Building material companies have so much to gain by being involved in social media and so much to lose by not being involved. I have found that the problem is senior management who just doesn’t understand it and how to leverage its power.
Here’s two ways to bring building product senior management into social media.
The first way is to sign them up and make them a stalker.
FaceBook – show them how to sign up for an account without really revealing themselves or sharing anything. I have a few senior level executive clients who have a FaceBook page and rarely post anything. They have connected with several people they trust. They also ‘like’ their competitors’ pages. Then, all they do is go on FaceBook to watch and learn how people use it and interact with companies.
I forget they are even there except when I see them and they ask about my colorful socks that I post everyday on FaceBook.
LinkedIn – they may already be on LinkedIn, but then they rarely use it or check it , unless they are looking for a job. Encourage them to watch other people’s activity and to connect with more people. They should be connected with customers and employees. Then get them to join some industry groups and watch the discussions.
Twitter – sign them up and then help them find people and companies to follow. Once again, they don’t have to do anything but occasionally go on Twitter and observe.
Instagram, Houzz, Pinterest and Google+ – I would simply show them these sites and give them a brief explanation. Unless they are very interested in one of these, I would hold off on these until they are comfortable with the first three.
The second way is to focus on sales management
Marketing automation is rapidly gaining in popularity with sales leaders. If you don’t know what it is, here’s a good website to review. http://www.marketo.com/marketing-automation/
Most building material senior executives are used to people selling them new products. With social media, there has been no one to sell them until now.
A number of companies have realized the power of social media and quality online content to drive sales. What they have done is to make it all measurable so you can see the sales results from your efforts. In short, they make the sales manager’s job easier while they help increase sales, which makes the entire team look good.
The key to these efforts is good content and where you post it. Marketing automation may finally be a way that senior executives of building product companies can get excited about social media. If the marketing automation companies haven’t gotten around to calling on your company yet, reach out to them yourself. You can find a number of them online.
One way or another, you should do everything you can to get your company way into social media.
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