[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/05\/01\/5-ways-to-reach-the-industrial-sector-using-social-media\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/05\/01\/5-ways-to-reach-the-industrial-sector-using-social-media\/","headline":"5 ways to reach the industrial sector using social media","name":"5 ways to reach the industrial sector using social media","description":"In today\u2019s economy it\u2019s not enough to have a great product or service, sales team and website. Companies also need to network, engage and interact with clients, potential clients and the industry as a whole. One of the best ways to reach those people is through social media. Whether just getting started or looking to focus your efforts, here are a list of tips to help the industrial sector get more out of social media.","datePublished":"2014-05-01","dateModified":"2024-04-12","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/admin\/#Person","name":"From The Editor","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/admin\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6b4d01c0a2a6beaf559e7b1674e57e2132bcc97fb9c5917786acc398639d6a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6b4d01c0a2a6beaf559e7b1674e57e2132bcc97fb9c5917786acc398639d6a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/shutterstock_159856640.jpg.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/shutterstock_159856640.jpg.jpg","height":350,"width":550},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/05\/01\/5-ways-to-reach-the-industrial-sector-using-social-media\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/b2b\/","name":"B2B Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B2B_e-commerce"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},"Industrial Manufacturing",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/industries\/","name":"Industries","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Industry","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q2976602"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/marketing-general\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/social-media\/","name":"Social Media","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_media","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q202833"]}],"wordCount":1026,"keywords":["B2B","Digital Marketing","E-commerce","Social Media"],"articleBody":"By Jon MinnickIn today\u2019s economy it\u2019s not enough to have a great product or service, sales team and website. Companies also need to network, engage and interact with clients, potential clients and the industry as a whole. One of the best ways to reach those people is through social media. Whether just getting started or looking to focus your efforts, here are a list of tips to help the industrial sector get more out of social media.1. Create Business Accounts And Assign OwnershipFor the sake of simplicity, it may be easiest to begin social media efforts by focusing on three of the biggest outlets \u2014 Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These are the simplest platforms to start with and each offers something a little different.Don\u2019t use a personal account to engage in social media on behalf of the company. No one wants to see photos from a family vacation or a great-aunt\u2019s 90th birthday party when trying to be professional. Create company profile pages that makes it clear what company it is, what it offers and how to contact the company for more information. If you have a well-known company spokesperson or mascot, you may consider making a profile for them as well.Next, you\u2019ll want to assign someone in-house ownership of your social media efforts. This person should be in charge of posting content, as well as monitoring interactions with followers, approving friend requests and handling any issues that might arise. You should also map out a plan on when, how often and what types of sharing and content your company plans to focus on. It should be determined if social media will be used to discuss the industry as a whole or if it will narrow in on just the company\u2019s news and press releases.2. Reach Out To Peers And Build A FollowingOnce you\u2019ve got your social media profiles set up and have started sharing, you\u2019ll want to make sure that other people and companies in the industrial sector actually see your efforts. You\u2019ll need to cultivate a following.Look up industry leaders, associations and trade publications on your social media platforms and friend them \u2014 while encouraging them to friend and follow you. They\u2019ll most likely already have a big following, in turn becoming a great source of potential followers and customers for you. The more you interact with these groups, the more likely their followers will take notice of you.To organically build your own following, encourage employees to include social media buttons in their email signatures that direct customers to the company\u2019s social media pages, as well as the company website. Also, consider sending out an announcement to current clients telling them about the new social media pages and encourage them to follow or friend the company.Don\u2019t forget to use the company website to tell visitors about the social media efforts. It\u2019s an easy way for website visitors to check out the company\u2019s social media pages and join the community.3. Share And Encourage SharingFor being a loyal fan, followers will expect to hear from you regularly. Be sure to share something at least every week to keep your outgoing content fresh.It\u2019s a good idea to include content sharing buttons on the company website and position them clearly on each page. This makes it easy for visitors to share blogs, news, press releases and products with their friends and peers. The easier it is for visitors to share your content, the more likely they are to do it.You can also use your social media to run raffles or contests. It gets your followers excited, and by asking them to share your content with their friends to enter your contest, it has the potential to bring in more followers.You may also consider boosting your social media efforts with marketing, too. Social media platforms offer ad options that help companies promote their content postings, allowing a larger audience to see them.4. Optimize Your PostingsWhen sharing news and other content with your social media followers, make sure you\u2019re doing so at the right times. No one is going to catch your press release at 3 a.m. unless you\u2019re trying to reach third shifters on a break. You\u2019re a business, so do business during business hours. There are even social media management services like HootSuite and Tweetdeck that make it easy to schedule postings ahead of time.While a majority of content is published to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in the morning, the majority of clicks happen in the afternoon. People tend to be too busy in the mornings to pay attention to social media. It\u2019s the afternoons, as work winds down, when social media gets the traffic you\u2019re looking for. People also catch up on their social media feeds while commuting home or relaxing in the evening. If your content is more recent, it\u2019s more likely to be seen by your followers.5. Make Some SalesWhile social media can be a great and inexpensive way for a company to build goodwill and be part of a bigger community, it\u2019s really about marketing and increasing sales. Social media can be a great way to let followers know about any deals or specials \u2014 not only advertised sales, but secret sales exclusive to social media followers that last a matter of hours to a few days. But be careful not to flood followers with secret sales, or make them too confusing. Not everyone is following the company just for information on special deals.Going ForwardDon\u2019t be afraid to play around with social media. Try posting at different times, with different content, to different platforms to see what works best for you. You should also make it a point to analyze your social media efforts every few months. That way you can make sure you\u2019re getting out of it what you intend to, or make a new plan of attack going forward.Jon Minnick is associate editor of Manufacturing Business Technology. Follow him on Twitter at\u00a0@MBTwebsite."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2014","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"01","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/\/05\/\/01\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"5 ways to reach the industrial sector using social media","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2014\/05\/01\/5-ways-to-reach-the-industrial-sector-using-social-media\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]