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Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Steroid Nation

Yeah, I know, your company is a b2b industrial firm with a quality product, good market penetration and a solid reputation among your target client group.  You’re a lot more concerned with mechanical engineering that social engineering and you don’t care if you ever know the lyrics of a single Justin Beiber tune.  And you figure that social media may be useful for companies that market retail but is a time-suck for you.

Think again.

About two-thirds of everybody online (who isn’t these days) use some form of social networking.  When you’re talking about 18-29 year olds the number jumps to 82 percent.  More importantly, what they’re using it FOR might surprise you.  Here are the five reasons we think you need to be paying close attention to social media.

First, your engineers are heavily involved in social media.  Social media allows users to exchange information in ways traditional media just can’t.  It’s the way everybody stays in touch with everybody.  Tech savvy people understand the medium’s advantages and use it to communicate, interactively, with a whole lot of people all at once.  This is a huge boon for folks who routinely talk about their profession and who want to share insights and resources.  Communication Steroids recently completed a research assignment for an industrial giant who wanted to track social media traffic regarding a key part of their operation.  We discovered it was easy to do through Twitter!   Engineers in that field were part of Twitter groups and routinely directed each other, through those groups, to blogs, articles and information in their field.

Second, investors are researching there.  Go online and type in the name of a leading industrial firm.  Then count how many hits you get that are blogs or social media mentions that talk about the investment potential, for good or ill, that firm offers.  Spectrem Group, out of Chicago, reports that 36 percent of investors say they are interested in receiving information from their advisers or corresponding with them through social media — for investors under age 35, this rises to 53 percent!  If you want to know something about the information investors are getting about your company, social media is very often the place it hits first!

Third, social media is a data gold mine.  Savvy industry leaders are using social media to research market trends, detect shifts in customer needs, and monitor conversation regarding their industry, their company and their products; often gaining insight they might not otherwise have had.  Kia company, for example, dramatically improved lumbar support in their car seats when their social media monitoring technology detected a groundswell of complaints regarding car seat comfort.  HubSpot reports that nearly a quarter of all social media users have posted a product review and that half routinely make social media part of their buying process.  Keeping an ear to social media lets you know what folks want and need well ahead of the curve.  It keeps you flexible and responsive.

Fourth, future associates and top-level job candidates expect it.  HR Toolbox reports that nearly 83 percent of surveyed human resources departments use social media to locate and screen prospective employees.  Potential job candidates have come to expect it and have adjusted their SM pages accordingly.  Additionally, while you are using social media to screen job applicants, the very best talent is screening you!  Cisco’s second annual “Connected World Technology Report” interviewed 1,400 college students and 1,400 professionals under the age of 30 and found, “The growing use of the Internet and mobile devices in the workplace is creating a significant impact on job decisions, hiring and work-life balance.”  According to the report, “The ability to use social media, mobile devices, and the Internet more freely in the workplace is strong enough to influence job choice, sometimes more than salary.”   The cream, who have choices when they graduate, are, increasingly, choosing tech savvy, connected, firms and companies.

Fifth, yes, even you can build brand, communicate with prospective clients, and serve existing accounts more effectively with it.  Social Media offers you the opportunity to touch prospective and long-term clients often and in unique ways.  It can augment existing marketing strategies; and, in extreme cases, completely replace them.  Consider the example of a small manufacturing company.  Criterion Machine works, out of Costa Mesa, CA., has been in business for 75 years.  Facing a serious budget crunch and knowing that ceasing advertising altogether would send a message of desperation, Criterion turned to social media.  As a result of those efforts Criterion was to be featured in an article in a trade magazine reaching 75,000 subscribers, and the president of a manufacturing trade association asked to use Criterions reference material on their website.  The owner of Criterion now says he invests 30 to 60 minutes a day reaching out to clients, and potential clients, through social media.  He says he does it because it works.

Don’t, even for a moment, think you can ignore social media because you are a captain of manufacturing.  Don’t think that social media doesn’t touch you because you lead a company in the “heavy industrial” sector; because you make corrosion resistant fasteners, or steel parts machined to fine tolerances.  Whether you want it or not; whether you believe it or not; your industry is discussed, debated, described and defined in social media.  At least, to a significant degree.

Traditional industrial companies and B2B firms haven’t embraced the new social media, and the marketing strategies social media offers, the way retailers and traditional fluid client based organizations have.  The truth is, they haven’t had to.  With established markets, long time clients, high brand awareness inside their target markets, and process advantages many manufacturers see themselves as insulated from the changing marketing realities.  But those days are passing quickly if they are not gone altogether.  Global markets, intensive competition, and the fleeting nature of process advantages are creating a climate where the value of building and maintaining excellent relationships is of absolutely critical importance.

Social Media is the future.  If you’re not on board with social media, you may not be making wagon wheels, but you are marketing like it.

Communication Steroids

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Communication Steroids