PODCAST Episode 3: How to Build Your Social Media Profiles with Stuart Whitehead

In today’s podcast, we sit down with Stuart Whitehead, the founder of Jefferson Group, proud advocates of the British manufacturing sector, supporters of apprenticeships in within the engineering industry and programmes such as STEM, which encourages young people to become involved in engineering from an early age.

Stuart explains that his reasons for creating the Twitter account, which now stands at a staggering 31.2k followers, was actually an antidote to protect the engineering industry from the negatively biased portrayal it received in the mainstream media.

We asked Stuart how he managed to source news at such a rapid pace and before the general public, and he explained that during his previous lengthy career in recruitment, he founded and built relationships with people from all sectors with interesting news to share; and as the page grew, so did his network and duty to discover authentic industry insights before it reached its targeted audience in other ways.

This has assisted him in magnifying his online presence and helped him increase a continuously growing, loyal following who use Jefferson as the first point of call for news within the manufacturing industry.

Continuing the discussion about social media growth, Stuart made it clear that his plan was to respect his audience and followers while continuing to share with them current affairs in the industry without expecting instant fulfilment and achievement, but rather by slowly building a trustworthy and reputable brand. Using alternative methods to grow and expand the Jefferson group brand online, he claims that making mistakes is a pivotal in the growth process and also understanding the importance of what type of content works best with which social media platform.

As an example, he used Twitter, undoubtedly his biggest platform, and claimed that due to it being a visual platform, captivating images were crucial in receiving engagement from an audience and a strong opening rate, and also having in-depth knowledge of the story. He agreed with us when we pointed out that a huge following is irrelevant without engagement from followers and told us that the best way to attract engagement in manufacturing social media is to continue meeting people in person rather than simply posting from behind a screen, something which MTD CNC completely agree with!

Stuart told us that he is fascinated by manufacturing, and coming from an engineering family, his interest is genuine, from the impact engineering companies would have on their employees, to the people in the local area and even exports, this sheer enthusiasm is another astronomical reason behind the continued growth of Jefferson Group. “It’s not mercenary, it’s passion” he describes as he mentioned apprenticeships for the youth. He also respects peoples time, claiming that people take fifteen seconds of their day to read the things businesses write, so companies who appreciate their clients time tend to excel online.

Although his social media following stands currently at around 60,000 followers, the following is only one element, with engagement being the key factor to having a successful online presence through social media.

With 99% of his content based around engineering and manufacturing, it is clear that his following is devoted and interested in those topics, even to the point of messaging people directly to strengthen relationships and building loyalty, something which he believes is paramount for anybody attempting to grow on social media within their sector.

Although he is not keen on the use of Facebook and Instagram for news, we asked him about the future of social media and he believes that social media platforms will evolve rapidly and globally over the next few years, with micro-typed platforms for different sectors of work (Sounds like MTD!)

He interestingly highlighted that people have gone from using social media to sell products, to using it to sell ideas, and that in order to entice young people into pursuing careers in engineering, companies should focus on delivering bite-sized chunks of information directly to the user; rather than long-winded processes through a website.

We concluded that people are beginning to respect social media channels as their own entities, rather than simply links back to business websites, and in return, this has led to growth for businesses who have adopted the concept of social media and working on a live timeline, rather than updating a website which could take days!

To find Stuart on Twitter and keep up to date with industry news, search for @Jefferson_MFG and give them a follow, or alternatively, his direct LinkedIn account is https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-whitehead-19085a111/

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