Whether you manufacture tea bags or computers, you need to be on social media.
Both B2B and B2C manufacturers are taking to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to build brand awareness, engage with their customer base ultimately increase sales, and your manufacturing business shouldn’t miss out on the opportunities that social media can offer.
However, knowing what to post can be tough. Let’s face it: manufacturing can be pretty dry, and finding ways to make your content engaging and exciting may not come naturally to you.
We’ve rounded up some social media post ideas for manufacturing businesses to help you.
Behind the scenes content
One way you can stand out from the crowd on social media is to go “behind the scenes” and show off your factory or manufacturing plant.
Shows like Inside The Factory draw in millions of viewers on the BBC, as consumers love to know how products they use are made.
Ask an intern to go around and film parts of your manufacturing processes; like receiving a delivery, putting raw materials into a mixer or watching the finished boxed products leave the conveyor.
Content like this will go down well on social and can be reused on your website.
If you’ve got a member of staff who is particularly extroverted, you could even have them present features on your manufacturing processes, which you can also share on YouTube.
Let your followers see behind the scenes.
Show off the team
Speaking of your team, it’s time to get out the camera.
Showing off the hardworking staff who keep your business running is a surefire way to increase engagement.
People love to see other people, and lifting the lid on the experts who make your products is a great idea.
You could feature one member of staff every week and let them run your social accounts with a “day in the life” style feature, or you could post some funny, non-promotional content like your staff having a cup of tea, and asking your followers how many sugars they take.
According to one report, images with people in them achieve 29% more likes than images without a person, so don’t be camera shy. Aim for one photo of your staff every week to break up images of your products, machinery, any custom graphics, and text-based posts.
Showing off your hard-working team makes sense.
Product promotions and discounts
Naturally, you should share news and information on your products regularly.
The majority of your followers will already be customers, and those who aren’t could be in the future, so share some professionally-shot images and let the world know how good your products are.
Finding the balance between being promotional and not promotional enough is tough; we recommend for every post about your products, post at least two or three non-promotional pieces to keep things balanced.
If you’re in promote mode 24/7, people will unfollow you.
Remember to promote your products.
Tapping into trends and cultural events
Keep an eye on trending topics and look for ways that you can piggyback off them.
When Pantone announces its colour of the year, for example, you could manufacture a one-off product in that colour and share it with your followers, asking them their favourite colour.
Cultural events are also important. Make sure you schedule in posts for Christmas, New Year, Easter, Halloween and Bank Holidays, and be creative with your brand where you can.
Temporarily changing your brand colours for St. Patrick’s Day, decorating your plant for Halloween and singing Happy Birthday to your staff members on camera is a great way to have some fun and add some personality to your brand – and it’s the ideal content for social.
This brand taps into Christmas with a themed competition.
Industry news and updates
Finally, be sure to keep on top of industry news, and create it yourself where possible.
All small businesses should have their own blog that they regularly update to inform their customers about the goings-on in their niche.
Whether you’re talking about a recession, Brexit, coronavirus or health and safety regulations, it pays to be at the fore of your industry.
Where that’s not possible, follow and share content from sources in your industry.
Building supplies manufacturers can stay up to date using sites like Construction News whilst a firm that manufacturers ovens could tap into resources from Hospitality & Catering News.
Regularly sharing news positions you as an authority.
Need help putting together a social media strategy for your manufacturing business? 99social is on hand to create engaging content for your followers from as little as £99 per month. Get in touch today and arrange a free consultation with our social media experts.