I recently attended a webinar that focused on the reasons why
online marketing makes more sense now than ever before and why
Social Media (i.e. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) have such an
impact on businesses that are staying abreast of the current
trends.
It's a given in marketing that you need to be where your customers
are. So where are your customers these days? More and more, they're
spending their leisure time online, either for personal reasons,
checking e-mail or managing their online profiles. But they're also
checking out products, services and networking with
colleagues.
While the audience we cater to participate in the Manufacturing
Value Chain, it seems that even CEO's, COO's, etc. are getting
involved with eBusiness marketing. Online marketing is
rapidly becoming a part of small and mid-market company's efforts
in eBusiness. So, the question is asked, is this new
eBusiness, online Social Media hype really worth the time - I'm
sure you would have a different response than your boss, but,
nevertheless, more and more of your peers are reaching out and
touching others via the internet.
Here's a few thoughts for manufacturing businesses or
companies participating in the Manufacturing Value Chain...
To make this new rave work for you, do your research. Have
a good sense of your target market. Placement/position is key
in traditional media and the same is true online - if your
customers or prospects are using popular social media such as
Facebook or Twitter, you should be using them as well.
It's time to Adapt to change... Successful Manufacturing companies
do not abandon their marketing strategies or increase their
marketing budgets in a recession; they adapt them. I am happy
to say that TwinEngines opted to participate in the social media
craze and was happy to see many of our clients and partners were
already on board.
One of the most important phrases that stood out to me during
the webinar was "While social media enables your news and
marketing to become viral in nature and gain momentum, if you're
not careful, it also allows other messages to gain momentum".
The example given was a popular food chain prank - Two employees of
this popular chain filmed and posted a YouTube video of a prank on
a customer's food. According to reports, the video made its
way to as many as 500,000 would-be customers with the help of
social media. While both employees lost their jobs and are
facing charges, the company's decision to defer comment initially
resulted in its brand and online reputation taking the bigger
hit. All in all, Social Media is great, however, monitor what
you publish and protect your brand.
It was recently said that emailing is the "90's", Blogging and
Tweeting are taking over.
Blogging is another form of social media that's on the rise.
Industry veterans with years of experience in business,
delivered a fresh, direct and honest eBusiness perspective on new
and emerging web technologies and trends in social media and social
networking. With a particular focus on the Manufacturing
industry, they found that business leaders involved in the
Manufacturing Value Chain were focused on business strategies,
revenue and profit keeping their focus on the bottom line.
After a quick survey, many of those business leaders found that
customers and prospects were interested in their view point and
wanted to hear from them, not just in an email. Creating a
blog should begin a conversation between you and interested
parties; Make blogging an informal way to present your thoughts and
get feedback.
In today's increasingly competitive environment, I believe it is
critical for manufacturing businesses to deliver reliable, and
cost effective, products to the market, however, it's equally
important that you stay abreast of the ever-changing world of
eBusiness and Social Media, your clients and competitors
are....