Social Media for Manufacturers: Everything You Need to Know

If your manufacturing company wants to create online buzz and reach more customers, it may be time to try social media marketing.

On this page, we’ll take a look at the importance of social media for manufacturing, a few social media tips for industrial manufacturing companies, and how social media plans from WebFX can take your business to new heights.

Let’s get started! But first, if you want to speak with a social media specialist about our social media services, contact us at 888-601-5359.

What is social media for manufacturers?

Social media for manufacturers is the use of platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to support brand awareness, talent acquisition, and lead generation efforts.

Why is social media for manufacturing companies important?

There are many advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing, with the pros far outweighing the cons.

Social media for manufacturers can help companies become closer with their customers by posting beneficial and informative links to their site, photos of their products, and even messaging them with social messaging apps.

No matter the size of your company, social media can help your manufacturing business reach your goals.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the benefits of social media for manufacturing.

1. Increase brand awareness and loyalty

Social media is a great way to spread the word about your business, products, and services. And if your followers like what you offer, they can share your pages with friends and family members.

Connecting with customers on social media can also help you increase customer retention and loyalty. In fact, a study by The Social Habit shows that 53% of Americans who follow brands on social media sites are more loyal to those brands.

So if your industrial manufacturing company wants to reach more customers and increase loyalty, social media is a great option.

2. Earn more website traffic

Each time you post on social media, you can encourage users to visit your website and learn more about your business. In other words, social media helps you to direct people to your website, which can result in more customers and conversions.

You can also include custom calls-to-action (CTAs) in your social media posts to direct followers to specific pages and encourage them to perform desired actions, such as subscribing to your blog, filling out a quote form, or contacting your business.

3. Run targeted ads

In addition to posting regular updates, your company can also run targeted ads on social media platforms to help you better reach qualified customers.

For instance, Facebook allows you to target users based on location, demographics, interests, and behaviors. And LinkedIn offers segmentation by location, company, job title, gender, and age.

Social media advertising is cost-effective, and you can track the performance of your ads in real time.

4. Build relationships with customers

Social media is an outlet for both potential and current customers to interact with your company, ask questions, and voice their opinions.

Today, more than 67% of consumers turn to social media for customer service, and they expect quick responses and 24/7 support.

Maintaining a presence on social media sites can help you engage more customers and build relationships that encourage them to purchase from your business.

5. Gain customer insights

As you interact with followers on social media, your company can gain valuable insights and a wealth of information about your customers, such as what they like, what types of content they respond to best, and how they feel about your brand.

This information can help you make smarter business decisions and tailor your communication to better resonate with your target audience.

You can also use Google Analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your social campaigns, determine how many leads you receive from each channel, and adjust your social spending accordingly.

Many social platforms also have built-in analytics platforms to help you analyze and improve your efforts.

5 social media manufacturing tips

Here are a few tips to help your social media manufacturing strategy succeed.

1. Connect with clients

Social media sites, particularly LinkedIn, allow you to reach out to your clients, establish your area of expertise, and position yourself as an industry authority.

You can also create a bridge between your social media platforms and website, and direct clients and potential clients to learn more. This is extremely useful for growing your business – especially considering that LinkedIn was specifically designed to encourage these kinds of connections.

2. Create a YouTube channel

YouTube is the world’s top video-sharing site, #1 online community, and second most popular search engine after Google.

Creating and posting videos on YouTube allows you to tell your story, demonstrate your products and services, and answer questions that potential customers may have about your business. Videos are often more helpful to potential customers than text, and they can provide people with the information they need to purchase from your industrial manufacturing business.

You can also share your YouTube videos on other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

3. Gain customer insight during product development

Social media facilitates two-way communication, which means that you can use it to gain insight during product development. Ask your customers what features they’d like to see you add to your products or services, and get feedback on new ideas.

This information will help you make informed decisions about your company and products, and tweak your offerings to better meet your clients’ needs.

Listening to your customers and implementing changes based on their feedback also shows that you care about their input, and it can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

4. Create a schedule and post consistently

Social media followers expect to hear from you on a regular basis, so it’s important to create a schedule for each of your social channels and update them accordingly.

Your social followers likely follow hundreds or thousands of other people or brands. So, if you don’t regularly post new updates, your company may get lost in their news feeds.

If you don’t have time to maintain a frequent posting schedule, this is where partnering with a social media specialist is extremely useful. And if you’re considering working with an agency to improve your social strategy, WebFX can help!

When you choose WebFX as your social media partner, you’ll work with a dedicated account manager, who will help you manage your social presence, so your industrial manufacturing company can focus on what you do best.

5. Use social media management tools

Social media management tools like Buffer and Hootsuite can save you time and help you maintain a regular posting schedule.

You can use these tools to publish content across multiple platforms, schedule posts in advance, collaborate with team members, view your social feeds from a single dashboard, and track your results.

Check out this article to learn how Buffer saves the WebFX social team 40 hours each month!

Improve manufacturing social media performance with manufacturing marketing pros

At WebFX, we offer social media plans to help you establish a presence on the top social media platforms, engage new users, foster relationships with current customers, and create valuable content that encourages people to learn more about your business.

Our social media experts can help you establish, grow, and maintain your social media presence. And we offer a number of social media packages, so you can choose the option that’s best for your industrial manufacturing company.

We’ll create a custom social media strategy based on the platforms that make the most sense for your goals, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, and Houzz. We also offer social media advertising, competitive analysis, ratings and reviews alerts, social media contests, remarketing, and more.

Interested in learning more about how social media plans from WebFX can help you connect with current and potential customers online?

Check out our custom social media plans, and contact us today to speak with a strategist!

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