“We view social media as an extremely versatile and fun platform to connect with consumers,” said Christine Spiegel, Global Marketing manager for Unifi, Inc. “We work hand in hand with our social agency, the Brand Amp, to use social media to engage our growing audience, drive traffic to REPREVE.com, spread awareness for REPREVE-based recycled products and provide education to consumers about our own brand and its process. We also use it to highlight the great partners we have who use REPREVE recycled fiber in their products.”

 

The REPREVE.com website, which was recently redesigned, informs consumers of how they can make a difference by recycling plastic bottles. Since 2009, REPREVE has transformed more than 4 billion plastic bottles that have been recycled to make recycled fibers.

 

REPREVE’s Facebook page has more than 78,000 likes, while its Twitter page has more than 9,000 followers and its Instagram page has nearly 5,000 followers.

 

“Social media is also an effective platform to start conversations about topics that both we and our followers care about,” Spiegel said. “Spreading information and extending our event and activation executions into the digital realm for the entire world to see is another dynamic element that we always strive to achieve. With all we do, we want to be sure we are providing authentic value to our audience.”

 

Through social media, Unifi shares articles and information that pertain to its industry and the “greater green living community,” she added, as well as company news, updates from activations we execute, contests and giveaways, and partner brand spotlights.

 

“Being an ingredient brand, our stories are often best brought to life through our partners’ products, which re-enforce our message of “Bottles = Cool Stuff," Spiegel said.

 

Typically, REPREVE’s partner brand giveaways and “Question of the Week” features elicit good engagements, she said. The company also has seen spikes in engagement when sharing relevant articles on recycling issues and “green news.” For example, one of its biggest engagement wins was an activation it did with a partner brand that organically elicited more than 15,000 comments from fans on a single post.

 

Unifi quantifies its successes on social media by looking at growth trends on its three platforms, but it believes room exists for more growth, Spiegel said. The company plans to unveil a new content series and partnerships around its “Bottles = Cool Stuff” campaign to continue to connect with fans who believe in its message and want to support its partners that are responsibly using recycled materials in their products, she added.

 

“Although it’s not necessarily quantifiable, doing cross-promotions with our brand partners is a great relationship builder and something we always want to do to support them and their products,” she said.

 

Two campaigns in particular garnered terrific engagement, she added. Its #MakeTheSmartThrow campaign received national exposure last year through the NFL Network, the Dan Patrick Show, ESPN.com, CBSSports.com and more. In the campaign, REPREVE  partnered with the Detroit Lions and their QB Matthew Stafford to run a digital contest urging people to make the smart throw and toss their plastic bottles into a recycling bin instead of in the trash. It drove a great deal of traffic to REPREVE.com and spread its #TurnItGreen message far and wide, she said.

 

Also, Unifi/REPREVE celebrated Earth Week in a big way this year by running a weeklong giveaway with several of its partner brands that included Periscope broadcasts from scenic locations in North Carolina and California, and tons of REPREVE-based prizes, Spiegel said.

 

“We’ve used social media to build a community of people whose values and worldviews align with ours,” Spiegel said. “It’s our point of view that spreading education and connecting with conscious consumers can be a powerful driver of change.”

 

Itema Group

 

Weaving machine manufacturer Itema, headquartered in Italy, developed a social media strategy and launched its presence to coincide with the unveiling of its redesigned website in 2013.

 

The company is present on most major social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn YouTube and Google+. To a lesser extent, it uses FourSquare, HootSuite and SlideShare, and are is evaluating a Chinese-approved social media site for its Chinese customers and stakeholders, according to Diana Profir, head of Marketing & Communications.

 

“Considering the fact that some social media outlets are outright banned and function extremely slowly in China, we are promoting only our LinkedIn page on Chinese brochures, other promotional material geared for China and on our Chinese language site,” she said.

 

The quickest and highest reaction to its posts comes from its Facebook friends, Profir said.

 

“We grew in the past 18 months or so to more than 600 friends, all organic growth,” she said. “Even if we are aware that some companies choose to acquire ‘followers’ in an inorganic way, we much prefer having fewer but real connections, likes and followers for which we ‘sweat’ by posting, sharing and interacting with our audience.”

 

Itema also has had “robust success and satisfaction” from its Twitter page, which is linked to the homepage of its website, with the last five tweets visible on its site, as well as LinkedIn.

 

“Our primary purpose for using social media is to ‘talk’ and ‘listen’ to our customers, but also our employees, our suppliers our associations, other stakeholders, future potential candidates for our Itema Academy program of recruiting newly graduated youth into the company, and other future company recruits,” Profir said. “It is a natural evolution and paramount, I believe, in our day and age, to provide anyone who wants to contact our company the easiest possible way for him or her to reach out to us.”

 

Aligned with this goal, Itema launched a communications platform called “sayittoitema,” which for the first year was accessible via a pop-up every time someone visited its home page. It is nowadays accessible via an icon on the website.

 

“Our message to our stakeholders is that Itema is an open and transparent company,” Profir said. “We want to hear from you. Reach out and share with us your experience.”

