About a year ago, we listed five really fantastic Twitter accounts to follow for students who wanted to learn more about manufacturing and the skills gap. Most manufacturers, inventors, and engineers are participating on Twitter in an ongoing conversation about what’s happening in the manufacturing world.

Especially in the manufacturing industry, where dynamics change so quickly, a platform that supports the instantaneous nature of the field is very valuable.

Those top five accounts are still holding strong as some of our favorite ones to follow: Mike Rowe, MAKE Magazine, The Association for Manufacturing Technology, The 3D Printing Industry, and Manufacturing Engineering Media are all great reads, and for different reasons. They’re also easy to follow and it’s nice to see updates from such great influencers in your feed every morning.

Besides these five Twitter superstars, there are a few other accounts that we wanted to bring to your attention. Some of these companies and brands are using social media to spread their message and provide valuable information to students, parents, educators, and those simply interested in learning more.

1. Toyota Equipment (): The team behind this social media behemoth has a great sense of humor and carefully manages their so as to be useful to others. They have lists for construction products, home improvement products, and more that are actually super up to date and interesting! The account also posts pretty funny images with themes like #forklift #fail…

2. Jo Ann Hines (): She’s a self-proclaimed expert in the virtual global packaging industry, including the latest online tools and technology. Interestingly enough, she also has a massive (something that is fairly rare in the manufacturing industry). The links that Hines shares are interesting and relevant to branding and manufacturing, and she has a pretty intuitive sense of what products are actually worth the time to look at.

3. ANSYS, Inc. (): With themes like #simulationfriday, the engineering simulation software company interacts and retweets, while making sure to only share relevant topics. They tweet between 10 and 20 times a day, meaning that a steady stream of information is always being sent out. Best of all, they work with college students interested in engineering (see: ), so they know what issues and ideas will interest younger students.

4. EXAIR Corporation (): If you aren’t familiar with EXAIR, they manufacture intelligent compressed air products for industrial plants. The cool thing about the corporation is that they allow their engineers to be associated with the company while still maintaining their own unique Twitter accounts! The personal voices of the engineers make all the difference in this type of industry. They also blog and provide links to some cool posts from their Twitter page.

5. Nebraska MFG (): Well now we couldn’t make a new list without adding ourselves, could we? Blog posts and other fun manufacturing tips, as well as news bytes are always up on our page. Send us a tweet anytime if you think there’s an account we missed!

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