Imagine driving down the road and seeing a billboard with a company promoting their product. How can you really know if it’s good product? Because their billboard said so? You want to know that the product is a great one; one of the most trustworthy ways to know this is through word-of-mouth.
Positive word-of-mouth via social networks is one of the most effective ways to build your brand and allow others to “indirectly” recruit drivers for you. But before we get into how people outside of your trucking company can be recruiters and the importance of social media, let’s take a look at some statistics.
“Facebook is the Most Trusted Social Media Platform for
Brand Recommendations.”
Social Recommendation Index shows that Facebook is the most trusted social media platform for product and service recommendations. The new Social Recommendation Index by Social Media Link reveals that 92% of respondents trust social recommendations from people they know. Close to 70% of them turn to Facebook for reviews, compared to 63% prefer blogs and retail websites, respectively.
We know Facebook is the most trusted online platform for product/service recommendations, but let’s not forget about Twitter. You should be tweeting because drivers are, too. More than 640 million people are on Twitter to keep up with sources they know and respect.
According to research by Nielsen, online consumer reviews are the second most trusted source of brand information and messaging, with 70% of global consumers surveyed online indicating they trust messages on this platform.
So what do all of these stats tell us?
When it comes to recruiting drivers and building brand awareness, nothing beats word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. People trust recommendations from real people. By having a social presence, you have the ability to encourage positive word-of-mouth for your company on social media. With consistent effort and publishing great content, you can build a reputation for your brand around your company’s values, benefits, and advantages that your followers will interact with.
By promoting content that encourages positive conversation, that content gains activity and is shared over social media. It’s retweeted. It’s shared. It’s liked. Now your content is going viral and your brand is spread to broader audience, all thanks to your social media fans. Potential drivers are being exposed to your company that you didn’t even imagine! Not to mention as your following increases, your influence grows. Having a substantial social media audience creates a snowball effect that can attract new drivers and other types of opportunities.
The Takeaway
The key takeaway is that your company not only needs have a social presence, but also to consistently promote interesting content that will encourage others to talk favorably about you on social media. This results in prospective drivers landing on your social networks and instantly experiencing a positive impression (more positive impressions = more qualified driver applications.) This is one of the best marketing tactics out there and it should be implemented in your social strategy.
Curious about how to create engaging social media content that results in positive word-of-mouth? Contact the Hightower Agency here and we’d be happy to help. Our driver recruitment consultants can get your trucking company where it needs to be. Some of our truck driver recruitment services include: social media management, social media promotions, creation of landing pages, developing responsive websites, public relations for the trucking industry, radio advertising to recruit drivers, remarketing to recruit drivers, social media to recruit truck drivers, blogging, email marketing to recruit drivers, Google AdWords to recruit drivers, creation of mobile sites, ad campaigns, publication ads, brochures, Internet placement, newspaper placement, ad copy, website redesign and more.