Engineers and manufacturers are down-to-earth, busy people. They don’t spend time on social media, because they believe their energy is best used delivering products and services to their clients.
In terms of social media marketing, engineers and manufacturers know they need it but they don’t like it. They take the point that everyone does it, but they don’t see the value that it might bring to their business. And, as we all know, if we don’t like something, we simply don’t do it. Or we do it grudgingly, and ineffectively.
As a result, even now there is still a very high percentage of engineers and manufacturers who don’t have a good social media presence.
And yet social media is very important for three reasons:
1) It brings brand visibility
2) It gives a competitive advantage
3) By building an audience and engaging with them, you build your future customer base
Social media and trade shows
Now, trade shows are something that engineers and manufacturers do like. They regard them as a valuable form of marketing and are prepared to allocate budget for the cost (often quite high) of taking a stand at a trade show or an exhibition. This, to them, is valuable marketing, unlike social media which, as we’ve said, they believe isn’t.
We want to demonstrate here how, if engineers and manufacturers had a good social media presence, they could capitalise on trade shows even more effectively, and get a much larger reach. They could broadcast their message beyond just those who visit their stand.
We like trade shows too. We work closely with engineers and manufacturers, and trade shows are where we have a chance to meet with and speak to them. And when we do, we take a photo of them and their stand and – because we are social media specialists – we naturally put that into a post on our platforms, tagging them in. These posts from trade shows are extremely valuable. They draw attention and they create engagement.
Here’s an example. At one trade show last year we met engineering firm Micronel, which makes miniature fans and blowers, and we posted a video. As a reel on Instagram, it attracted 1,167 views. This year we met them again, and another video had 688 views on Instagram and 965 views on TikTok.
Our client Redro was exhibiting at the three-day Workplace event in March. Each day we posted a reel and each drew more than 3,000 views on Instagram.
With another client, IEW, we visited Southern Manufacturing & Electronics and our reels had between 240 to nearly 2,000 views. We’ll be joining them again at the upcoming Subcon in June.
Those exhibiting at the trade shows – the engineers and the manufacturers – could, and sometimes do, put up their own posts.
But here’s our point: of how much benefit is that post if you don’t already have well established social media platforms, with an audience. Ideally, every brand should have a presence on all four main platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Trade shows are perfect for enhancing engineers’ and manufacturers’ brand visibility, not only in the physical face-to-face world but in the digital world too. But there’s some work to do first, and that is building that social media presence – and this is where the Visually Explained team comes in.
If you want our help at a trade show, we’d be delighted. Contact us here or join us at our next Lunch&Learn session and we can talk about it some more. Our Lunch&Learn sessions are free, fun and informative, and give everyone a chance to join us online and have their social media questions answered. To book our May Lunch&Learn click here.