Storytelling is a key part of a successful social media marketing strategy, and has been for quite some time. But storytelling can seem difficult in the manufacturing sector. Is it possible to tell a good story about manufacturing? Would anyone want to consume such a story? The answer is yes – if you have the courage to take that first step outside your comfort zone and think outside the box. This guide will provide you with ten actionable tips on how manufacturers can harness the power of storytelling on social media.
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Manufacturing and storytelling
- 10 tips to improve your storytelling on social media
- Introduce your company as you would a main character
- Tell the story of your products
- Forget the numbers
- Go backstage with a camera
- Find similarities between your brand and your audience
- Explain how you solved your customers’ issues
- Be honest about your own issues
- Find your hook
- Structure your story
- Create an introduction and a conclusion
- Conclusion
Introduction
Storytelling is all the rage in digital marketing. “Tell a story; do not bombard people with facts” is something every content marketer says in conferences, client calls and meetings with their bosses. After all, humans love stories. On TV, in books, in music, on stage, in our dreams or in our realities – stories captivate us and keep us engaged. Stories are things we can relate to. Facts and figures are not.
Social media has done a great job of tapping into this. Instagram’s most popular feature is literally called “Stories”. LinkedIn research has found that images with quotes attract 30% more click-throughs compared to images with statistics. In a world of percentages and graphs, stories are what make brands stand out. Your brand’s story is, after all, unique to you.
That is all nice and easy for brands like National Geographic, which has one of the most popular Instagram accounts in the world (check it out) or Coca-Cola, whose #TogetherIsBeautiful campaign is one of the most beautiful marketing campaigns out there (check this one out too). One literally tells stories for a living, the other is drunk by over half the planet (plenty of stories to tell there).
But what about the brands that are not so obviously inspiring? The brands that not everyone uses; that most people may not even have heard of? The brands that make the National Geographic pages and put the most popular drink in the world into its trademarked bottles? What about manufacturing?
Manufacturing and storytelling
If you were to ask us which industry struggles with storytelling the most on social media, we would have to name manufacturing. The reasons behind this are many, and a lot of it has to do with pre-conceived ideas and the company culture that comes with them. What picture comes to your mind when you think of manufacturing? Is it grey? Is it metallic? Is it inside?
For far too long, manufacturing companies have been, dare we say it, taking themselves too seriously to make any noise on social media. We once had a conversation with a client about their not-so-appealing LinkedIn page. They rarely used it and when they did, they were not getting the kind of engagement they wanted. They knew they had to do something about it, but they did not know what. “We manufacture machines. How could we go viral?”
The problem was they did not think their products were social media friendly, but we had a look at their product catalogue and immediately saw something peculiar. A lot of their products looked like something else: vacuum cleaners, robots, blenders, even objects taken out of a sci-fi film. They were not. We told them: “That is your hook! That is how you get people’s attention.” For a brand awareness campaign, that is the first hurdle you need to pass: getting people’s attention. The reactions we got to our suggestion were really interesting: half of their team loved it, the other half immediately shut it down. “We have a serious reputation. We are a serious company. Our audience is serious. We cannot be anything less than absolutely serious.”
This story brings to the surface a problem we have heard a lot of manufacturing companies talk about: the generational divide. Manufacturing is one of the slowest industries to embrace digital marketing. Another client told us: “Why should we invest in social media when knocking on doors still works?” There is an unspoken “now” in that sentence. Door-to-door sales might still work now for an industry glorified by such methods, but the world is not about to change, it already changed over a decade ago. It will not take long before door-to-door will no longer work – just look at the millennial generation, now slowly coming into power. They distrust people knocking on their door – where was the e-mail informing them you would come a-calling?
By the time digital marketing engulfs manufacturing, it might be too late to compete with those manufacturing companies who have taken the social media route a long time ago. This fact does not take away the problem though. How do manufacturing companies move away from posting pictures of men in business suits shaking hands at manufacturing conventions on social media, and onto presenting themselves as interesting, engaging and, at the end of the day, original? The answer is storytelling.
10 tips to improve your storytelling on social media
Storytelling for manufacturing is not an easy, natural feat. Stories do not come as easily, and that is nobody’s fault. The secret is to think outside the box. The following ten tips will do exactly that: outline some standard principles of storytelling and apply them to manufacturing companies. Let’s get started!
1. Introduce your company as you would a main character
For a company, the main character of the story is the company itself. That can branch out into different things: your vision, your mission, your brand voice, your employees, your products.
