5 Social Media Trends Impacting Manufacturers

If you want to increase dealer network sales, your network of dealers needs to be using social media to promote your products and services.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all great ways to grow your business.

However, if you want your channel partners to use social media, you really need to understand the important trends impacting manufacturers.

Social Media Examiner recently had an excellent posting on important social media trends.  We’ve highlighted the most important ones for distributors and manufacturers looking to grow channel partner sales.

Trend #1: Focus On Facebook and LinkedIn

When it comes to social media, companies tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  The stats from the Social Media Examiner posting show social media use at:

  • Facebook – 49%
  • Twitter – 40%
  • LinkedIn 27%
  • YouTube 23%

In our opinion, it’s important to focus on Facebook and LinkedIn.  That’s because Facebook and LinkedIn have very large user bases.  They also very easy to interact with potential customers.

Trend #2: Most Channel Partners Need Social Media Help

According to the report, lots of companies now use social media to promote products and services.  But do they know what they’re actually doing?

Our guess is that some have a slight idea to what they’re doing while most are completely clueless.  For distributors and manufacturers, it’s important to make sure your channel partners know how to promote your products and services via social media.

There are channel partner salesperson education programs that can help teach your channel partners how to sell and market in the internet era.

Trend #3: Be Patient

If you want to see success, you and your channel partners need to be patient.  You’re not going to see record results overnight.  It takes time and hard work.

The report showed that most companies generally saw an increase in confidence with social media at the two-year mark.  We know that’s a long time, but if you have a fully developed social media marketing plan, you may not have to wait that long.

Trend #4: It’s All About Conversation

In the report, it showed many companies are using social media to broadcast marketing messages.  This is totally wrong.

With social media, it’s all about the conversation.  Have discussions with your customers on Facebook.  You’ll build a stronger relationship and have a life-long customer.  That’s the goal that you need to stress to your channel partners.

Trend #5: Measure Results

When it comes to social media marketing, most do not measure results.  If you want to see channel partner sales increase, you need to pay close attention to your social media results.

According to the report, more than half of the respondents didn’t consistently pay attention to the results.  This is a big mistake.  By paying attention to the number of followers, comments, likes, postings, etc., you’ll be able to create a more successful social media marketing plan.

Get More Great Tips!

Paying attention to these five trends will help you increase channel partner sales.  For more great tips, be sure to read other posts on the Right On – No Bull Marketing Blog and follow us on Facebook!

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