A business without a social media profile is a business that could potentially be missing out on capturing new clientele.
Now that we’ve looked at how distributors can use social media, it’s time to look at why a distributor’s social media profile should look different than a manufacturer’s. We’ll talk about one distributor, Brand Vaughan Lumber, that has been successful in using social media to increase their followers on their Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and therefore, build their brand and expand their business.
Distributor Profile vs. Manufacturer Profile
It’s important that both a distributor and manufacturer have a strong social media presence but their profiles will be quite different. While a manufacturer focuses on the materials production process, a distributor will have more interaction with a wider, end-customer community. A manufacturer’s profile will target industry professionals almost exclusively, thus changing both the tone and message they deliver with their social media presence.
Distributors have direct interaction with many different communities, including independent contractors, building owners, homeowners, architects, designers and manufacturers. This means their social media presence has to reflect this wide community in which a distributor is an integral element.
Learning from distributors, like Brand Vaughan Lumber, who have been successful can be the key to your own success.
Case Study: Brand Vaughan Lumber
Brand Vaughan Lumber is an Atlanta-based building materials supplier. They serve all of Georgia and operate from multiple lumber yards across the state with an efficient transportation system. They’ve been listed as “Top 50 Workplaces in Atlanta” for the past two years.
Brand Vaughan Lumber’s social media campaigns have been integral to building their brand, making them a great example of how to effectively use social media to build a better business.
Values, Employees and Awards
Since Brand Vaughan Lumber has been in business for decades, they’ve been able to build a consistent brand of core values, including employee satisfaction and being a part of the community. Their motto, “Strength Lies Within,” has been the pillar around which the business has built their success. They’ve taken this motto online with their social media presence.
Posts like this one above demonstrate Brand Vaughan’s commitment to their values while also introducing a new service. For a business like Brand Vaughan Lumber, this adherence to promoting their values across their social media platforms creates trust and underscores their brand.
Brand Vaughan Lumber has always emphasized their work-family values. They’ve hosted several employee-community programs, such as the Energy Bus program in the image above, and makes sure to share these events on social media to let their customers know how much they value their employees.
This post celebrated a big win for the company: when they received the “Top 50 Workplaces in Atlanta” award for the second year in a row.
Sharing posts like the ones highlighted above is a great way to gain and retain trust of your followers because it shows consistency with brand values while also letting followers become part of the story through the ability to engage with ‘likes’ and comments.
Reliable Industry News Resource
As an integral part of the community and a hub for industry professionals and end-clients, it’s important for distributors to go above and beyond with industry news that is relevant, timely and appropriate for all their followers.
The post above was one recent resource that Brand Vaughan Lumber shared with their followers about the housing market forecast in their (and their target audiences’) location. Posts like this can also help gain new followers, particularly industry professionals who can turn into future customers.
Community Outreach and Partnership
Distributors are part of a much wider community and emphasizing that over social media is important not only to help social media following, but to entrench yourself as a trusted member of the community.
Brand Vaughan Lumber’s community outreach has included both outreach videos and partner posts.
This is an image of a video of CEO Jon Vaughan speaking about the current situation surrounding the coronavirus and highlighting their commitment to the community they serve. In times of unrest, such as the current global pandemic, it’s important to be a calm voice for your followers and clients. Social media is a great way to get your message across and show people how much you care about your clients, followers and community.
Partnership posts are always a great way to boost followers. While manufacturers are limited to featuring the products they make, distributors have a wider range of products they can promote. In this post, Brand Vaughan Lumber promoted one of the brands they sell, tagging them in the photograph so users could check out their page. It also helps people searching for where to buy YellaWood products find Brand Vaughan Lumber.
Successful Campaigns
As mentioned in Part One, a social media campaign is a coordinated social media marketing effort to underscore a message. Brand Vaughan Lumber has had multiple successful campaigns in the past, two of which we discuss below.
Atlanta Labor Shortage Campaign
The Atlanta Labor Shortage campaign was both an acknowledgement of the difficulties the sector was facing and Brand Vaughan’s commitment to helping the community. They also used this as an opportunity to become a trusted resource, posting relevant information and resources for their followers.
The key part of this campaign was that it didn’t push viewers to buy anything. The campaign just provided information that would help viewers grow their business. It was about building trust and presenting themselves as an expert in the industry, instead of selling a particular product.
The image below was Brand Vaughan Lumber’s landing page where users could click on the ad and download their Atlanta Labor Shortage Guide.
Source – images provided
At the end of this campaign, Brand Vaughan Lumber was able to garner around 180 new contacts on their mailing list and reached over 70,000 people.
Facebook Followers Generation Campaign
Creating a followers generation campaign is a great way to get a business out there to a targeted demographic through ads. The execution of this type of campaign will vary depending on the social media platform you choose. For LinkedIn, it could be through automated direct messaging or for Instagram it could be simply following members of your target audience. This is one of Brand Vaughan Lumber’s followers generation ad campaigns for Facebook, which has been ongoing since October of 2019. Since its inception, it has helped to increase their social media following almost five fold!
The Take-Away
As a building materials distributor, Brand Vaughan Lumber has successfully used their social media to build their follower base, further increasing brand awareness and gaining potential new clients. By posting engaging content that is relevant to their audience and through the use of helpful resources, multimedia, social media campaigns and great storytelling, they’ve kept their social media presence relevant to their distribution status. They are a great example that distributors can learn from to help their own social media presence grow.
Click here to learn more about how to get started on LinkedIn.