To blog or not to blog? A small percentage of my manufacturing clients have begun experimenting with social media tools. Are they right for your company? To help answer that question, this post discusses the implementation and results from one US manufacturer’s very successful social media strategy.
Rick Short, Director of Marketing and Communications, Indium Corp.
Indium Corporation, a 75-year-old, privately owned manufacturer of electronics assembly materials headquartered in Clinton, NY, is one of the best models of how a manufacturing company can leverage corporate blogging and other social media tools to engage customers, reduce costs and build sales.
Bernie Borges,Indium Corporation, a social media expert who authored the book, Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer through Social Media Marketing, recently spoke with Rick Short, Indium’s Marketing Communications Director for the past 25 years, about the evolution of his company’s social media strategy.
Borges includes a podcast of the complete interview on his site which is worth listening to in its entirety. From it, I gleaned some excellent insights which I’ll share to help manufacturers considering a greater use of social media tools, and blogging in particular, in their marketing mix.
When Rick Short first began investigating the practicality and value of incorporating blogging into Indium’s corporate culture four years ago, he saw a need to first define what was meant by “social media”. He concluded:
“People like to talk about social media as Web 2.0 and begin the story there. I really think it’s critical to understand that social media is thousands and thousands of years old. It (began) with talking and sharing and scratching pictures in the dirt… evolving to sharing photographs and ultimately getting us to the internet experience that we have today.
“All we are really doing is being social creatures and sharing and advancing something together through all the tools that we’ve had … it’s two people trying to make something better.”
Its been said that blogging is the new office “water cooler” experience because the informal conversations blogs facilitate provide a level of interaction and engagement that no static promotional tools or one-way advertising can match.
Rick continues:
“Through the 75 years of our company we have always been about earning (customers) by developing great products or showing them how to enhance their process whether it’s through a technique or a product. So we’ve always had this great need to be socially adept and appealing to the needs of our customers… so it was a natural process to say, hey, there are some new tools available, why don’t we throw those into our bag of tricks?”
Do Companies Need a Blogging Policy?
Rick admits that he faced some pushback when he first approached Indium’s CEO and management with his proposal to launch a company blog. A few suggested that if they were to move forward, a “Blogging Policy” needed to be created.
“When I first heard that”, Rick said, “it sort of made sense initially, but the more I thought about it, there was something not sitting right with me. I started to realize that the concept of a specific blogging policy violates what we really do as human beings.”
Rick explains that a company that insists on “a blogging policy” really doesn’t get it,
“The concept of having to have a blogging policy means that you think that blogging is some new and strange beast that is going to run amok (and) potentially you’ve got to protect against it.”
Rick responded to concerns over blogging by creating a more all-encompassing social media policy. He used this simple logic:
Indium employees currently,
- talk on the phone
- email customers
- send out faxes
- speak at conferences
- write articles in magazines
And there are no formal policies governing any of these methods of communication.
One of the biggest concerns was that stuff on a blog “lives forever”. Rick’s response to that was things on the internet live forever just like:
- articles in magazines
- recorded phone calls
- somebody’s notes from a face-to-face meeting
Since many forms of traditional media also “live forever” it was no reason to inhibit the use of blogging.
“Blogging is not a special task,” Rick insists, ” it is part of a bigger social package that you bring to the market.”
The light bulb turned on for Rick when he realized that blogging was a version of communication “that was very close to face-to-face.”
“The best success we have with our customers is face-to-face…That’s our ultimate goal It’s the best way to advance our relationship and build a strong understanding with our customers. This kind of communication is really critical.”
He points out that a blog advances close customer contact. A blogger can state an opinion, share videos, photographs and invite comments.
Indium also aggressively posts their emails/phone numbers so that customers can speak with Indium confidentially or in more detail.
Blogging at Indium has really taken off since the company posted with their first extremely well-received blog by industry expert, Dr. Ronald Laskey . Dr. Laskey’s blog has dealt in detail with the move to RoHs compliance regulations for the electronics industry and has helped promote dialog.
Currently 15 Indium employees host 10 blogs targeting the different markets and technologies the company serves. Rick believes that one of the most effective techniques to talk with and influence a target market is through a blog.
Measuring the ROI of Blogs
Since Indium has offered their blogs, they’ve noticed both an improvement in work process efficiencies and a reduction in costs in other marketing areas. Blogging has actually replaced some tasks that are no longer an effective use of time.
Trade shows are one example.
Indium focussed on their content when they attended the biggest trade show of the year in North America. They have discovered that good content including focussed blogs, online technical papers etc, is an asset that drives the sale.
“We are now extremely comfortable saying, we don’t need to erect this incredible tribute to architecture on a trade show floor and show everyone that we are really big and powerful because our booth is big and powerful. What we really need to do is be big and powerful as social media people at the trade show in other words, live and in person. Social media doesn’t mean you’re hiding behind your flat panel.”
Accordingly, Indium cut trade show spending by 75%. Rather than sinking dollars into a huge booth, they deployed more Indium employees to the show’s technical sessions to engage in human conversations.
During a recession when the trade attendance was down 30%, Indium generated at least as many leads as they did in previous years at a tremendously reduced cost. The leads, Rick adds, were also of much higher quality.
Rick’s ROI “mantra” for evaluating social media programs or any marketing initiative is: He receives the content and hands off contacts. The sales team builds the relationships that result in sales.
So how many vetted or highly qualified contacts can a marketing program, including social media, deliver to the sales department?
Although Rick does not divulge conversion rates, Bernie Borges says Rick revealed that “those who engage with Indium are not tire kickers. The technical nature of their product weeds out any non-serious visitors to their blogs. The quality of their conversations is very high.”
Launching A Social Media Strategy
Rick offers the following advice to CEOs or marketing managers who ask, “How do you get started with social media tools?”
- Don’t rush to do it just because others have told you to do it. Your heart must be in it!
- It’s ok to make mistakes. Fall forward.
- Begin at the end. Where do you want to be two years from now. Write that goal down and how you’ll get there.
- Build confidence through education, support, relationship. Cultivate skills.
- Refresh frequently. Challenge status quo. Are there newer or better tools?
- Measure results.
- Be very transparent. You’ll get a lot of help and support from others.
- Be committed. Start small by listening and commit resources to taking some action.
Indium Corp. is something of a trailblazer for manufacturers who want to integrate social media into their promotional “bag of tricks”. As Bernie Borges points out, Indium has shown that social media marketing isn’t just for big brands or B2B brands.
“If a 75-year-old electronics assembly manufacturer with a very technical customer can have success with social media, chances are you can too.”
I welcome your comments and perspective into the value of corporate blogging. For more online marketing tips, feel free to follow and connect with me on Twitter.
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