Marketers: It’s Time To Get Off The Dime
It’s been a tough 18-plus months for everyone in this channel, contractors, distributors and manufacturers alike. But manufacturers who pulled back their advertising and promotion budgets back then and haven’t restarted them, may be in for some surprises.
I had the good fortune to catch up with Bob Miodonski, group publisher of Plumbing & Mechanical, PM Engineer and Supply House Times magazines. We talked about the biggest trend in his industry, which turns out to be “green technology,” and he discussed how it is affecting the market in general, as well as other trends that affect contractors and distributors.
Have You Got a Social Media Policy?
Since anyone can be a spokesperson on social media, your company should have established guidelines that outline rules for online engagement. If you’re in a larger company, that means getting everyone from the executive suite to HR, and of course, customer service and marketing. If you’re a smaller one, you still need guidelines but maybe not to the extreme of larger companies.
Social Media Success Story
I wanted to share a success story with you of a traditional trade association, the PMPA (Precision Machined Products Association) and their results from starting a social program a little over a year ago (disclosure: they are a client of ours).These types of associations aren’t very sexy and they have plenty of competition out there for members to help them run their business better.
I recently caught up with Tom Hammel from Contractor Supply magazine, and he was able to share some insights as to what STAFDA distributors were doing to get them through the 2009 downturn. Tom shares his thoughts here.
Contractor Supply magazine's editorial director shares the successful tactics that STAFDA distributors used to get through the 2009 downturn. Listen to the Podcast: [audio http://tradesmeninsights.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/tom_hammel.mp3 Download the Podcast...
Pros and Cons of Starting a Blog
Blogs can be a very important part of your social media strategy. I use it as the hub of all other activity and get more hits to it than our website. If you’re thinking about doing a blog, here are a few things to consider first.
Thought Leadership: Repurpose, Repackage, Refine Messages
If you’re a blogger, you know that it takes a lot of time to continually write posts, and once it’s on your site, you have to start on the next one. You may be overlooking ways to “re-use” the content across other medias to generate new conversations. Here are some hints:
Social Media Strategy: READY-FIRE-AIM
60% of companies using social media have no plan. Shooting from the hip does not make sense. Companies are going about social strategy backwards, by first concentrating on the tools and technologies instead of focusing on what they want to achieve
B-to-B Marketers Are Slow Adopters of Social Media
This should not be news to anyone in the Industrial or B-to-B space. We have always been lagging when it comes to new technology. When the web started in the early 90s, we were some of the last to jump on board. So it should be understandable that we lag our B-to-C counterparts.