When you talk about your company on social media, do not focus on the numbers that nobody will remember, focus on what your company stands for. Instead of saying: “We produce machines that make cereals,” say something like: “Our goal is to ensure every product that hits our clients’ shelves is so tasty that everyone who eats them will start their day with a smile.” Instead of saying: “We produced 1 million boxes of cereal last year in the US,” say: “1 million breakfast tables in the US had a box of our cereal on them last year.” You are saying the same thing, but you are telling a story people will remember.
Your brand voice must match what you are producing, not the fact you are a manufacturing company. All manufacturing companies are in the same industry, but they do not produce the same things. Are you producing cars? Be cool, fresh, fast-paced and innovative. Are you producing baked goods? Be friendly, warm and genuine.
Think about why people should care about your company in the same way people care about a character in a story. The secret is not in the numbers, but in what it has achieved, what it wants to achieve and the growth it is experiencing getting there.
2. Tell the story of your products
When it comes to products, manufacturing companies tend to put the spotlight on their own, rather than on those that come out of their machines. A lot of companies will flood their social media pages with computer graphics of shiny machines, thinking that is what will impress potential buyers. However, we are willing to bet that most potential buyers are interested in the quality and efficiency of those machines, and the most memorable way to tell them that is to show them what their finished product could look like. So, abandon the computer graphics and get some real footage of the production process.
Let’s take the example of the boxes of cereal we used earlier. Where does their story start? Well, probably in a beautiful field where the grains grow. So, start at the very beginning. Ask your users: “How does a field of corn turn into a delicious pile of chocolate puffs?” Then, tell the story and include your product in there. Now, your corporate buyers will know all of this, but you are not trying to tell them how you do what you do, you are trying to tell them: “I am here and I am different.” To get attention on social media, you need to think outside the box. That is how you grow an audience; by appealing to the human side of your customers. And humans remember a good story.
3. Forget the numbers
Numbers are something you often find on manufacturing social profiles. Indeed, statistics are a way to grab attention, but not when your entire feed is filled with them.
The worst use of numbers we have seen are in posts announcing the launch of products called something like 2465LPD4. This is a name that very few people will remember, but it is the kind of naming system often found in manufacturing. There is nothing wrong with it; it is just not meant to be shown on social media. Say what your product actually does instead and show a short video of it in action. Nobody will click just by seeing a picture of the product and its name.
Another common use of numbers for manufacturing on social media is employing them to say productivity or efficiency has increased by 50% in two years. Great! Good for you! Unfortunately, it is the same thing your competitors are probably saying. What did your products actually do to increase productivity? Go into the nitty gritty. Or better yet, choose a client and get them to tell the story. What issues did they start with? How did your products fix them? Tell the story behind the numbers.
4. Go backstage with a camera
Behind-the-scenes footage sells just as well in social media marketing as it does in Hollywood marketing. There are two narratives manufacturing companies can use when it comes to behind-the-scenes content.
The first is literally what the name says. Your customers will want to know what your employees are like and how your production process works. Show them by either creating employee spotlight content (e.g. get an expert to talk about your new product instead of simply sharing an impersonal press release) or taking footage of what the production process looks like (e.g. videos of production line machineries are very popular on YouTube – this video of an ice cream manufacturing process has over 100 million views!):
The second narrative is a bit more sophisticated. Manufacturing is in itself the behind-the-scenes of how a certain product is made. Take this approach and roll with it. If you make everyone’s favourite breakfast cereal, do not be shy about saying so. A simple question of: “Do you know how your favourite chocolate puffs are made?” is already the start of a story. This type of narrative can quite easily be turned into clickable content because most people do not know how a lot of the products they use come to look, smell or taste the way they do.
Again, you have to remember you are not creating this content to teach potential customers anything new, you are creating it to create buzz. Then, when potential clients come to your social media pages and see a lot of followers and great engagement levels (not to mention content that entertains them whilst being useful), they will remember you.
5. Find similarities between your brand and your audience
Great stories make the people who read or watch them feel something because they have experienced similar situations. Even the most fantastical tales will have episodes that we in the non-fantastical world can relate to. None of us have ever had to fight for an Iron Throne, but all of us have had to compete with others for something that feels just as important in our ordinary lives.
For manufacturing companies, the struggle to find common ground with their audiences might seem greater than it is. The target audience here is likely corporate customers; the people in the Procurement or Acquisitions or Business Expansion or Operations department who are looking to buy your products.
The first step to creating content that relates to your audience is finding out who they are and where they are. Conducting market research or persona research will take care of this step.
The next step is finding out exactly what kind of content your audience is interested in. To tackle this question, employ e-listening (i.e. social media listening) to discover the topics your audience is interested in, as well as the kind of content they consume online: written, video, bite-sized?
