Staying Connected
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Nicola Harding, account director, FS Distribution, discusses how social media can keep a logistics firm connected
We live in the era of social media. How many of us have a Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Instagram account? Or all of them? Or all of them, plus a raft of others? We love to interact, converse and plain boast on-line. The 21st century is the age of instant and public communication, and we’re all part of it.
For a business, engagement with social media and an effective on-line presence is crucial. Few companies could gain new customers, or even retain old ones, without a sound website at the very least. For businesses working within the marketing industry, image and perceptions are key.
Above all else, we must seek to engage with and understand consumers. If consumers are looking at brands and products on-line, discussing them on Facebook, putting images of them on Pinterest… then we must be there too. The critical term is engagement.
A logistics supplier works at the ‘un-glamorous’ end of the marketing spectrum. This doesn’t preclude creativity and innovation, but warehouses and trucks make for a dirty business (both figuratively and literally!). However, even though practical considerations and facilities dominate a handling house’s experience, they must remain in touch with and a part of the industry that they service. In this sense, on-line interaction is not only a necessity, but a gift.
When your working day is spent largely in a warehouse, considering storage space or packing processes, or looking at vehicles and determining what set or equipment can be loaded and how they should be rigged, the wider industry and outside world can feel a long way away. But through on-line engagement, particularly through social media sharing and the exchange of ideas, you remain part of the whole.
In the past 12 months, FS Distribution have expanded on their social networking reach, restructured their website and begun a regular WordPress blog to engage and inform, extending this into Linkedin with regular discussions and encouragement of interaction. Over the next 6 months FS are looking to develop instructional and informational videos on youtube, to allow a window into the side of the industry that is rarely shared. The aim is to achieve engagement, visibilty and to engender dicussion and the flow of information, but above all, to be social!
