Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. YouTube. Blogs. With so many c

1. Social Media for Manufacturers Carmen Fontana

2. Introduction Carmen Fontana Web Marketing Manager Google AdWords Certified Professional BS Systems & Control Engineering ME Engineering Management Charlie Meyers President and Founder of WRIS Started company in 1996 John Strathern Client Services Director Experienced in web development and sales

3. Agenda What is Social Media? Why Social Media? Social Media Channels Blogs LinkedIn Twitter Facebook YouTube Social Media & Manufacturing Choose Your Channels Social Media Process Claim Listen & Learn Engage Schedule & Streamline Integrate Evaluate Questions

4. What is Social Media? “Forms of electronic communication (such as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)” – Merriam Webster

5. Why Social Media? Communication What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Brand Development What does our company stand for? What is our product about? Relationship Building Create new connections Reengage with others

6. Why Social Media? (continued) Thought Leadership Demonstrate your knowledge Knowledge Gathering What are your competitors doing? What are people saying about your company? What are people saying about my industry? Search Engine Optimization SM signals influence Google rankings for your website

7. Social Media Channels There’s a lot They’re always changing Today: Blogs LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Facebook

8. Social Media Channels: Blogs

9. Social Media Channels: LinkedIn

10. Social Media Channels: YouTube

11. Social Media Channels: Twitter

12. Social Media Channels: Facebook

13. Social Media & Manufacturing: Adoption Sources: GlobalSpec & Merchant Circle, Feb 2011

14. Social Media & Manufacturing: Notes Social Media has not been adopted as quickly in manufacturing as other businesses Right now, Social Media is a complimentary item to industrial marketing But, undoubtedly will continue to grow

15. SOCIAL MEDIA IS STILL EVOLVING FOR MANUFACTURERS!!!

16. Choose Your Channels Blogs Best SM way to demonstrate “thought leadership” Great for Search Engine Optimization Time intensive LinkedIn Most “business” of all channels Some pieces helpful, some not

17. Choose Your Channels YouTube Great for demonstrating your product Helpful for foreign sales Can be time intensive Blocked on networks Twitter Simple way to communicate message, interact with others Some learning curve Not universally used by manufacturers

18. Choose Your Channels Facebook Most universally used on personal level Not always considered “business” Blocked on many networks

19. YOU DON’T NEED EVERY CHANNEL!!!

20. Social Media Process

21. YOU DON’T NEED EVERY STEP!!!

22. Social Media Process

23. 1. Claim Blog Ask your web company if your website has blogging capabilities If not, create one at wordpress.com or blogspot.com Get a URL like blog.acmecorp.com or www.acmecorp.com/blog LinkedIn www.linkedin.com Create a personal page Create a company page http://www.linkedin.com/ company/add/show YouTube http://www.youtube.com/create_account

24. 1. Claim Twitter www.twitter.com Facebook www.facebook.com Create a personal page Create a “Company” page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/create.php After 25 “Likes” you can get a custom URL www.facebook.com/acmecorp instead of www.faceboook.com/fssdif?dsjcbsd www.facebook.com/username

25. Social Media Process

26. 2. Listen & Learn Watch yourself and others Speak, don’t shout Promote, but discretely Give as much as you get

27. 2. Listen & Learn Alerts Allow you to see mentions of your company on the web Emailed to you on a regular basis Two biggest ones: Alerts.google.com Socialmention.com Both FREE! Sign up for competitors too!

28. 2. Listen & Learn Blogs Find relevant blogs Trade magazines http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/voices/plant_insites.html Competitors http://www.triangleoshkosh.blogspot.com/ Associations Blog Directory Blogcatalog.com Blogs.botw.org Search Engines i.e. “lean manufacturing” blog Use a RSS reader Aggregates everything into one place Reader.google.com (FREE!)

29. 2. Listen & Learn LinkedIn Review Updates Who’s doing what? Follow Companies Company version of the status update Groups Trade Organizations (Recommended: WIRE-net) Alumni Groups (Don’t always need to be an alumni) Media Outlets (Trade magazines, Crain’s) Special Interest (Recommended: Industrial Marketing Mavens) Answers Crowdsourcing Q&A What are people asking about? What can I answer? News Aggregated way of getting news feeds Advertising Target by industry, job description, even employer!

30. 2. Listen & Learn

31. 2. Listen & Learn

32. 2. Listen & Learn YouTube Search for relevant topics Watch videos from both large and small manufacturers Corning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38 12,856,845 Views!!! WS Tyler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a68odZsvjJE Example of a video on a budget “Show” versus “tell”

33. 2. Listen & Learn Twitter “Follow” people Competitors Industry News General Manufacturing Local Organizations Need ideas? See wris_oh lists for Manufacturing, Cleveland Look for hashtags Way to group like comments together Manufacturing hashtags: http://ow.ly/4GkhG Many conferences/tradeshows have a dedicated hashtag #pittcon More on etiquette & lingo: http://bit.ly/dKtTyp

34. 2. Listen & Learn

35. 2. Listen & Learn

36. 2. Listen & Learn Facebook “Follow” companies Not as many manufacturers on Facebook But a lot can be learned from watching B2C companies

37. 2. Listen & Learn

38. BABY STEPS!!!

39. Social Media Process

40. 3. Engage Blogs Blog 2-4 times per month Variety of authors, variety of subjects Sample topics: Product – general (“3 Things You Didn’t Know about Widgets”) Product – real life applications (“Widgets in Action at Customer Corp”) Trade Show Presence (“Visit Acme at the Widget World Fair”) Staff profiles (“Meet Acme’s Plant Manager”) Commentary on industry (“What Does the Automotive Downturn Mean for the Widget Industry?”)

41. 3.Engage LinkedIn Fill out Company Page Fill out Personal Profile Participate in Groups Read & Answer Questions Status Updates YouTube Upload videos Show your product in action Does NOT need to be professionally produced Favorite videos Integrate with Facebook site

42. 3. Engage Twitter Tweet at least 3-5 times per week “Retweet” others’ messages Respond to direct messages, and directed tweets HINT: Use shortened URLs (bit.ly) Facebook Update status at least 3-5 times per week Comment on other pages Respond to comments Upload pictures

43. Social Media Process

44. 4. Schedule & Streamline Create a plan Develop a content/channel schedule Use tools Delegate!!!

45. 4. Schedule & Streamline

46. 4. Schedule & Streamline

47. 4. Schedule & Streamline

48. 4. Schedule & Streamline Best times to Tweet/Blog/FB Everyone has a different opinion Depends on where your customers are (West Coast, international?) What we do: Blog on Thursdays, 5AM Tweet daily at 4PM Facebook daily at 10AM

49. 4. Schedule & Streamline Blogs Most blogging software allows you to schedule posts Write a bunch at one time but schedule over months HootSuite& TweetDeck Tools that allow you to schedule posts to Twitter and Facebook Do a week’s worth of posts at one time Must have for regular social media engagement FREE!!!

50. 4. Schedule & Streamline You can even do short URLs! Schedule your tweet for whenever!

51. Social Media Process

52. 5. Integrate Integrate Integrate into your website Promote on your literature

53. Social Media Process

54. 6. Evaluate How much time are you spending doing Social Media? Are you seeing increased traffic to your website? How many followers do you have on Facebook/Twitter? How many views are your videos getting? How often are your blog posts read? How many worthwhile connections have you made on LinkedIn? Are leads mentioning they saw your blog/tweets/videos etc?

55. HARD DATA ALWAYS WINS!!!

56. Carmen Fontana carmen@wris.com 216.245.4152