Podcast: Social media best practices for manufacturing executives

RB: So their experience is the reason that they are in the position they're in, but they find themselves with an expectation of doing more, of reaching out, of stepping out of that experience.

AT: There's a decision to be made. When you step into a leadership role, there's a decision to be made on how you will handle social media. Will you be the face of the company? Which, by the way, secret, if you are in the leadership team, you are the face of the company. I hope you all heard my secret. Keep it please. But also, tell your friends. And if you're going to behave in a certain way, privately versus publicly, like, for example, talking about your kids’ soccer team, while that is certainly something you would do on Facebook personally, it may not be so interesting to your potential customers.

There may be other aspects of who you are as a person, perhaps how you believe in starting businesses or your leadership position in servant leadership, which may be interesting and inform how the company behaves. If the leadership has a pattern of servant leadership, their customer service experience for customers is typically better. That's usually the case. So they can be indicators in how you behave on social media, of who your company is, whenever you're in a leadership role, whether you intended it or not.

RB: And if I may, underlying all of this is the conclusion, the assumption, that social media is important and necessary to the work that they do, and you agree with that?

AT: Well, I'm in marketing, so I'm biased. I'm going to say yes, but I would venture to say it goes beyond social media. When you hear the word social media, people tend to think oh Facebook, X, LinkedIn. Social media is the modern water cooler. It is anywhere you speak. So it could be on LinkedIn. You could be posting regularly there. It could be on a YouTube channel that you get interviewed for something your company does. It could be the outreach you do to a local radio station or a TV station that gets picked up and played by someone else's social media on behalf of your industry. Because I've seen that happen.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

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