Social Media Advertising for a Machine Shop?

ewlsey · Jun 8, 2013

OK. I'm a business park with a lot of neighbors. I was talking to a few guys about advertising. These guys are in businesses that deal with the general public. A carpet and flooring installer, and a guy who sells equipment for handicapped folks.

They do a ton of advertising. Yellow pages, radio, newspaper, etc. Now they are getting into Facebook. The carpet guy in particular is getting a lot of work through facebook. They run daily specials and have customer testimonials and other things on the page. None of these guys are computer wiz types. They are hiring a company to manage this stuff.

So, is there anything to be gained in our business by having a facebook page? I have a website with all of the vitals, and I make sure the Google info is correct for my shop. I don't use facebook, and I really don't want to. However, I can sort of see some merit. This website is a type of social media, so obviously folks in the business are looking to connect.

Thoughts or opinions?

Big B · Jun 8, 2013

Birds of a feather tend to flock together. Facebook is largely free and I know several people from realtors to bar owners to restaurant owners who do fairly well getting the word out about specials etc.

With that said, I am active on facebook but don't advertise my shop on there as I am not looking for more work right now. But if I was, I would likely use it.

Big B

kpotter · Jun 8, 2013

I run my whole business through social media, but I make a product that appeals to middle age women and they spend lots of time on facebook. If you offer something that appeals to a certain demographic you could easily reach them through social media.

ewlsey · Jun 8, 2013

Unfortunately, we make products that appeal to 38-55 year old white males with titles like "VP of engineering" or "President". They probably don't spend much time on facebook.

Maybe an add on Glen Beck...

Limy Sami · Jun 9, 2013

IMO it depends on what line of business you're in, say if you were making go fastercar parts selling to Joe public, then yes, trade to trade as it were? and I can't see the point, in fact given the number of tossers and time wasters on social media it could put people off. - as it would me.

cnrtool · Jun 9, 2013

My experiences with a web page were pitiful. After 3 years, I could not attribute a single sale to the web page. I could attribute nearly every phone solicitor for oils, steel, tools, insurance, banking, etc, to the page. When you put your name and number out there, expect to attract every salesman wanting to expand their territory.

Gary E · Jun 9, 2013

cnrtool said:
My experiences with a web page were pitiful. After 3 years, I could not attribute a single sale to the web page. I could attribute nearly every phone solicitor for oils, steel, tools, insurance, banking, etc, to the page. When you put your name and number out there, expect to attract every salesman wanting to expand their territory.

Well...isnt that YOUR intent when you advertize anywhere?

What I see as the real problem is that the carpet guy, the restaurant guy, the others all have one thing in common.... HIGH PROFIT MARGIN... whats your profit margin?... never mind, you dont have any profit, first you have to have a product, you dont have a product do you, you have a service that makes stuff for the guys with the ideas and product making machinery... so... seems to me this is just another reason why owning a machine shop is a louzy idea...unless you get a product, that you can sell, and make sure that product has a high profit margin.... geee where would you make such products???

omrc7771 · Jun 9, 2013

Quite by accident, I have realized ALOT of attention with YouTube videos. And here I've been paying all those E bay and PayPal fees.

Insert · Jun 9, 2013

It can't hurt, while I agree it sounds odd for a machine shop to be on Facebook and it won't double your sales, it is one more place that your shop will show up in a search result. Then when it has a few pictures and samples of your work, people will be interested and just might try you out.

Don't spend 10 hours a day on it, but a few hours setting it up and 10 min a week can only help you.

Garwood · Jun 9, 2013

Youtube has worked well for me. The website doesn't work by itself, Youtube sends them to the website, I get orders and calls.

I prefer to put a few days of planning into shooting a video, editing and upload VS endlessly monitoring something like Facebook. The video showcases the products, answers loads of questions, gives the customer a great sense of who they're dealing with and pimps the website where they can order. I feel like it weeds out the time wasters and dreamers a bit.

The Facebook, forum and blog stuff wastes a lot of time and makes it difficult to present a clear channel of ordering and communication to the customer. I tried some of that early on and found customers would send messages using any number of different personal message routes or posting to a forum and it was all very confusing to keep track of.

AndyF · Jun 9, 2013

Linked In and participation in the appropriate forums through Linked In may make more sense for B2B sales than Facebook.

cnrtool · Jun 10, 2013

Gary E said:
Well...isnt that YOUR intent when you advertize anywhere?

Actually, no. I would rather not have a webpage that quadruples the number of salesmen that call my number and or walk in my shop for no gain.

Of course, this is my opinion. Depending on your market, you may experience different results.

Dave K · Jun 10, 2013

ewlsey said:
Unfortunately, we make products that appeal to 38-55 year old white males with titles like "VP of engineering" or "President". They probably don't spend much time on facebook.

Maybe an add on Glen Beck...

This is kinda the line I was going to take. I don't know anything for sure, but, your neighbors have a product that is selling to the general public, so word of mouth on a social site would be better for them, but maybe not for you. Since you're more industrial, it's unlikely anyone who would buy your product would go searching on facebook for it. I suppose they could stumble upon it by chance, stranger things have happened, and since it's free, why not. But, I'd be surprised if it generates any real substantial gains.

Klaus · Jun 11, 2013

Hello Kpotter
[QUOTEI run my whole business through social media, but I make a product that appeals to middle age women and they spend lots of time on facebook][/QUOTE]

I didn't know you make purses and bags

Klaus

SND · Jun 12, 2013

Last thing I want is social people showing up...

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