers would need to compare the cost per lead of Facebook messaging to other marketing efforts, especially other Facebook activities. “If it takes 100 messages to generate one lead, you’re paying $100 per lead, not $1,” Cohen said.
Whatever happens, it will be a while before Facebook paid messaging becomes tangible for B2B marketers. Although Facebook itself hasn’t commented about this feature, news reports suggest that it will be prepared first for individuals and brand marketers later on.