Go a step further, though. Take a look at their interests and see if you can find patterns. Is a lot of your audience interested in fantasy novels? Then how about you take that bit of information and try to incorporate it in your social media efforts? You might find this idea ludicrously impossible, but it is actually not (remember our example of the products that looked like they were taken out of a sci-fi book?).
6. Explain how you solved your customers’ issues
In storytelling, one of the most popular narratives is “the quest”. The tale of a hero having to go through difficulties to defeat an evil.
In manufacturing, this type of narrative can easily be told through customer stories. Your customers had an issue, they came to you, they bought your products, and you solved the issue. It is the perfect tale potential customers might want to hear because they are likely facing similar issues. The best way of telling this story is through a short 5-minute video of what you and your customers managed to achieve together.
If you want a more comprehensive piece of content, you can always create white papers or even full reports about how you helped your customers overcome their “quest”. You can also use such content in webinars and conferences, and if you can convince said customer to present the case study with you, that is even better.
7. Be honest about your own issues
This next tip is something most companies find hard to follow. After all, going out on social media and saying you have done something wrong is not exactly easy. It is, however, greatly appreciated, and a very human way of announcing you have updated a product or even launched a new one. Perhaps the reason behind this is the fact your old product had issues. If that is the case, it is better for you to come forward and admit it, rather than social media users getting the gist from your customers.
The best thing about this approach is that it is extremely relatable. Humans make mistakes and behind every single brand (manufacturing or not) are a lot of humans. The greatest example we can think of for this in recent times comes from Samsung. Remember how the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 kept overheating and catching fire? Ouch! Talk about having an issue! Yet, somehow, Samsung overcame that crisis and is now stronger than ever. If you are curious about how it did that, this great article explains all.
8. Find your hook
One of the most important principles of journalistic storytelling is finding a hook for your story – something that your entire story revolves around that people’s attention can easily be grabbed by.
For manufacturing companies, the hook is the issues that your products have the solution to. Create your content around how they stand out from other products in the industry. Discover what the most common questions your customers ask when they start researching for a manufacturer are, and make sure your content answers them.
A very important part of creating a hook in your content is ensuring it is up-to-date with the latest trends in your industry. You can keep an eye on this by using social media listening, and analysing the most popular topics and hashtags that have earned the most engagement in the past six months.
9. Structure your story
Keeping all of the above tips in mind every time you have a new product/event and need to create a new social media campaign is not easy. Creating an entire social media campaign can take up a lot of time (a proper campaign needs to be created at least a month before it goes live). You need to create and organise your content, create social media posts, create creatives (an ideal campaign should have a mixture of images with text, videos and GIFs) and schedule everything in advance to ensure your campaign is not delayed by anything.
The first step to having everything ready is creating an editorial calendar. Just like magazines and newspapers traditionally create editorial calendars, you should create one that covers at least three months in advance. It should include any new products or events you have coming up during that period, as well as a series of content coming from your website, blog, YouTube channel or other sources of content, that is always live on your social channels.
Editorial calendars do not need to be very detailed. You can create more detailed plans for each one of your campaigns when the time comes. The name of the campaign, the topics, the date when you need to start creating content and the date when it needs to go live is all you need to include in your editorial calendar. Details such as what kind of content to use, what kind of creatives and which social platforms to include can go inside your campaign plan.
10. Create an introduction and a conclusion
A good way of announcing your social media campaign is to begin with a post that states you are about to start a campaign on a certain topic. Tell people what they should expect so they can return to your social media pages looking for more similar content. Then, at the end of the campaign, wrap everything up by creating another generic post summarising the top learnings from your campaign.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, storytelling and manufacturing are not as foreign to each other as it may seem at first glance. The first thing you need to do to achieve great levels of engagement is to allow yourself to think outside the box. The next step is to come up with a plan. Have a look at the above tips and decide which ones work for your company. It is very likely that not all will, and that is fine. Once you have the plan, create an editorial calendar and go from there.
If you are planning to do this at a global scale, you need to bear in mind a few things. Firstly, not all your content will be relevant to all the markets you are active in, even if your product is present everywhere. Conduct market research and social media listening to check whether you need to completely rewrite your content to fit each market or if you can localise what you already have.
Secondly, you need to ensure the execution of your social media campaign goes smoothly all across the globe. It would be a good idea to have only one team in charge of creating and publishing the social media for all your local social media channels, with assistance from your local teams. This will ensure the quality and messaging stay consistent and all your posts go out at the same time no matter where in the world they will be seen.
Good luck, and do not forget that every single brand has a unique story to tell. The challenge is almost always in having the courage to take the very first step towards telling it in a way that sits outside your comfort zone.
To learn more about digital marketing for the manufacturing sector, click here.