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The Worst PCB Manufacturers According to Social Media
February 4, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
During the month of January, I put together the following report: The North American PCB industry and Social Media Adoption, January 2013. I reviewed every PCB manufacturer in North America I could find with $6 million in sales or higher--95 companies in all. For each company I was looking for the answers to these questions.
- Which social media are they using?
- What is their posting frequency?
- How are they using each social network?
The focus was on the “big five” social media: Each company’s website because a website can and should be very social--LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. If you would like to see where things stand as of January 2103, including the PCB companies that are doing good things with social media, send an e-mail to brucej@practicalsmm.com to receive a copy. In the meantime, I have compiled some “low-lites,” examples of things some PCB manufacturers are doing that are, just...well, you’ll see. This is part one of my awards for worst practices in social media in 2012: The "It’s Been Pretty Dull Around Here” Award Awarded to all the companies who have news sections on their websites, published some news and then just...stopped. These are from my notes: The company whose last news was 2006 (Nothing of note since then?); the company that will be attending a trade show in 2012 (One trade show in 2012? Nothing planned this year?); the company that announced great sales in 2009, but it’s been quiet ever since; the company who advertises their latest news is July 2011, and the link to that news is broken; and the company that bought some new test gear in 2004, but nothing newsworthy happened in the following eight years. Why this is bad: New content on a website is picked up by search engines. The search engines see the new content, and assign greater relevance to the website. The result is better search engine ranking. Oh, and the companies also look lazy. The “No Wait, Something Did Happen” Award To the company that in the latest news section of their website proudly announced the arrival of a new employee in 2010, another in 2011, and none since. Why this is bad: Same as above. The “You Can’t Get There From Here” Award To the company that has a Twitter button on every page of their website, but does not have a Twitter account. Maybe they just think people find it fun to press the button. Why this is bad: People like companies that pay attention to detail. The “How Come We Don’t Get That Many Sales Leads?” Award To the company with the long-winded sign up form for a white paper. You need my e-mail address to send me the white paper I want. You’ve asked for my address and six other things. Why this is bad: Studies show that the longer a form is, the more people just quit, never finish filling out the form, and leave. This is an example of good idea/bad execution. The “Are the Investors Happy?” Award To the public companies more concerned with how senior management looks to investors than how the company looks to customers. Why this is bad: Take care of customers and they investors will wind up happy. The “Coming Attractions” Award To the company that has a major section of their website “under construction.” Why this is bad: I’m sorry, there’s no excuse in 2013 for a website section to be “under construction.” See if someone in the company knows a 15 year old who will finish the job. The “Everyone in the Industry Knows About Our Quality” Award To the company where the quality inspector has over 500 LinkedIn connections, but no one in sales, marketing, or the executive suits has more than 100. Why this is bad: What does it say about your company when your quality guy is the only one who understands the value of networking? The “Lost in Translation” Award A good practice for all companies is to at last “claim” their company name on Facebook, even if they don’t intend to build a page right now, just so that someone else doesn’t take that name. There are a couple of companies where search brings comical results such as the PCB manufacturer that shares a name with an audio/video store...in Greece. The “Hold that Thought” Award To the company whose Facebook page has one lonely post advertising that the new website will be up in 2011. Why this is, oh, never mind. The “You Like Me, You Really Like Me!” Award Several companies seem to be working hard just to build their number of “likes” on their Facebook page. Why this is bad: Likes, by themselves, are basically worthless. The “Life of the Party” Award To the company whose Facebook page has been up for two years and contains two pictures, presumably of staff members at a company party, but with no explanation provided.Why this is bad: It just flat out looks odd, that’s why. The “What Were They Thinking?” Award To the company whose YouTube channel consists of several advertisements for the company. Why this is bad: While these may be an ego boost for the marketing department, it pretty well guarantees any visitor won’t ever come back. The “We Don’t Pay Attention to Detail” Award (Merged with the “It’s a lot of Work So We Give Up” Award) Awarded to the 10 PCB manufacturers who started a Twitter account and then stopped posting to it.Why this is bad: If you’re incapable of coming up with a 12-word sentence once a week, who would ever trust you with something as complicated as a circuit board? Well, that’s it for this week. Next week: The worst of the worst. The 10 most awful, egregious examples of PCB manufacturers who couldn’t “like” their way out of a paper bag. See you then.Bruce Johnston is a sales consultant specializing in social media. He has over 25 years' experience in high-tech sales and management, most recently as general manager of a PCB manufacturer. He can be reached through his website www.practicalsmm.com or through his profile on LinkedIn.