5 Social Media Mistakes Manufacturers Make

1. Being Inactive on Social Media

Are you a manufacturer that has a website homepage with links to your social media outlets? Are you active on your social media channels? If you answered yes to the first question and no to the second, you could be devaluing your company. Think about this: A brand new prospect comes to your website to get more information on the products or services you offer. They notice you’re active on social media (or so they think), only to find that when they click on your Facebook page, you haven’t posted anything since the company holiday party 2 years ago! If you’re going to have social media channels, you need to consistently be posting relevant, valuable content for your prospects and customers. If your Facebook page was updated twice a week, imagine how much information that same prospect could have come across when they clicked on your company page. Not posting consistently is a lost opportunity to connect with prospects and customers, especially if your social media icons are on your homepage, where most visitors will come across them.

2. Not Using Hashtags to Get Your Content Found

Every time you post on social media, you should have a goal in mind. Are you trying to show off your company culture by posting a picture of the team on Facebook? Or, are you trying to connect with prospects by sharing an industry trends whitepaper you just published? Social posting best practices:

• Each tweet, post and status you write should be targeted at a certain persona (your target audience). 
• Include hashtags to get your content found. Hashtags group similar content together and are important for Twitter, Facebook and Google+, but are not used on LinkedIn. 
• Use tagboard to see the hashtags that are currently trending or which hashtags aren’t being used at all. As a manufacturer, simply including the hashtag #manufacturing will give your content a boost. 
• For more specific tips on posting to each social media channel, read this blog post.

3. Not Taking Advantage of Easy Opportunities

If your company is attending an industry trade show or event, there is likely a hashtag associated with it. Now that you know how to use hashtags, take advantage of them! A few ways to do this: 

• Include the hashtag in your company posts about the event
• Search the hashtag to connect with other attendees and see what they’re talking about 
• Many times the event organizer will retweet you or mention your company handle if you use the event hashtag, which will get you more brand awareness and hopefully, new followers.

Another easy opportunity any manufacturer can take advantage of is Manufacturing Day. The day is all about inspiring the next generation of manufacturers, and you can easily join in on the conversation.

4. Thinking Your Prospects Aren’t on Social Media

Many manufacturers think if they’re not on social media themselves, why would their prospects be? You have to stop thinking about what you’re doing, and start thinking about what your prospects are doing. For example, on LinkedIn, one of the most successful B2B social media channels, there are 6.9 million users in the manufacturing industry, accordingly to LinkHumans, making it the industry with the 3rd highest number of members. Your prospects may not be on every single social channel out there, but they’re definitely on at least one, if not more. 

5. Not Using the Right Social Media Channels to Connect with Prospects 

Now that we’ve determined your prospects are on social media, let’s discuss which channels they’re most active on. Like I mentioned above, B2B marketers find huge success with LinkedIn. While it’s likely your prospects are on LinkedIn, don’t rule out the other channels. If you haven’t defined your target persona, this is the first step to figuring out what social media outlets your prospects are using. 

For example, one of your personas may be a Sales Manager who is 35 years old; married with two kids and lives in the suburbs. On his lunch break and during his commute on the train home, he scrolls through his Twitter feed. In this case, Twitter would be an appropriate channel to connect with your Sales Manager persona. Think about what a day in the life of your persona(s) looks like and when they’re going to be active on social media (and which channels they’re likely to be on). It’s perfectly fine to use Twitter to connect with a Sales Manager and LinkedIn to connect with a Director of Operations.

Need help implementing the suggestions above? SyncShow can help. Contact us with questions.