 

Facebook is quickly proving to provide an easy alternative in the form of private messages, she said. Also there, the company is collecting leads and a similar broad and varied range of inquiries.

 

Itema posts all kinds of information, including its participation in trade fairs; open houses; other special events; customer visits; trade association delegation visits; success stories from around the world; milestones; technology partnerships with suppliers; articles from the local and international press; links to videos made by the company or about the company; new brochures; slideshows; and press releases. Photos, videos and customer stories are by far the most engagement-driving content, Profir said.

 

“We keep track of engagement statistics across our channels, peak times, number of new visitors and the like, and plan to do more in terms of optimizing our social media management,” she said. “Occasionally in customer meetings, we easily can connect and show some company videos that are on the YouTube page or directly clickable from our website. This generally helps liven up certain meetings and has helped create rapport faster with the customer.”

 

Internally, despite a strict Itema IT policy for social media use on company devices, employees have the OK from its CEO and head of HR to set up “net cafes” in its employee cafeteria in order to share at lunchtime with as wide an audience as possible the company’s social media channels and help those that may not have yet connected to do so, Profir said.

 

“In retrospect, (creating a social media presence) was a great idea,” said Profir, who pitched the idea to management. “We were able to collect new leads easily, provide quick responses to questions regarding spare parts, weaving machines, agent network, service, manuals for looms, you name it. It is our window to the world.”

 

American & Efird

 

Sewing thread producer American & Efird of Mount Holly, N.C., has seen steady gains in followers on all of its social media sites since engaging there in 2012, according to a company spokesman.

 

It uses Facebook (with 2,463 likes, Twitter (1,003 followers) and Linkedin (1,609 followers), with Twitter getting the most engagement, he said.

 

“Our primary purpose for using social media is to share the latest A&E news and to communicate with customers, potential customers and people within our industry,” he said. “We also post content that would be interesting to people in our industry and those who have an interest in sustainability, apparel and general textiles.”

 

A&E is committed to environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility and considers itself leaders in these areas, said the spokesman. As such, it posts content that shares the latest news and advancements in sustainable textiles and textile innovation, whether it’s A&E content or achievements from others in the industry.

 

“With the increase in followers, we have seen an increase in engagement as well as higher visibility for our company and its achievements as a whole,” the spokesman said. “We look at the analytics from our accounts frequently and can see the upward trends.”

 

Social media, he added, “opens an additional channel for communications with our customers and like-minded people in our industry. It helps us share information, receive information, and stay current in today’s society.”

 

Buhler Quality Yarns Corp.

 

Buhler Quality Yarns Corp., based in Jefferson, Ga., has had a presence on social media for at least 10 years, according to David Sasso, vice president of Sales.

 

Using Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, the company’s primary purpose for being on these channels is to “reach beyond our direct customers and educate consumers,” he said. The firm disseminates information about fiber and yarn technology and how it impacts fabrics and apparel, he added.

 

Buhler has nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter and more than 200 likes on its Facebook page.

 

As a yarn company reaching consumers through these mediums, Buhler’s engagement level is difficult to measure because “you never can really tell because most of our audience does not buy yarns,” Sasso said. “Clicks-through are an indication, but when people tell me they seen our posts, it is a good feeling.”

 

He added: “Social Media has helped promote our brand beyond our conventional customers. It is difficult to quantify the ROI, but I believe the return is there.”

 

Atkins Machinery, LLC

 

Longtime used textile machinery dealer Atkins Machinery has developed social media as an integral part of its marketing strategy, according to Greg Atkins, president & CEO. It has actively used such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube since May 2014.

 

The Spartanburg, S.C.-based company has some impressive engagement numbers from around the world with: 3,490 Facebook likes, 1,071 Google+ circle members, 774 Twitter followers, 291 members of its LinkedIn group, 126 Instagram followers and 32 subscribers to its YouTube channel.

 

“The utilization of social media has been an excellent strategy for us, as exemplified by this year’s sales to both new customers, as well as customers we had not had contact with for many years,” Atkins said.

 

Atkins Machinery engages “its social media connections in many different ways – the dissemination of top international textile news, advertisements of its textile machinery utilizing unique tools, book recommendations on the textile industry and photography of the daily work life at the Atkins Machinery office.

 

“We want to show potential customers that we are on top of the global trends in the textile industry, that we are trustworthy and transparent and that we offer the highest quality pre-used textile machinery,” Atkins said.

 

But many challenges arise from having a global social media presence, he added.

 

“One of the greatest challenges that we have faced has been how to reach out to potential customers in countries such as China and Pakistan where certain social media platforms are banned,” he said. “Fortunately, we have been successful in implementing a presence that has been effective. Another challenge was that, by driving so much international traffic to our website through social media, our website was compromised by hackers. We had to solve this by getting extra protection for our website in order to handle this extra traffic and detect possible threats.”

 

But being on social media is a must these days, Atkins added.

 

“The textile industry is a global industry and everyone is interconnected by the Internet,” he said. “If a company has great content and develops its connections strategically, social media can be an excellent tool by which to reach out to new customers. It is also a great way to move machinery quickly, as we reach upwards of 20,000 interested customers through our social media networks.”

