Four ways manufacturing companies can benefit from social media
Social media offers manufacturing businesses many opportunities
So how does a low-profile manufacturing business benefit from social media? You’re probably thinking, “It’s manufacturing. We don’t manufacture anything ground breaking” or “we don’t have anything to talk about.” Wrong. Manufacturing companies can benefit from social media. Here’s how:
Relationship building
Most customers, whether it be direct customers or other businesses typically do not know much about a company other than what they can read on a company’s website. Nor do they have the ability to get to know the company staff beyond a phone call to the sales department to place an order. While a website is vital to establishing a company’s online presence, there’s much more that can be utilized.
Through social media, a company can post pictures of company events, products or services they offer or issues and trends that relate to the companies target audience. Posting pictures and products that your company offers illustrates that there is more to the company than just the name or the sales staff. It is good public day-to-day routines. For example, posting a few (tasteful) pictures from the company Christmas party shows that there are real people with personalities working to serve your audience. Posting biographies of the executive leadership gives audiences more information about the leadership in the company. Overall, posting this type of information shows that your company is transparent and is proud of your staff and what they do at your company. John Blicha, director of marketing at MFG Tray in Linesville, Pa. says that the company’s Facebook page has engaged the local community well. “Our local high school basketball team made it to the state championship,” said Blicha. “We got MFG Tray’s team together, made signs and stood outside to cheer on the team as they left town. We posted a picture of this on our Facebook page, and the feedback was great! Just illustrating that your company is interested in what’s going on around it speaks volumes to your audiences.”
Showing interest in your audiences industries
Cultivating conversations with your audiences about trends, ideas and thoughts about the industries they’re involved in gives a sense that your company genuinely wants to interact with its audience and establish a relationship beyond another order number. For example, a company that manufactures ovens could post interesting trends, topics and news from the baking, pizza and restaurant industries. Asking questions and starting conversations about topics like this bring audience members into the conversation; that’s exactly the two-way style of communication that makes social media so unique.
Utilizing social media also gives the impression that the company is staying with current trends and is up to date on offering the most cutting edge ways of communicating with their customers. More importantly, it shows that your company encourages feedback from its audience. Opening the doors to two-way communication can lead to product discussion, customer service…the possibilities are numerous.
It’s free!
The vast majority of social media platforms are completely free to use. Facebook and Twitter are free to use entirely, while LinkedIn is free to use, but offers different memberships that offer more services for an annual fee. Social media management software, such as TweetDeck or HootSuite, allows users to manage their accounts on multiple platforms from one home screen and post to multiple platforms at once. They also offer the option to schedule posts for the future. This software is also free, but HootSuite offers analytical services for a small monthly fee.
Drives SEO
Social media can be considered a low-risk project that has the potential to gain a lot of interest in your company from audiences that may not have interacted with your company if it wasn’t active in social media. Raising brand awareness is all about reaching to more people. When a person searches a company on a search engine, usually the first result will be their company website, along with a bunch of unrelated results that have nothing to do with their original search. By using social media, your presences show up on search engine search results, augmenting the website as another source of information.
Your manufacturing company can reap the benefits of social media just the same as any other company that uses this popular technology. Mike Smiley, vice president of PAPA Advertising, agrees. “The world around us is moving faster and faster,” says Smiley. “Comparing traditional media to social media, news diffusion times are cut from hours to seconds and with that, it allows instant two-way communication.” The huge reach that social media has, paired with the little to no cost to operate makes it an obvious choice for any company that wants to expand their potential for new customers or potential partners.
Mike Smiley, PAPA Advertising, 814-454-6236, Ext. 16, Mike@PAPAadvertising.com
Serving a diverse client base throughout the United States and Canada, PAPA Advertising offers results-oriented marketing solutions in advertising, branding, interactive and public relations. Learn more at www.PAPAadvertising.com.
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