If you want to grow your trucking business, your marketing strategy needs to include more than paid trucking advertising. Today, it is vital for small fleet owners and owner/operators to create and build relationships. This is why many in the trucking industry are using social media.
If you are just learning how to use trucking social media, don’t let your transportation company get left behind! We live in a world where having an online presence is crucial. There are many ways you can start to build an online presence.
Social media is one thing every business should incorporate. It is a great way to start if you are new to digital advertising or if you are wanting to enhance what you already have. If you want your company to stay relevant, there are strategies that any transportation company can easily incorporate. Whether you have your own trucking company, are looking to start a trucking company, have a new trucking business, or have a successful trucking business already, we can help you create a social media business plan.
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Trucking Social Media
Work pays off on social media for trucking businesses, especially since everyone has a smartphone these days. The way people use social media has evolved throughout the years. People don’t just use social media to stay in touch with others anymore. It is used in the buying and selling process as well. Users are influenced by what they see and take action. Although it might be more work, in the long run social media will pay off if you want to run a successful trucking company.
What can you expect to see by utilizing social media for your trucking company?
- Increase in drivers
- Add a personality to your brand
- Increase company’s brand awareness
- Expand your business reach
- Increase in business-to-business relationships
How to Grow a Trucking Company through Social Media
Companies need truck drivers, but the number of drivers has been lacking for years. The truck driver shortage is expected to continue. In order to try to combat this issue, long-term solutions have been offered. One of the solutions is that drivers want more connectivity. There are many ways to begin this connectivity process. Trucking social media can be a perfect way to give drivers what they want.
Social Media to Grow Your Trucking Business
Social media is a great way to offer connectivity for any business owner. Many of the small business social media strategies apply similarly to a trucking company. More transportation companies are turning to technology to help because they are starting to see its relevance in their work. Starting to build your social media presence will be a process. The payoffs can be very rewarding if used right.
Starting Facebook Groups for More Connectivity between Drivers
Drivers want to be more connected. To help attract people to your company, you can start a Facebook group that allows your drivers to communicate with one another. Quick updates on road conditions, routes, lines, and more can be sent in an instant to alert other drivers.
Using LinkedIn to Connect with Employees
Although a trucking job might not seem attractive to all, it is a necessity. This is especially true during the times of a pandemic or unprecedented weather, which brings shortages of food and other supplies. By adapting your business, you can start seeing your job openings fill more quickly.
LinkedIn is a business networking site that is the backbone for connecting employees with employers. Using LinkedIn can drive your business to future employees. Posting jobs, starting ads, and connecting with people on this platform will be more beneficial than putting an ad in the paper that only a few people read. This can also help you connect with suppliers and gain credibility through your connections.
Companies That Use Social Media Marketing Do This
When it comes to social media, having no intent behind the content you create does nothing for you or your viewer. Make sure every piece of content you post is working towards a marketing strategy. That doesn’t mean you should be constantly pushing your product, but instead providing valuable content your viewers will want to see.
How to Develop a Social Media Strategy in the Trucking Industry
A social media strategy helps layout guidelines for what your online presence is going to look like. This can include what content your business will produce in order to reach the goals you have laid out for your company. By going through the steps listed below, you will be on your way to building your trucking social media.
Follow The Conversations
See what is being said in the trucking business by following hashtags and competitors. This can help you see where to direct your focus. You don’t want to do what your competition is doing. By following them it can help you see what they are doing and do something different. It can also help you gather information and other ideas to incorporate into your trucking company.
Come Up With A Strategy
Find a strategy that helps you achieve your goal. When making a strategy you want to think about long and short term. If you are posting content with no intent behind it, you aren’t properly using a social media strategy. This is important to gain your audience’s attention and reach the outcomes you set for yourself.
Choose A Social Media Platform
It is usually good to put your focus on one or two social media platforms. If you are stuck on which platform to choose, do some research and learn where your audience is. This can help be a deciding factor. You want the right people to see your content. For trucking businesses, Facebook, Google Business Profile, and LinkedIn are usually the right platforms.
Update Your Account
Just having a social media account isn’t helpful if you aren’t updating it. Produce quality content. This means providing value to your target audience through every post. Organic content in social media is the number one aspect that will help your company obtain more brand awareness. This content is free but powerful. It can gain your business trust, followers, potential clients, and drivers.
Create Content
To build your social media presence, consistency is key. If you are struggling with ways to continue to produce content for your account, here are some quick ideas. Making infographics, filming behind the scenes on drivers, using any type of video/reel/TikTok, or starting a blog are ways to gain exposure for your business. You can even profile a company driver on your accounts and show the day in the life of an employee.
Create A Community
Engage with your audience and build relationships in comments and posts. When people comment on your post or mention you on social media, it is incredibly important to respond. The days of emailing or calling for customer service are gone. People turn to social media for quick responses. If they don’t receive any communication back, it hurts your brand. You can also start engagement through your post by asking questions or doing contests.
Tips for Trucking Firms on Social Media
On social media, no one wants to see a hard sell. People go on these platforms for entertainment. Users don’t want to scroll through their feed and see your company sharing what you do, but instead, they want to know why you do it.
Your Audience
There is an audience for anything on social media. This includes your transportation company. Don’t sell yourself short or think that people won’t be interested in your content. You don’t know until you produce something and put it out there.
Partner with Local Charities or Other Organizations
Team up with a non-profit. You can help the community while increasing your brand awareness. Make sure the organization connects with your company’s goals. If they don’t align, it might not go as smoothly as you are hoping. This can help create conversations about your brand with people who haven’t heard much about your company.
Add Brand Personality
The average trucking company is pretty boring on social media. However, social media is a great avenue for you to share your brand’s personality and help grow your trucking business. It will attract like-minded people to your company. These people are valuable to you. If they are interested in what is behind your brand, they can go to your website linked to your social media account for further information. Reducing friction between your social media accounts and website will make for an overall happier client.
Link Your Social Media to Your Trucking Business Website
You can post on social media and have links that lead to your site for people to take action. Ask your employees to get involved by following the pages, sharing content, or even starting a contest within the company that gets people to share about your business.
You can also reach out and follow other small fleet owners, owner operators and people in the trucking industry. People typically check out who is requesting to follow them. This can be a great strategy for finding potential clients, drivers, or others who you think might like your content.
Create Trucking Company Social Media Strategies with SEO Design Chciago
The average owner operator of a trucking company doesn’t pay much attention to social media. If you want to increase your drivers, suppliers, and overall brand awareness, starting a social media strategy in addition to trucking advertising can help. We have experts who can help you manage or start up your online presence.
If you want to learn more about implementing this into your company on your own, or with a team, we offer a variety of resources for you. At SEO Design Chicago we want your business to be as successful as possible! That is why we offer trucking companies multiple social media packages for your business to select what is best. We work with trucking business owners to create a social media plan to beat the other trucking companies out there.
FAQ:
- What are the results for trucking companies using social media?
- Can I grow my trucking company with the truck driver shortage?
- How to develop a brand strategy?
- What are tips for using social media?
- How can trucking companies create social media strategies?
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