 

Jason Mills, Inc.

 

A manufacturer of polyester and nylon knit mesh fabrics and textiles, Jason Mills has used social media for four years, said Brenda Stamboulian, director of Sales and Marketing.

 

The Milltown, N.J.-based company is active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter, with more than 200 followers, has the highest engagement of the three.

 

The company typically posts information about upcoming trade shows as well as worldwide industry events, which has generated a number of likes and retweets, she said.

 

“Social media allows Jason Mills to stay current in our industry as well as to keep our customers/followers informed of various events, new launches of products and industry news,” Stamboulian said. “It also allows our followers to see what trade shows Jason Mills will be exhibiting in and what shows we will walk to visit customers.”

 

Measuring success is difficult to ascertain, she added, other than seeing the number of its followers increase and posts being liked or retweeted.

 

“But these are avenues that do need to be traveled in order to remain a presence and stay current in this industry,” Stamboulian said. “We did have an instance where a customer of ours in India saw us referenced in a blog regarding automotive fabric that was posted.”

 

Coats Group, plc

 

The industrial business of U.K.-based Coats Group has had an active social media strategy since 2011, but its crafts business has been using social media since 2009, according to a company spokesman.

 

Its Red Heart Yarns brand on Facebook has more than 395,000 likes. “(The crafts business) is primarily consumer based, so plays well to social media interaction,” he said.

 

Coats’ industrial business is active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube, with most engagement coming from Twitter and LinkedIn, the spokesman said. Its crafts business is active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, along with specialty crafts site Ravelry, with most engagement coming from Pinterest and Facebook.

 

The company posts information about new products and services and trade exhibitions in which it is participating. It also features interesting facts about its products, services and heritage, dating back to the 1750s.

 

“The main purposes of our social media activity is to increase brand awareness, help build customer loyalty and position ourselves as industry thought leaders in the digital space,” he said. “It is also a highly effective channel for instantly engaging directly with our customers and listening to their thoughts and comments.”

 

The spokesperson said Coats has a good level of engagement with its followers. “We monitor and track KPIs (key performance indicators) and metrics and receive a good, steady level of response and engagement,” he said. “We are also building our discussion-orientated content.”

 

Partially attributable to social media, Coats has seen an increase in traffic on its website as well as registrations to its industrial website, he said. It has gained good momentum since launching a Twitter page, and the company has gathered new sales leads along with some potential product purchases from the site, he added.

 

“(Social media) increases the number of touch points we have with our customers, and enables us to be visible and engaged 24/7 globally,” he said. “By listening to our followers we are able to learn more about their needs and adapt our offering and strategy to better position ourselves as the first choice for our customers.”

 

Suominen Corporation

 

Nonwovens producer Suominen Corporation of Helsinki, Finland aims to be a “modern company and a social media pioneer in this industry,” according to Tommi Aho, the company's communications officer.

 

“We want to be where our stakeholders are and we want to keep them posted on what is happening at Suominen and in the nonwovens industry,” he said. “Social media channels offer the most direct way to reach people who are interested in our company.”

 

As such, the company developed a social media strategy and set up more channels earlier this year after having a presence on some sites for at least a couple of years.

 

The company has two accounts on Twitter (@SuominenCorp and @SuominenOyj) and uses YouTube, LinkedIn and SlideShare (a slide-hosting service). It has more than 1,000 followers on LinkedIn and more than 250 on Twitter.

 

“Percentage-wise, Suominen's posts on LinkedIn and Twitter get roughly the same amount of engagement,” Aho said. “However, our LinkedIn posts get more views but they are published less frequently.”

 

The company publishes basic information about the company such as its current strategy and its sustainability efforts, he said. Suominen also shares the latest news and financial releases on its social media channels.

 

“From internal perspective, this could be seen as irrelevant and repetitive information but people outside the company, especially investors, value this kind of information,” Aho said. “Our more active presence on social media has given investors, especially Finnish small investors, more information to help them in making investment decisions and also created more Suominen-related discussion on Twitter and on investing-related message boards.”

 

“It's very important to adapt the information to different social media channels – what works on Twitter won't necessarily interest people on LinkedIn,” he added.

 

Suominen follows its social media statistics daily but they are aware that success on social media can be difficult to quantify. Good content doesn’t necessarily generate sales but it can be very effective in other ways, Aho said.

 

“We are not trying to sell through social media but share information and news about our company, so our success in social media couldn't necessarily be measured in any currency,” he said. “However, page views and engagement rates have increased markedly after we took a new approach to social media in early 2015. That's a success.”

 

Mieco U.S.

 

On the small-company front, Mieco U.S. of Wilmington, Del., has a good presence on social media. Jay Mills, the owner, uses the channels primarily to showcase its products, which are laboratory inspection tools to get a cross section of textile fibers and more.

 

The company is active on YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter, and has two Facebook pages (click here and here). Mills uses videos on each of its channels to demonstrate products.

 

He does achieve some engagement with a small audience limited to these specialty products, Mills said.

 

Next week: How are textile industry associations using social media?