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PCB Manufacturers Get Better at Social Media...Sort Of
January 13, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
For my second annual review of social media use by North America’s PCB manufacturers, I looked at 102 companies’ use of social media. In general, the cut off was a minimum of $5 million a year in sales.
I was looking for the following:
- Which social networks are being used by manufacturers?
- How is each social network being used by the manufacturer?
- What types of posts are being used, and what is the posting frequency?
In conducting the review, I looked at the big six social networks--Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, YouTube, and Blogs--and then I also looked at how companies were using their websites, as websites are the hub of social media activity.
It is quite possible that I missed some things. However, if a company has a sales rep with a Twitter account, but makes no reference to it anywhere on their website or in their other social media, a prospective customer isn’t going to find it easily either.All data was collated in the first half of December 2013.
Over the next few months I will use the data to illustrate what companies can do, and what they should not do, in employing different social networks and social media strategies. But for today, here are the overall results:Fourteen percent of the companies surveyed are using social media and appear to be using it in such a manner they should be getting results.
Many of the companies in this group are not optimizing their use of social networks. For example, some, but not enough, active sales lead generation programs. They are on the right track and with a little work can realize the large gains such as dozens of qualified sales leads and hundreds of thousands of dollars per sales rep in additional sales possible through an active and well managed social media program.
Companies making good use of social media range all over the map--from under $5 million in sales to the tens of millions; in all disciplines including quick turn, production, and specialty shops. The only defining characteristic of the PCB manufacturers using social media is that they appear on the whole to be well run and profitable. My guess is that these companies are not in social media because they are profitable, but because they are well run--a side effect of which is being profitable.
Another 27% of the PCB manufacturers surveyed have attempted to use social media, but have done so in such a way as to derive little or no benefit.
In fact, I feel that some companies had done themselves more harm than good by appearing foolish in their social media attempts. Not paying attention to detail, giving up and just not caring are not attributes that customers are looking for. Quite frankly, many of these companies look downright incompetent. The lesson from these people is that it is unwise to jump into social media without goals, an apparent plan for the long term, or a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.
However, in saying all that, I have to give these companies credit for at least trying. Experimenting with something that costs between nothing and very little is a smart thing to do.
The remaining 59% of the PCB manufacturers surveyed use no social media at all.
Which means I think more highly of the companies that have tried and failed that the sloths who have done nothing. The majority here are the ones that always seem to have a hundreds of reasons for not doing something, most of which boil down to “it seems like hard work so I am not interested."
Next in this series: What can PCB manufacturers do on their websites to attract more visitors?Bruce Johnston is a sales consultant specializing in social media and especially LinkedIn. He has over 25 years experience in high-tech sales and management. He can be reached at brucej@practicalsmm.com or through his profile on LinkedIn.