If you’re a company that manufactures goods and services to sell under your own branding or to sell to other businesses, then you may be wondering whether you need a presence on social media at all.
Indeed, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are some of the most effective digital marketing techniques, but surely you wouldn’t be able to find clients on social networks?
Actually, you’re wrong, and below, we’ve rounded up some social media post ideas for manufacturing companies to increase brand awareness and find new customers.
Show off the factory
Whether you make clothing, food, car parts or medicine, take some pictures and show off your work in the factory.
You could post Facebook updates showing people what you’re getting up to today, or run ‘day in the life’ campaigns where a member of your factory staff takes over your account and posts from their own perspective.
If you’re good with video, you could create a time-lapse of a product being created, or create Q&A videos where you answer commonly asked questions.
On YouTube, videos like “How are Pringles made?” attract millions of views, so creating your own mini-documentary and boosting it on Facebook could perform well, and even be licensed by online media giants like Lad Bible and Mashable.
Promote to businesses
It sounds obvious, but promoting your business on social media is something many are too scared to do.
Shout about what you’re good at, let people know you’re running special offers or promotions, and highlight the benefits of working with your manufacturing firm over a competitor’s.
We recommend posting three non-promotional tweets for every promotional tweet to balance things out, and to avoid followers from being turned off and unfollowing you.
A quick mock-up of a promotional graphic. Do something similar for your own business, and use online tools like Canva to create professional-looking graphics in no time at all.
Run a competition
Competitions are a great way to increase engagement and put your brand in front of potential new customers, so consider giving away some of your products in exchange for a share.
One of the best ways to encourage people to enter your competition is to create a hamper of goods, whether that’s food, technology items, clothing, or other desirable merchandise, and run a paid promotion on Facebook to get more people to share the post.
You will quickly attract hundreds of shares and new page likes, and those new people could turn out to become potential customers if you post relevant and engaging content regularly.
This manufacturing business posts regular news on its industry and includes quality images that stand out in timelines on Twitter. Consider doing the same to create more content.
Become a news source
The manufacturing industry is going through something of a revolution, with more and more jobs being taken over by robots.
You could either go down the ‘handmade’ route and shout about the benefits of such, or embrace technology and become a news source, sharing the latest updates on the manufacturing industry and within your own niche, whether you make cars, computers, metals, petrol, wood, printing or textiles, and add in an image or two to increase engagement.
Then, when people search for manufacturing news on social media, your account will come up first, and you’ll naturally become an authority over time.
This manufacturing business posts regular news on its industry and includes quality images that stand out in timelines on Twitter. Consider doing the same to create more content.
Take part in Twitter hours
Twitter hours are a great way to network with other businesses and individuals in your niche, and allow you to find new customers and promote your products.
TCM UK hosts a weekly Twitter hour for the manufacturing industry every Tuesday from 8 pm to 9 pm, inviting everyone who works within manufacturing to get involved and use the #ManufacturingHour hashtag.
Schedule some posts to go out during that time, or better still get involved, responding to other manufacturing businesses, retweeting and sharing other people’s posts, and you’ll quickly make new business contacts and find new Twitter followers. It’s a win-win!
Let us help
If you’re too busy on the factory floor to be worrying about social media, then don’t worry.
At 99social, we offer affordable social media management from as little as £99 per month, posting on your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram profiles to increase brand awareness and find new customers.
Get in touch to find out more about how we can help.