It’s not a surprise that sites like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are gaining so many followers. Besides the connective nature of Facebook, the other three sites are solely image-driven. Companies in logistics need to be publishing pictures and videos about themselves, their agents and the cargo they handle.
Allow me to explain why.
There was a great post this week on Social Media Today that highlighted surprising statistics about many of the most popular social media outlets. The ones about the visual-oriented sites (pictures, video) are the ones I’d like to share here.
The equivalent of 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute.
500 years of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook every day.
Facebook users share 2.5 billion pieces of content daily.
69% of brands have a presence on Pinterest, up from 10% from Q4 2012.
Instagram users upload 40 million photos to the site each day.
In presentations that I’ve given in Atlanta and Seattle, I have a slide that talks about the fact that logistics companies move stuff. And sometimes, that stuff can be really cool. Project, art, antiques, expensive cars, race horses…even a 40′ ocean container full of fish.
Maersk understands this and has actually set up a website, maersklinesocial.com, where the Captains of their first Triple-E class ship are blogging about their first voyage. Maersk is on ten social networks, and the work that they’ve done in pushing their brand past businesses to the consumers who drive buying decisions, is brilliant.
Companies have customers who may move containers full of boxes; stuff that is vital to commerce but to the people working there may feel dull and boring. A chance to live vicariously and see what somebody else is moving that is out of the ordinary, THAT’S a chance to build a greater following.
It’s not just pictures. There are very few companies producing videos, good videos about what is happening in the industry. Some sites are great aggregators to point to, like Global Logistics Media in New Zealand (he’s worth a follow, I promise), while some have their own YouTube channels and do pretty good with it, such as C.H. Robinson. Love this commercial; it’s professionally done.
Think of the benefit that videos can offer. When I was at Camelot, I did a few videos featuring their agents; one from Canada discussing NRI’s and their Sri Lankan partner discussing market conditions.
The logistician’s world is full of interesting opportunities. The benefits of participating in visual social media channels for business are real and tangible.