You don’t need to be Wendy’s to be interesting on social media.
For many industrial companies, unfortunately, social media is often seen as an unserious younger sibling compared to heavyweights like trade shows, sales calls, and industry publications.
Too many companies use social media as a tool for the consideration/decision stage. Endless product promotion and sales pitches aren’t interesting to anyone outside the walls of your company or sales reps.
The result: 👍s from the same familiar faces who have your logo on their shirt.
It takes effort, restraint, and critical thinking, but organic growth on platforms like LinkedIn is a powerful way to build credibility, attract talent, and reach decision-makers long before they’re in buying mode.
To build your brand’s social media following, you need other people to share your posts with a crowd of potential followers. To do this, ask these three questions about potential posts you’re creating:
1. If you didn’t work there or weren’t a rep, would you care about this?
If all you do is talk about how great you are and how awesome your products are, why would somebody want to follow you? Would you??
Companies often fall into the trap of posting content that only promotes a product or resonates internally. A product brochure or a photo of a new machine on the floor may excite your team – hell yeah! – but will your broader audience find it valuable?
Education and entertainment drive value. Ideally, about 40% of your posts should be thought leadership. No promotion, no sales pitch, just insights.
If you’re not providing any value, why would somebody share your post or follow you?
2. If you weren’t in the market for your product, would you care about this?
The vast majority of your audience doesn’t want your product … right now. If all you do is product promotion, you’re falling on deaf ears or (even worse) you’re training your audience to ignore you because all you do is sell-sell-sell!
Organic growth requires appealing to people beyond active buyers. Educational posts, industry insights, or behind-the-scenes looks into the people behind your products create relevance even for those not researching purchases right now.
Get them in the tent (following you) with non-salesy content so that when they are in the market, your brand is already top of mind.
(Note: This is a core concept behind an Always-On Content strategy.)
3. If this were shared on your feed and you had no idea who the company was, would you care about this?
This is the test of true shareability.
Content that solves problems, teaches something new, or inspires pride in manufacturing is more likely to earn reposts and engagement.
Quality is more important than quantity to grow your social following. Don’t flood the feed with slop. Take the time to create interesting graphics that people will share and will get people to stop scrolling.
That’s how you get crawl-walk-run organic growth.
The more people who find your content interesting, the more they will share with their network. The more they share, the more it ends up on the radar of people who don’t follow you. The more people you get in front of who don’t follow you, the more likely you get more followers.
Rinse, repeat.
copyhound 