by tradesmeninsights | Aug 22, 2019 | Marketing Trends, Public Relations, Social Marketing, Tradesmen Insights
By Andrew Poulsen, Content Engineer, Sonnhalter
Social media has been an essential cog in every consumer brand’s marketing machine for more than a decade, but manufacturers in the trade industries have been slow to embrace the many marketing advantages that come with social media. I believe this comes from the perception that social media had originally only targeted the younger generations, and with the average age of the professional tradesmen skewing higher and higher, these manufacturers felt more comfortable using more traditional methods with their marketing dollars.
However, with Facebook and Twitter both grossing hundreds of millions of users, it quickly became clear that almost any brand had customers and prospective customers on these platforms. While many companies in the trades have adapted and are actively using Facebook and Twitter to connect and engage with its audience, there are plenty of other digital and social platforms whose features can be useful to companies in these industries. And with only so much time, effort and money available, brands should examine all of these platforms and their potential and effectiveness in reaching the professional tradesman.
Here is a rundown of some of the most popular social and digital tools out there, how they help reach the professional tradesman and how well they do it.
Facebook
Despite its well-documented PR hiccups, Facebook still casts a wider net than any other social media network…for now. Facebook has more than two billion users, and there are more than 65 million businesses using Facebook Pages. Because of the sheer volume of users, every company should be on Facebook to regularly promote new products, announce trade show appearances, share positive media coverage and company news, etc. (more…)
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 15, 2018 | Social Marketing, Tradesmen Insights
By Andrew Poulsen, PR Technician
While companies big and small have utilized social media to engage with customers for a decade, it wasn’t until maybe five or six years ago that we saw a paradigm shift in how brands used their voices online. Instead of using social media as just another way to talk to the consumer, many chain restaurants, sports teams, and other national brands now choose to talk with the customer by using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook the same way we do. They do this by sharing the latest meme, riffing on a recent news headline or crafting a snarky reply to an overly hostile internet troll. By choosing to be funny and relatable online, brands that were once considered drab and unexciting (i.e. Denny’s, Wendy’s, Moon Pie, etc.), are going viral with their daily posts and have amassed millions of followers, countless news headlines and the attention of that highly coveted 18-24 demographic.
But is social media really just a free publicity gold rush that turns any company that puts up a few cat photos and clever hashtags into an overnight viral sensation? Well, not exactly. For newer companies trying to break into social media, immediately measuring your success against huge, established brands isn’t going to do you any good. If you’re a manufacturer of linear actuators or ball bearings trying to capture the hearts and minds of millennials, do you really think you can compete with the Baconator or a Grand Slam breakfast special?
Like any other marketing tactic, the ingredients for a successful social media campaign involve patience, research and setting realistic goals for your company. In order to prevent you from becoming discouraged in your social media efforts, here are just a few things to consider.
Do Your Homework
When creating a social media strategy, instead of obsessing over your competitors’ numbers in terms of followers, focus on their content. What are the types of posts that bring in the most engagement from their audience? How can you adapt those styles of posts to what you do? How can you do a better job of making that kind of content? While racking up “likes” may seem like the end goal, engagement is where companies really start to see results. An audience of 100 people who constantly share, comment and interact with your posts will mean much more to your overall reach and bottom line than 1,000 people who just like your page and never engage with your content. And fortunately, there are a ton of great social media analytic tools that can help you find the people that are most likely to be interested in the content you put out there. With free tools such as Facebook Business, you can see which posts are getting the most interaction and adjust your strategy to create more of that type of content. (more…)
by tradesmeninsights | Jan 4, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
It’s not like social media just came out. The B-to-C space has been using it successfully for the last 3-5 years. So why are B-to-B practitioners slow to adapt?
I think it’s because they don’t know where to start. You should probably start by developing a strategy that is included in your overall marketing plans. If you use social media to help build better relationships with your customers, I think you’ll find that it can help with more than just brand building.
I read a post recently in emarketer.com on why B-to-B was still unsure about social media strategies. Some highlights include:
- 66% of marketing executives view social media as extremely or very important, but only 7% were leveraging it heavily.
- 9% of B-to-B marketers weren’t using social at all.
Nearly 50% said that new tools and technology would make their social efforts more effective.
So if you’re a B-to-B marketer, what’s holding you back? Is it a resource issue?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 9, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
I still am amazed that marketing executives, especially in larger companies (80% 0f companies with 100 plus employees), acknowledge that social media is a legit marketing tool, but yet fail to take the time to develop a strategy for it.
It’s like ready, fire, aim!
A recent post in eMarketer.com, Executives Fail to Focus on Social Media Marketing Strategy, quotes several sources as to the reasons.
Here are several disturbing points:
- No surprise, most of these executives feel tentative about making social strategy a priority.
- They are not overly optimistic about their current strategy.
- It looks like small and medium sized firms have the advantage over larger ones.
It’s funny that that the marketing priorities for social – customer retention, customer acquisition and branding – are not foreign words to marketers, but somehow there is a disconnect when putting an integrated plan together that includes both traditional and social in the same plan.
I don’t get it. If they put together a traditional plan they way they do social, they probably wouldn’t have a job.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 29, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Your company may see the value in social media, but they may not have yet taken the first step. The real question is, are they ready for it? You don’t want a READY-FIRE-AIM strategy.
I recently read an article from Lee Odden in the Online Marketing Blog titled, 19 Questions to Determine Corporate Social Media Readiness that I thought was appropriate for this audience.
Identifying a company’s current state of social media readiness helps them establish a baseline on which to build. There are a number of either free or low cost tools out there that can help you identify your company or brand’s current social activity level. It’s important to get a handle on the difference between how social the company is and will need to become so you can put together a strategy and plan.
Lee outlines 19 questions you should be asking. I’ve highlighted the top 5 that got my attention:
- What goals do you want to achieve with social media as part of your marketing effort?
- How will you measure/evaluate social media?
- Are you conducting a formal effort at monitoring social media channels?
- What are your current social media channels and destination websites/pages?
- Is there a particular business unit or product that can serve as a test case?
I’d be curious what questions you’d come with to add to the list.
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