With the exponential growth of social media in 2009, commentators predict that social media will get “even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive” in 2010. What implications could that have for your manufacturing business? And does it all really matter?
Last month I gave a presentation, which I share here, to a group of company owners who invited me to speak about social media and its possible implications to their businesses. My message to these company owners was yes, social media is important and its here to stay … but before you get to sucked into the social web, please take care of your company’s basic internet marketing strategy. Why? Well, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are simply tools. Before you use them, you have to set measurable sales and marketing goals, pick the right tools and weigh their impact in order to gauge success.
Far too many industrial companies think they have an online marketing strategy simply because they have website. A good online marketing strategy includes branding, driving quality traffic to your site, ensuring your site converts more visitors into sales opportunities and constant measurement with adjustment to track ROI.
If your site is not performing well, however, — if it isn’t driving a decent number of good business prospects to you each week, you need to fix that first. Your site is, after all, your sales and marketing funnel and social media is only one of many online channels which manufacturing companies should use to drive opportunities into that funnel. Others include vertical, industry-specific search engines along with site such as Google.
Social media engagement takes time and resources and it’s never “free”. Therefore, it makes sense to think through your corporate strategy for social engagement. Don’t just relegate it to another function for a young intern you may hire with the idea that “those young people get it”. Would you put untrained sales reps on the phone to speak with your customers? If not, you’ll need to properly coach your company’s social media participants on what kinds of conversations about your brand are ok. And you need to understand how to monitor and tap into the conversations that are already being conducted about your company and your brand across the web.
Please do share your thoughts on how your company has used or plans to use social media. There are several industrial companies that have stepped into the social web and who are measuring success, companies such as Indium Corp. and Aerzen USA.
You may want to read “Six Social Media Trends for 2010″, an excellent article by David Armano which was recently published online by Harvard Business Publishing.
My company provides no-obligation internet marketing consultations to manufacturing companies in Ontario and can be reached at (519) 342-8551 for an appointment. For more social media insights and internet marketing tips, follow me on Twitter!
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