Social Media for manufacturers can be tricky. Many are trying it out with the “Broccoli Mentality” – “I don’t really like it, but I’m eating it because I’ve heard it’s good for me.”
But Social Media – whether it’s Twitter, or LinkedIn, your own Web site/Blog, other Blogs, Forums – only work if you accept that you have to be social. Gone are the days of trumpeting a message to the masses and watching the lemmings come shuffling in the door. Conversations are important, and they lead to deeper exchanges. Just like relationships.
“Procial Networks” is a phrase that plays off “social networks” – think Facebook or MySpace, only designed and maintained to support “professionals” instead of the broad masses, singles or college kids.
I had hoped to be the first off the line to coin the phrase “procial,” but I gots to give props to YS Librarian for being the first to use it – at least that I could find. Fair is fair, right?
Hey, at least I got the silver.
I’m a big fan of Jakob Nielsen. He’s a Web usability cat with his head screwed on straight. Why? Because he focuses on what’s important on the Web, especially for manufacturing – that is, what a site says and does for a business, not what it looks like like or SEO as an end-game. Much of what Jakob has discovered and brought to the fore as a first-tier Web advocate is perfectly applicable to manufacturers and their Web initiatives, and the 90-9-1 rule is no exception.
The 90-9-1 rule is about “participation inequality” on the Web, particularly as it applies to its social qualities (forums, comments and other facets that depend on community contributions). Jakob observed through data and observation that online, 90% of visitors to sites are “lurkers” (viewers and researchers that never contribute), 9% are “viewers” that may contribute a little every now and then, and 1% are serial participants that contribute the lion’s share of content. (graphic hat-tip: www.useit.com)
If you’re a small to medium sized manufacturer, don’t have a Web site of your own, and you want to grow your business, then you have a problem. It’s 2009, and if you still need convincing that the Web is where the people you want to talk to are going to find businesses like yours, then just move along. Nothing to see here, I’m afraid.
But if you do have a site and you want to get more out of it – or if it seems like it’s doing little or no good – then you should seriously consider trying these suggestions to beef up your exposure and get what you deserve from it.
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