strange bedfellows

When you think of social media, you don’t always connect it to manufacturing or industry in general. When you think of social media, you usually think of a social media profile filled with beautiful photos, funny cat videos or memes, but, social media is so much more than that. It is a huge opportunity just waiting for you to grasp

Manufacturing and social media do not, at first glance, appear to be good bedfellows, and it is STILL difficult for some manufacturers to get away from that idea.

Some say to me:

• our products are not sexy

• our production process is not photogenic

• our facility is noisy and dirty

• our customers do not use social media

• social media doesn't work for manufacturing.

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Well, these ideas are outdated and simply not true. While working with manufacturers, we have discovered that: 

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• your products can be sexy. There is always an appeal in your products. You just have to understand the product and look for the beauty.

• your process, although to you, appears routine and mundane, is a repetitive wonder, that can entertain people. Again, you just have to look at your processes in a new light

• yes, your facility may be noisy and dirty, but as a manufacturer, as a producer, you are creating something useful. Look at an alternative stage of the production process if your shop floor is not what you want to show

• your customers do use social media. You would be very surprised to know that most of your customers AND vendors are probably on some social media platform or another

• social media can and does work for manufacturing. Just think Apple, Nike or Ford. These are all manufacturers, yet they produce amazing social media content and regularly engage with their followers. 

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As you can see below, nearly three-quarters of the US population has access to social media, and of those social media users, 86% are under the ages of 55.

Therefore no matter you manufacture, produce, engineer, or sell, the key industry players and decision-makers who you want to get in front of are using social media. Of those users, 83% are already using social media to research products. Can you afford not to be on social media?

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