How a fab shop earned 24,000 Instagram followers

Figure 1
By the looks of it, you wouldn’t think that Paul Vreugdenhil is a social media star, but his company’s 24,000 followers suggest otherwise.

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the May 2018 issue of Canadian Fabricating & Welding.

Twenty-nine years ago in Quinte West, Ont., The Machining Center Inc. (TMC) was a small startup company focused on custom machining and fabrication. Over the years it has grown consistently, always looking for new business opportunities in the Bay of Quinte area to serve other companies.

TMC has made a name for itself as a reliable manufacturer of replacement parts for a variety of machinery. Even if the equipment is 50 years old with no available drawings to go by, the shop has been known to work its magic.

“What separates TMC from our competition is that we document almost everything we do and can repeat that same work years later without a used part to work from,” said Paul Vreugdenhil, owner (see Figure 1). When customers call to request a replacement for a part that TMC made for them 10 years ago, Vreugdenhil can find the information on file and reproduce the same part.

The Changing Face of Business

Twenty years ago TMC’s work came from phone calls or face-to-face meetings; the TMC team visited companies and got purchase orders by handshake.

As internet use grew, the people involved in purchasing decisions changed. Previously, maintenance people awarded the purchase orders. In the age of lean, the purchasing manager—typically someone who didn’t interact with the actual product—took over the task.

This was a barrier that caused relationships with manufacturing companies to dry up because that personal relationship with the customer was lost. To overcome this barrier, TMC decided to go online. Initially, Vreugdenhil tried Facebook, but eventually he decided that his social media strategy would be more effective on Instagram.

“When looking for social media apps, we wanted to increase access to our services and let people see what we’re about,” said Vreugdenhil. “We’re trying to really connect with people out there and show them who TMC is.”

Through the use of social media, TMC started new relationships with the purchasing managers the company needed to reach. And it has worked.

Figure 2
Here are some examples of The Machining Center Inc.’s posts that show the many parts they produce.

Build Your Presence

“It is important to be strategic about your social media marketing, so it becomes a natural extension of what the company already does and furthers its existing mission,” said Alysha Dominico, CEO and founder of Tangible Words, the marketing company that helped TMC with its social media strategy. “Social media should not be an ‘extra’ but an enhancement to the pursuit of achieving your company’s strategic priorities.”

Ideally your social media strategy should expand your reach to increase exposure to potential clients, demonstrate your company culture in a way that highlights its creativity and personality, nurture relationships by creating collaborations with others, give your audience a peek behind the scenes at your company to generate anticipation for upcoming products or events, and share industry news and best practices to develop a network of like-minded colleagues.

Photo Finish

Although other social media channels can serve these functions in whole or in part, Instagram was the best fit for TMC (see Figure 2).

“I chose Instagram because it was a place to see lots of pictures,” said Vreugdenhil. “We make many different types of parts for manufacturing and use an array of processes to make those parts. I estimated that pictures of these processes would help us quickly connect with the trades and people in manufacturing we wanted to meet.”

Instagram is a very visual social media platform, with a focus on sharing photos and videos to connect people through profile name, hashtags, and places. For example, if you want to find book authors, you can search people by the word “author” and see anyone who has that word in their profile name or profile description.

TMC can use the search function on Instagram to find potential customers amongst the large manufacturing cluster in the Bay of Quinte.

“When I want to find and connect with more local businesses, I search ‘places.’ For example, the search term ‘Belleville Ontario’ shows me posts of anyone using that location within their posts,” Vreugdenhil explained. A quick glance at these profiles and Vreugdenhil knows if they are in manufacturing, and therefore a potential customer for TMC to pursue.

Rebuilding the Personal Touch

To get started on Instagram, the company focused on growing its account by building a page and using hashtags (see Figure 3) to connect in purposeful, specific ways with people.

The people who post on Instagram use hashtags to categorize (or file) their posts by topic, industry, and geographic location. Others can then search by hashtag to get all posts related to that category. The site has recently added the ability to follow hashtags as well, so a user can stay tuned in to the hashtag to see all the posts on that topic.

Figure 3
TMC uses hashtags extensively to ensure its images reach like-minded community members.

“Hashtags are the glue that tie posts together,” Vreugdenhil explained. “If you do a post without hashtags, likely only your followers will see it.”

