TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are a few of the most popular social media platforms people are using today. According to Statista, in 2023, people spent an average of 151 minutes a day on social media, and unsurprisingly small business owners are taking advantage of that. In a small business advertising report from Visual Objects, they reported that 70 percent of small businesses invest in social media advertising.
As mobile tool distributors, you spend much of your time communicating face-to-face with your customers. However, there are some distributors who’ve branched into the world of social media. For some, social media is just a way to communicate with their everyday customers. I’ve spoken with many distributors who’ve noted that if they’re running late or can’t make it to a stop for the day that they’ll post to Facebook to give their customers a heads-up about what’s going on.
For distributors like Cameron Meyer, Ron Davitt, and Nick Morello though, the three use social media not only as a means to communicate with their customers but to reach a larger customer base and sell more tools.
Meyer, a Mac Tools distributor, likes to use Snapchat to post tools he takes in on trade and notes that they’re usually gone before he hits his next stop. In Cornwell distributor Davitt’s case, he estimates that a third of all his sales come from social media campaigns.
“I have a thing called Cornwell Corner on Saturday morning,” Davitt says. “Throughout the week if I see a guy’s using a tool in a way that I hadn't seen before or was pretty cool, I’ll video, I’ll photograph it, I'll put it up on my closed group, and next thing I know, I have three guys saying, ‘Well, I want that tool.’ So, I just sold three tools without even going to their shop.”
Morello, an independent distributor, notes that he jumped on the social media bandwagon early on.
“I started a Facebook group about 10-12 years ago,” Morello says. “I have 208,000 people on my Facebook page. I have the biggest privately owned Facebook page for tools in the world.”
And with his social media presence, Morello notes that his business went from selling a couple hundred thousand a year to a couple million.
Though you may not reach the same level of success as these three distributors, wouldn’t it be nice to let social media do some of the work for you? Whether you just post about that sale you’re having on your truck or the newest tools you have in stock, it could be a simple way to make an extra sale.
