TVH-Group Thermote & Vanhalst is the latest member of the forklift industry to embrace social media websites to promote its activities.

Starting this month, TVH will use LinkedIn, flickr, Facebook and Twitter to reach its customers and contacts, and to inform the public of its activities.

Sofie Duquesne, TVH's PR advisor, tells Forkliftaction.com News that the TVH Facebook page will be regularly updated with pictures of events and information on training and courses, participations in exhibitions, and open days.

Duquesne says the websites target "people all over the world" who want to stay in touch with TVH, who are interested in the company, and those who wish to know more about its activities.

She explains that social media websites are different to the company website.

"On the website, you can find more detailed information while the social network sites have more of a triggering function.

"Since you can only post 140 characters in a 'tweet', you can trigger your followers to click through to a link on the corporate website. The content on the social network sites is much more condensed."

Michiel Vermeulen, marketing manager for forklift weighing scale producer RAVAS Europe BV, says the company makes use of LinkedIn to get and stay in touch with key members of a large number of industries.

"We use it mainly for business purposes and not to stay in touch with friends. I think that has got to do with how LinkedIn was set up and launched, being the professional social network amongst the others."

Vermeulen explains that LinkedIn has helped him initiate contact with "strangers" who are linked to people in his network.

"It can take away the barrier or shame to contact a complete stranger as you might feel like you actually know the person based on shared contacts.

"(Apart from) connecting to existing contacts, we used LinkedIn to find new prospects, customers and invite people of interest to shows where we are exhibiting."

He adds that RAVAS is not actively using social media to promote the company "but this might change in the future".

Carlo Fallarini, sales and marketing director for Bolzoni SPA, says the forklift attachment maker is currently not a part of any social network but is considering joining the same ones as TVH.

Fallarini says the sites would be useful specifically for end-user promotion but can still have value for its business.

"Bolzoni Group is mainly working with forklift dealers and OEMs ... [We can use the sites] to promote the brand name and our products and services," he says.

Yale Europe announced its new European website the same time it launched a blog and Twitter page last year. It said it hoped to "open up more communication channels" with its customers, dealers and the media via its blog posts and tweets (Forkliftaction.com News #423).

The Fork Lift Truck Association credited Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for quadrupling traffic to its website during the launch of its National Fork Lift Safety week last September (Forkliftaction.com News #439). David McGuire, the association's marketing strategist, received an innovation award from The Hub business network for using the social media sites to boost forklift safety awareness.