Social Media Day 2017

30/06/2017

How Social Media Can Help Manufacturers

Manufacturing is an industry which you may not naturally associate with social media.

However, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube can actually benefit both companies and individuals within the industry.

Today, 30th June, is Social Media Day, and to celebrate, we have complied the following list on how social networks and the tools within them, can help manufacturers…

Products and Special Offers

Creating interest in products can prove difficult for manufacturers, particularly if their budgets are low. Traditional marketing methods can be unpredictable unless expenditure is high, with the success of organic methods depending on company size and stature.

However, manufacturers can post product information to their Twitter or Facebook feeds at absolutely no cost. Don’t get us wrong, it isn’t as simple as posting on social media and then watching the interest in your products rise meteorically overnight – a few pieces of groundwork need to be taken into account first.

Creating and molding an engaged follower base containing accounts from within a target market is crucial to impression figures. From there, the messaging needs to be correct and posted with the right frequency if engagement and traffic levels are to be increased.

Manufacturers with higher marketing budgets can also use paid advertising campaigns on social media. These campaigns allow accounts, messages and offers to be promoted on social media by appearing on the timelines and feeds of those within a target market, who don’t currently follow that particular manufacturer’s page.

Brand Awareness

This is perhaps the area where social media can benefit manufacturers the most.

Intriguing videos and images of warehouses, factories and workshops can be used by both B2B and B2B manufacturing companies to create interest in a page, and in turn, a product or organisation.

A less conventional approach can also be taken when trying to enlighten potential customers or clients on social media. At the beginning of the year, Red Bus Cartridges launched their Max Colour series on YouTube. The videos, designed to create brand awareness, were a huge success – collectively amassing over 250,000 views.

As well as their brand or company in general, manufacturers can also raise awareness of a particular product on social media, and giveaway competitions are a great way of doing this.

Price and availability permitting, products can be given away for free as part of a social media competition – this can create both interest and demand for a product.

Customer Service and Support

Private and instant messaging features built into social networks can be used by B2B companies to liaise with potential clients and by B2C companies to communicate with existing or future customers. This can be particularly helpful during ‘out-of-office’ periods as they are far quicker and more convenient, in comparison to e-mail contact.

Installation or instructional videos can be used by customer support departments within a manufacturing company during the aftersales process.

This may save future time and effort as many manufacturing organizations receive numerous installation and instructional queries on a daily basis.

Customer Feedback

Traditional market research tasks can be time consuming and inefficient, particularly for manufacturers.

However, there are a variety of tools available on social media that provide instant interaction, which manufacturers can then tailor specifically to their needs.

Twitter polls are possibly the best method for doing just this. A question can be asked to followers, who can then select up to four possible answers, in a multiple choice format. A timescale can also be set at the page administrator’s discretion. Then, once the poll has ended, final results are presented in percentage form, ready for analyzation. It goes without saying, that the accuracy involved with this method depends on the suitability of twitter following.

Social Media Day 2017 Made In BritainSocial media engagement tools, such as polls, don’t always have to be used for industry specific findings, they can also be a way of having a little fun – as you can see from this Doughnut Week poll on the Red Bus Cartridges Twitter feed.

Networking

Social media platforms give those within the manufacturing sector the chance to interact and communicate with each other.

General interaction with accounts similar to your own can spark this type of communication, but an easier, more productive way of creating interaction is through networking sessions, such as the Made in Britain Hour, which takes place on Twitter every Thursday.

The event, hosted by Made in Britain, allows manufacturers to come together and discuss their different products.

Latest News and Press Releases

Sometimes sharing an important press release or news article to your own company website doesn’t attract enough interest, and often organizations or people that you have released the content to for sharing, simply don’t get round to uploading it to their site.

Sharing links to these news or press release articles via social media channels can be a way of driving interest to the content, and eventually, your website.

These can also be shared in networking events and with more trusted followers in order to increase interaction through engagements such as shares and retweets.

Recruitment

Manufacturers can post jobs on social media channels. Again, with the right follower base, this can yield great results, particularly if appropriate hashtags (job title, industry, location) are included.

LinkedIn, a more corporate social network, can also provide B2B organizations with a way of interacting with potential clients and creating leads.