Social Media and Engineers

A presentation for the ecsn workshopJune 2011

Mike MaynardManaging Director, Napier

Has Social Media Taken Over?

• Let’s ask James Warren, Chief digital strategist Europe, chief digital creative officer, Weber Shandwick

“We recently analysed online conversations for a large technology company and discovered that the overwhelming majority of these had as their reference points news or feature articles from the mainstream media. In many instances – although not all – the belief that there are bloggers and tweeters that have massive and absolute influence is

total fantasy”

What About Engineers?

• EE Times Survey – May 10

Survey conducted for EDAC panel session on Social Media for emerging companies

Comments on EE Times Article

• “bring it [Twitter] up at the water cooler and risk being shunned”

• “It's not that engineer types are really averse to new tools. It's that engineer types are averse to using tools unsuited to their needs just because ‘everyone is using it.’”

• “we do not hate social media, we hate wasting time. We do use social media (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, even Facebook) when it's needed, which is not that often, since we are busy solving problems.”

Is social media a waste of time

when marketing to engineers?

The Silent Majority Like Social

Do you think social media is a useful tool within the business environment?

70%

30%

Yes

No

Napier Research – April 2011European Engineers

Engineers and Social Media

Marketers and Social Media

Engineers vs Marketers

• Forums• LinkedIn• Videoblogs• Video (YouTube)• Blogs• Podcasts• Facebook• Other• Twitter

• LinkedIn • Video (YouTube)• Blogs • Twitter • Forums • Videoblogs • Facebook • Podcasts • Other

Social Media Blocking

• Social media blocked for 33% Engineers• Up slightly from 2 years ago

• Building your own network may get around blocking• But you need an audience

Do Generic Sites Work?

• Two studies consider electronics industry:• Napier survey April 2011 (Europe)• Napier analysis of results from link

shorteners May 2011

How Many Followers?

• Big in sales terms• Much smaller reach than publications• Typical accounts:

• TI is less than 10K• Digi-Key less than 5K• European distis generally less than 1K

• “Social media giants” similar:• @DesignSparkRS just over 1100• @Element14 is less than 3K

Where are the 10% of engineers that

claim they are using Twitter for business?

Quality Is Everything

• Assess value of relevant followers– Can’t avoid “spam followers”

• Some followers of an electronics distributor:• @ChooseSuffolk Choose Suffolk promotes

Suffolk…• @MakinRealMoney Finding new and exciting ways

to make residual income everyday…• @GreatECigs Looking for the best highest vapour

volume electronic cigarettes…

How Much Engagement?

• Manufacturers– 7.5% of followers “list” Twitter feed– CTR of about 0.5-2.0%

• Distis do worse– 3.0-7.0% of followers “list” Twitter feed– 0.25-0.5% CTR

– Hard to know how many clicks are “internal”

Microchip

• Wide geographic spread• US, IT, UK, BR, NL

• Short lifetime• Not using same

links on Facebook

Freescale

• Wide geographic spread• US, IN, CZ, BR, GR

• Lifetime of link just one day

• Facebook drives about 50% of traffic

Twitter vs Advertising

Banner Ads Twitter

Creative cost £100s 10 mins

Distribution cost CPM Free

Reach Huge <5K

New Customers Yes No

Targeting Flexible Followers

CTR 0.2-1.5% 0.25-2.0%

CPM $100 3 mins

CPC $10 1 minute

Scalability Easy Hard

Conclusions

• Social media has global value• Not just the USA

• A significant majority of engineers• DO want to use social media and• ARE already using generic platforms• BUT most not engaged with suppliers

• Social media doesn’t have wide reach• Won’t replace conventional media in

the foreseeable future

Recommendations

• Think of social media as CRM• Can reach significant audience• Allocate sensible budget to social media

• Integrate with conventional marketing• Set reasonable goals

• Getting [quality] followers is hard• Small number of clicks per link

• Do what engineers want• Forums are still cool!