For example, if you post a hashtag-less picture of your dog on an account with 20 followers, you will probably only get 5 to 10 likes. If you post that same picture with hashtags like #dog, #doggie, #doglover, #poodle, #pet, #bellevilleontario, and #canada, it might get 30 likes, because people who want to see dogs search those tags, and people looking at Canada could also stumble across the post. Hashtags extend the reach of your posts because they allow people with multiple interests, such as “Canada” (for travel) and “dogs” (for cuteness), to intersect.

And if a person who found your post via the dog and Canada hashtags sees that your account has lots of dog pictures (showing that you are predictable and thus creating trust), that person might not just like your post but also become a loyal follower. When two profiles intersect in goals, meaningful relationships can start.

In this same way, TMC’s posts have intersected with manufacturers who have fabrication needs, leading to a positive and successful social media experience for the company.

When asked how he knows which hashtags to use, Vreugdenhil has a straightforward process.

“Pick the word or topic you want, then search for that hashtag. Look through the posts that come up under your search term. Identify the posts that have over 100 likes already. See which hashtags they use and use the same ones. I use my notepad on my phone and the clipboard,” he said. “I simply paste in the same hashtags all the time.”

TMC’s strategy to build a large following is simple.

“I like lots of pics,” said Vreugdenhil. “It’s all about human nature. People want you to see their stuff. They want you to comment on their stuff. If you do, you will get followers. Yes, it takes a fair bit of time at the beginning. If you are a business and want to sell or promote your company, get in their faces! Show some love, and they will love you back.”

Vreugdenhil admitted there was a learning curve. He jokes about himself as the gray-haired social media guy. But he knows what he’s doing in rebuilding the personal touch (see Figure 4). Unless an account is set to private, he responds to each new follower on his page. He takes the time to like one of their photos and thank the person for following TMC.

TMC’s account is now up to 24,000 followers. Vreugdenhil uses hashtags to organize posts and make connections. He started using #engineering, for example, to attract people who are designing prototypes and new equipment to be built.

Figure 4
A social media presence isn’t just about showing potential customers the products that TMC produces. It’s also a great way for the company to demonstrate shared values and pride in employees.

Company Goals

The company is using Instagram to align with its strategic goals.

Create pride and share company culture. TMC posts photos of daily jobs, work processes, and interesting stuff that other machinists or fabricators might be interested in seeing too. Employees can show their kids the photos when they go home and talk about their day.

Seeing their work online boosts employee morale, fosters positive workplace culture, and gives employees another reason to take pride in their work. Now, employees look for photo and video opportunities, because they have their own stake in what is being posted. When tradespeople see this, they respond. TMC has not only hired people who first connected with the company via Instagram, but the company succeeded in attracting the top two students from local Loyalist College’s industry program.

“Having employees who are helping to drive the collection of photos and videos decreases the burden of having to create content,” said Dominico. “It’s also a great way for a company to amplify its message: Post creators tend to reshare those posts to personal accounts and therefore their network.”

Encourage professional development. TMC posts information about new tools and processes, techniques that have worked well, and how it solved specific fabricating challenges. In turn, its employees can learn from other fabricators and machinists that post similar information about their own shops.

This supports and reflects a workplace culture of sharing among employees and other colleagues. Through this sharing, TMC even found a new tool that helped cut the time required for a particular job in half.

Attract new customers. Posting about its fabricating processes, TMC shows current and potential customers how it is different from other shops. Through social media, TMC has built a community in Canada and the U.S. with buyers of its services and products. The firm has won multiple new short- and long-term clients who reached out first on Instagram.

When the company posts things that generate enthusiasm in its sector, employees and other industry professionals like, share, and comment, causing the posts to go out to all of their networks as well. Ultimately this process extends TMC’s reach and helps attract new clients and new talent.

“It’s not about being salesy,” said Vreugdenhil about the process. “It’s about showing people this is who we are, and we’re having fun doing it.”

Why Does Social Media Work?

Your posts demonstrate how your company’s values match those who follow you. In Dominico’s experience, this shared understanding of the value of online community creates the feeling of working together as if you are already on the same team. Teammates become very close, and people who communicate regularly online create strong connections. TMC’s success in gaining 24,000 Instagram followers, strengthening employee engagement, attracting best-fit talent, keeping skills sharp, and drawing new customers confirms that.

“One of the reasons that TMC has been really successful is that in communicating the things that they stand for on the platforms that they’re using, they’re telling people something about themselves,” Dominico said. “Other people who are already doing those things are able to latch onto it because you’re all trying it together.”

Katherine Burrows is an SEO copywriter at Tangible Words, www.tangiblewords.com.

The Machining Center Inc., www.themachining center.com.