There are a lot of businesses across nearly every industry utilizing the power of social media to grow. Some businesses find it challenging to grow their social following due to the type of industry they’re in. Technical industries like manufacturing, for instance, social media.

In fact, 85 percent of manufacturing businesses have a social media strategy in their overall marketing plan. However, having a social media strategy and seeing success are two very different things.

Your business may be having some social issues, and you may not know why. From not posting regularly, to posting the wrong type of content, there are plenty of obstacles that can pop up. Let’s take a closer look at a few viral social media tips for technical industries.

1. Don’t Start With Social Media

This might seem a bit odd, but the key to social media success for technical industries is to not start with social media. You will need a lot of content to make your social media plan successful. And a lot of that content needs to be technical in order to entice your target audience to follow you.

This makes evergreen content, like white papers, ebooks, and case studies valuable. For example, this ECAD data management datasheet can provide hundreds of social media posts. Evergreen content like this has a long shelf life and can be used to increase your following, build your lead list, and increase brand awareness.

2. Stop Selling Your Technical Business

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make on social media is that they continue to post sales pitches. No one wants to be pitched to anymore. What your audience does want is quality content that is actionable and useful. This adds value for your target audience, and showcases your industry authority.

For example, you could post a video about top tips  to increase productivity your audience on social media can run with to help their business. You may think this is giving away your secret sauce, but it isn’t. The truth is, most businesses will not DIY it, and would rather hire you, an authority with great advice.

3. Get Follower Contributions

Getting your followers involved can be great for audience engagement. It can also help your business increase followers, since most people will share the content they posted on your social media networks. How do you get contributor content right? Great question.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to get your audience posting content on your social network of choice is to run a contest. In the summer of 2018, Coca-Cola launched the “Share A Coke” global marketing campaign that enlisted their audience to post bottles with a person’s name on it via #shareacoke hashtag. This was very successful.

4. Join Like-Minded Social Groups

Social media is not just a one-way conversation between you and your audience. This makes this next social media tip important if you want to build your company’s followers and engagement. Find like-minded groups on your social networks. And there are plenty of groups to join, even in the technical industry space.

For instance, there’s the Technical, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Group on Facebook. This group has about 1,000 members and could be a great place to network and share your valuable content and advice. Join 10 of these groups and you have 10,000 new audience members, and potential clients.

5. Use Influencers To Your Advantage

Influencer marketing is still very much relevant, despite all the news about fake influencers and poor influencer marketing campaign results. Most of the negatives are the result in businesses simply not doing their homework on the type of influencers they used.

Qualify your influencers before you hire them. Check their engagement going back three months, see if they are engaging back, and don’t get too stuck on how many followers an influencer has. Micro-influencers with 5,000 followers may be far more profitable than a celebrity influencer with millions of followers. Do your research and employ influencers that make sense for the growth of your business.

In Conclusion . . .

Social media can be a useful tool to grow your technical industry business into a successful company. It simply takes a bit of due diligence, strategy, and time. One of the most important things to remember when it comes to growing your business’ social presence is that it takes time. Do not expect big results right out of the gate.

It could take months before you begin seeing social media results. You should develop a plan and stick to it. From posting valuable content to using the power of influencers, the above tips can get you moving forward in the right social direction. Happy posting.

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