SEA for EFFECTIVE INTERNAL & EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS Working with teams for over 30 years

Effective Social Media in Manufacturing

In the early days of social media it was not considered relevant to B2B marketing in general, and to the manufacturing industry in particular. The often chatty, brand focused interactions and concentration on user generated content and sharing did not seem to be the right fit for products, customers or sales propositions that are often highly regulated, extremely specialised or bespoke, and technically complex with very narrowly focused markets with specialist needs.

However, as technology infiltrates all aspects of our lives, the line between “personal” and “work” behaviours continues to blur and the actions and expectations of people online in a B2B context are no longer that different from those online for personal reasons, whatever the industries they work in or with, or whatever the devices they are using.

This transition means that digital content strategy has become more important for today’s B2B companies. Social media is a channel that must not be forgotten. The attitude of many companies seems to be that it “will take of itself” and does not need any planning or management oversight. Given the power and reach of not only social media communications themselves, but their in-built “shareability”, it is vital for your brand that that full ownership of strategy, interaction guidelines for staff and implementation is taken.

There have been enough PR disasters now to show what happens when a brand makes mistakes when interacting online. Large amounts of resource are invested in training employees in how to answer the phone, how to greet customers at reception and how to interact at trade shows or client meetings. A social media interaction can reach so many more people than any of these things, yet many organisations put a fraction of the time into the training of staff on how to make best use of these opportunities for building relationships and brand.

Call us on 01227 768808, or email SEA, to discuss how the development of a Social Media strategy can help your business.