Question

Topic: Social Media

Social Media For A B2b Manufacturer

Posted by anthonyt on 2/16/2011 at 12:05 PM ET 125 Points
I'm the marketing/web department for my manufacturing company. We make store fixture products - which are starting to become a commodity . We mostly sell through a dealer network and have some direct sales in certain markets.

I know Social Media is all the rage, but I've been holding out for past few years. I don't want to be one of those companies that simply puts up a Facebook page and Twitter account that broadcasts the same promotional messages. I have other things I can focus on instead of creating something that employees and their friends are the only fans.

1. Do you agree it's better not to waste the time if that's all I'll do?
2. Do you have any examples of successful B2B manufacturer's social presence?
3. I have some ideas for content (How to set up a queue. Differences between a domestically produced product vs. an import. Success stories.) Any other ideas?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Kevin McIntosh on 2/16/2011 at 1:04 PM Accepted
    Anthony,

    You might look first at determining what conversations you want to be a part of online, then using a social media monitoring tool decide where to engage in those conversations. That may also help you determine what content to create, in that you may hear the questions people are needing answers to related to what you sell.

    As for social media for B2B, yes I think there's an opportunity there especially if you customer's average lifetime value is considerable, in terms of there being ROI potential.

    Also, you may discover new insights about your audience through the social media monitoring that help you improve your products or develop entirely different products.

    Twitter tends to be a better B2B platform than Facebook, but using an aggregator tool you can post to both simultaneously, though the Facebook will still require some monitoring.

    Facebooks major changes last week including the ability to use your page identity to engage on other pages could be a big boost for B2B.

    But I wouldn't engage in either until you determine where the conversations are happening. It may somewhere else.





  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 2/17/2011 at 8:27 AM Member
    I think if you are selling to all size retailers Facebook could be valuable for you. Your market will be large and business owners are likely to be using Facebook.

    If, however, you only sell to large companies I think it will be a waste, as your prospect base will be very small.
  • Posted by anthonyt on 2/17/2011 at 9:46 AM Author
    Kevin - I'd say that a good deal of people are just looking for the lowest cost post and not interested in lengthening the buying cycle. It's a needs-based product. They find the prices on our dealers pages and purchase right there. We give the dealers everything they need to market our product (images, copy, flyers) but it's up to them how they display it in the end. Half of those customers repurchase, other times they shop it out again. Most small volume end users never even see our site - or leave right away since they can't purchase.

    In my eyes Twitter is a waste. I never gave it a chance but I can't see it working for a manufacturing company. Yes, it's probably great for B2B service companies so you can tweet relevant topics and become and expert, but B2B manufacturing?

    Harry - The smaller retailers would be pushed to our dealers. We have a few dealers on facebook - some focus on our product, others are large catalog companies. They don't really present a community - its mostly just posting advertisements. There are few (if any) results - but they're not really doing "best practices."
    I don't see people searching Facebook for our products - that's what google is for. We don't have the largest brand in the industry - I don't see people searching for us directly. There's really no emotional attachment to the product that will make the customer search for our page. (Are you going to friend the people who make your file cabinets? Desks? Pens?)
  • Posted by Norwood on 2/17/2011 at 5:01 PM Accepted
    I would suggest you do consider social media but not in isolation, think of it as another channel to promote a new product, spec sheet, webinar, or an educational material.

    Also, don't think of social media just in terms of twitter and facebook, but (if you haven't already) create a LinkedIn Group, a Youtube Channel, and a SlideShare account. By promoting your message through all these channels you can get better ranked at search engines... videos especially.

    Now, the first thing to understand is whether your target audience has a twitter or facebook account. Are you planning on reaching out to dealers/suppliers or end-users (those who actually buy the final product)? I agree, manufacturing is a tough field to apply social media to, but not impossible.

    I found a few links that might be worth checking for examples of how other B2B manufacturers are using social media:

    https://www.slideshare.net/Katiehoke/social-media-for-manufacturing-2352985

    https://leadingwithcontent.com/blog/manufacturing-b2b-examples-in-social-me...

    https://www.free-press-release.com/news/200905/1241822236.html

    https://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110202/CMO_NEWSLETT...

    https://www.globalspec.com/wp/Social_Media_Use_Agencies

    In the end, I think it will come down to content. As you said, you don't want to only publish promotional sales-oriented pieces, so if you craft a message that will resonate with the audience or that is interesting, memorable, or just different (think of the "will it blend" youtube videos for instance) then you have a chance.

    Hope this helps.
  • Posted by anthonyt on 2/18/2011 at 9:09 AM Author
    Norwood - Thanks for those links. I didn't really think of Press Releases and Videos as social media. We have been submitting Press Releases and using them for SEO effort. We have one video right now about the product, we have plans to do more. Comparing Facebook vs. Twitter vs starting a blog; I think the blog makes the most sense.

    I've been wanting to start the blog and come up with a dozen or so posts, but I keep getting pulled in different directions. I want to get the videos started, but then again time is the drawback.

    So I do want to start the blog. Is it better to stay off facebook and twitter if I'm just going to posting the same things there? I know all the best practices say develop unique content for each location, but there's not enough time in the day for that. I'd say that my customers may be on FB/twitter - pretty much everyone can use my product. I doubt they're looking at those sources for my product though...


    Several employees have basic Linked In profiles, but we're not active there. I'm not very familiar with it, but in my eye's it much more suited for service companies. You can prove your strategic marketing expertise, copy writing skills, tech support skills, etc., but a manufacturer? We can show some of the custom products/solutions we offered, but getting the people to look at it is difficult part. I don't want to see our efforts go to waste, but if you don't build it, they'll never come...
  • Posted by anthonyt on 2/23/2011 at 2:00 PM Author
    I met with a website company today about other things and we briefly discussed this topic. For a B2B manufacturing company, Twitter probably won't have a good ROI. Facebook maybe, but we shouldn't just post ads and it's not good to have old stagnant content. We didn't discuss Linked In, but it may be a way to go.

    A blog would be our best bet (in terms of SEO and bringing in new leads). They also suggested article writing as well. It's similar to our PR efforts, but should get us more back links.

    Granted, this meeting was more for SEO efforts, I see the most bang for our buck there.

    Thanks for all of the responses and tips.
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