If you are a miner, an engineer or an executive leader in a mining company, you realize the difficulties which come with communicating the complexities of the industry. The global population, whether they openly accept the work we do, are dependent on the performance in the pits and underground.
For many of you who follow me either here on LinkedIn or on Twitter (@TrevAHall), you are familiar with the work we do at Clear Creek Digital advocating for and providing a more proactive approach to communications and brand engagement for the entire mining industry. We believe in increased public trust through increased transparency.
To give you a brief summary of a few smaller mining companies really taking the reigns in creating engaging and timely content to disperse a wide range of information, I've compiled a short list of companies I surely enjoy following on Twitter. I think they are certainly worth checking in with on occasion to watch what they post and how they continue to develop their social media / digital communication strategies knowing these tools are increasingly becoming more important.
1. Oz Minerals
If you need some inspiration in finding the visual "beauty" of the mining industry, spend a few minutes looking through the images Oz produces for their social media accounts. The photos and video show they are truly engaged in their content and spend a good amount of time and resources producing it. In between the images, you will always find a Share Price Update from the company as well.
2. Lundin Eagle Mine
Recently, Lundin has not necessarily been posting daily or "too-frequently", but what they post is very in tune with themes within the social media realm. Using hashtags such as #tbt and #minerescueday, Lundin places itself within the broader online conversation. Doing so may not drive up the price of nickel, but it does give the company the advantage of potentially being more visible than it was before. Their content is very well balanced with Lundin-specific content and commodity market information.
3. Resolution Copper
Resolution Copper is currently one of the greatest social media networks to watch this year. They have an incredible project taking place in Arizona and their twitter engagement matches that task. Not only are they utilizing great video to inform online visitors, they are also engaging with other mining companies online using Twitter and Facebook. Recently, Bloomberg created a marvelous piece about their copper project. Fortunately for all of us, they adhere to the "social" aspect with social media as they continue to be a part of online conversations. Although Rio and BHP are currently backing the project, perhaps they are outside the confines of a Mid-cap company, but their digital footprint is quite powerful.
4. Sarama Resources
What makes Sarama unique is the evolution of increased availability of wireless and digital communications into remote areas of Africa. Sarama is not necessarily revolutionizing what content they are sharing and how they are engaging, but they are providing the audience in opportunity to peer into their exploration developments in both Mali and Burkina Faso. One may not find this to be to extremely necessary, but as communications technology becomes increasingly available throughout the globe, the ability to connect to the larger market will become more valuable. Africa and its remote areas are great examples of this technological and creative destruction.
Trevor Hall is the Founder and Digital Media Consultant of Clear Creek Digital, LLC, a small digital communications and marketing firm focused on providing those resources to mining companies and small businesses. Follow him on twitter @TrevAHall
** Top image found online from Resolution Copper.