How to build an engaged community
in the agricultural machinery industry
- Bluerank i Fendt
Conducting communication activities in the heavy machinery industry is mainly associated with strictly sales activities. On Fendt Polska's profiles, we showed otherwise, attracting an engaged and loyal brand community with our Facebook and TikTok activities. This presented us with the challenge of meeting the growing expectations of the profile's fans and developing a creative way to activate observers on a regular basis. As part of our social media service, we support the brand with engaging content creation, moderation and promotional campaigns.
Challenges
One of the challenges in social media is to adapt communication to the seasonality, rituals and presence of users during a given period in order to maintain engagement and stay connected with them.
We have been working with the Fendt brand for 3 years. Over the past year, our challenges in the area of running a Facebook profile with the aim of building an engaged community have included:
- Promotion of gadgets from the official Fendt shop
- Creation of engaging posts tailored to the target audience
- Engaging users at harvest time
- Introduction of new thematic categories into communication
- Creation of promotional activities (competitions)
- Communication of the new tractor model
In January 2023, we rode into the New Year with a tractor, launching a profile on TikTok. We faced the challenge of establishing a brand presence on the platform, reaching potential fans and building an engaged community on the new channel.
Strategy and implementation
Preparing effective social media communication that will attract the attention of users and at the same time encourage them to leave a reaction in the form of a comment, share or like a post requires a good understanding of users' behaviour, emotions and needs. Fendt Poland's audience is highly knowledgeable about the brand's industry and products, as well as the specifics of agricultural work. The constant contact and regular collaboration between the Bluerank and Fendt teams, has ensured a smooth flow of expertise, enabling communication that meets the needs of profile watchers.
We have taken the following actions over the past year:
- Preparation of new dedicated templates for Facebook posts
- Development and implementation of two occasional Facebook competitions
- Creation of a series of periodic Fendt Battle posts
- Creation of a series of posts featuring goodies from the shop
- Preparation of engagement posts based on audience behaviour and work at harvest time
- Creation of a Fendt Polska profile on TikTok
- Development of communication on TikTok
- Engaging with TikTok users on TikTok Relations to mark the brand's presence on the platform.
Fans of FENDT machines love gadgets and interacting with the brand - when planning communication on the profile, we adapted the formats and themes of the engagement posts to their preferences. Thematic categories included:
- Farmer's calendar - i.e. fasts relating to the current situation during the year, such as harvest time
- Occasional posts - posts relating to Children's Day, Women's Day, Easter or Christmas
- Fendt Shop - posts showcasing the brand's current goodies from the official shop
- Fendt Battle - posts featuring a comparison of two machines
- Current campaigns - posts about temporary discounts, promotions and news
- FENDTastic world - engaging posts such as puzzles, crosswords, cross-outs
Below are a selection of the brand's Facebook posts over the past year. An ABCD-type engagement post about a selection of gadgets from the shop gained 235 reactions and 130 comments. The post was supported by a paid promotion - total reach was 25,974 people. The aim of the 'Fendt Shop' themed category below is to promote gadgets from the official Fendt shop, increasing awareness of the products among fans of the brand. Instead of publishing informative posts, we translated the products into communication that engages users to share comments. The second post presented below was created as part of the introduction of the new 'Fendt Battle' category to the communication, based on comparisons between two machines - users choose the best equipment of the month in the comments. In the visual communication, we proposed a theme of old computer games. The best post in the series below gained 280 reactions and 35 comments in the analysed period. The post was supported by paid promotion - the total reach was 15,285 people.
Fendt fans look to the profile for entertainment and an opportunity to share their opinions, impressions and a way to spend time in the company of their favourite brand. We have introduced engaging posts such as riddles, crosswords, word crossings, rebuses, etc. related to the brand's products and cyclical competitions into our regular communication on Facebook. From time to time, we surprise users with a surprise in the form of gadgets sent to them, which builds positive feelings towards the brand.
Seasonal and occasional posts, which are strongly linked to users' lifestyles and work patterns, also play an important role in communication. An in-depth understanding of fan behaviour, has allowed us to tailor communication at times when users are most active.
Results
From 1 January 2022 to 28 February 2023, Facebook communication activities yielded:
- 11,856 reactions under posts (an increase of 5279)
- 3,849,298 total reach (an increase of 1,473,005)
- 29,164,276 communication views (an increase of 27,014,170)
- 2720 user comments (an increase of 1702)
- 694 shares of posts (an increase of 366)
- 48 posts published by users (increase of 12)
- 99.9% enthusiastic responses
During this time, we published 137 posts on the profile - including 56 engagement posts. We organised two occasional competitions (Harvest and Christmas), which together gained 409 user entries and 243 reactions. In December, we expanded our communication with Facebook Stories and Reels, engaging users in a new way.
On the other hand, in January 2023, we created a profile for Fendt Poland on TikTok and launched organic communication, which brought in the first two months:
- 161 809 views
- 13,100 likes
- 401 comments
- 3485 followers
References
The Fendt community is made up of passionate people - they love to share stories, videos and photos of their daily work. They regularly seek to connect with and identify with the brand. We want our audiences to feel noticed and appreciated, and we want to give them the feeling that they are co-creators of the Fendt world and are an important part of it. On a day-to-day basis, the Bluerank agency helps us to create engaging communication on the company's Facebook profile and TikTok, tailored to the users' current needs. Bluerank specialists develop creative posts and implement additional actions, including competitions, so that our FENDTastic community continues to grow. With Bluerank's support, every member of our community can feel part of the team creating the Fendt world.
Karolina Molka, Advertising & Sales Promotion Manager FENDT, Central Europe