How social are good suppliers?

We are now all well acquainted by now with Social media, with all age groups using or experimenting  in using social media  to various extents.

Lots of companies who operate in a B2B market are using social media but are they using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin to engage customers?

Are they using social media successfully for sales, product or service development or customer service?

Can a buyer use the social media presence of a company to help qualify this company as an future potential supplier?

Ask yourself the following questions as you review social media channels:

• What type of information is being posted? Either out of date employee news or competitions? or is it  interesting and current news of product developments or company performance?

• Do the Social Media activities engage their customers as opposed to just being a on-line general PR activities?

• Has a company made any genuine attempts to gain feedback from customers on their products or services?

I suppose the first and quickest way you will judge anything on social media is by the quality of information being posted. Has it any value to you in your buying decision process, whether it be for social or business purposes.

Companies using a combination of social media channels should pay equal attention to making sure quality is the same for each channel. Just focus on specific channels you intend and can keep updated on a regular basis rather than covering all bases with mediocre content.

Having a consistent message through all your social media whether it be customer engagement or PR gives a clear and quality message to the viewer. Try not to mix your objectives in any one social media channel.

The nature of the content is also important. News on actual product or manufacturing developments and performance of the company make a better impact to a potential buyer than news on lighter or non-critical PR events taking place around the company.

Good relevant authentic content (sourced from the companies own activities) can strengthen your company's position as a reliable supplier. Poor content or abandoned channels at best do not enhance your reputation and at worse can give an impression of negativity.

Some good examples of B2B companies in manufacturing using social media are

Graphicast ( a company producing precision engineered metal parts)

https://www.facebook.com/Graphicast/timeline

Essentra Packaging

https://www.facebook.com/PackagingResolved

Steripack Packaging Company

https://www.facebook.com/SteriPack

Bronway (a company specialisation in automation solutions) use of Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNsl9wJR1XBr5zTYqv4RILA

Lonza: Supplier of speciality chemicals and custom manufacturer

https://twitter.com/LonzaGroup

Catalent Pharma: Drug Development

https://twitter.com/CatalentPharma