Social networking is taking its place among the corporate strategies of a growing number of companies. Manufacturing businesses are no exception. In fact, some of the world’s better-known companies are plunging into the social networking scene in a big way.
Here’s a rundown of what some of them are doing:
Lockheed Martin has been developing proprietary social media technology to facilitate interaction among employees to create and share secure content using blogs and wikis. As a result, Lockheed Martin claims it has become a leader in social networking in the aerospace and defense industries. In July the company announced that it would release a proprietary social media tool under an open-source software license.
Lockheed “has placed an emphasis on social media adoption by finding innovative ways to integrate a social dimension into our existing process and tools while reducing total cost of ownership,” says Linda Gooden, executive vice president for Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Services business area. The social media tool that will be released under an open-source license enables employees to use and share information from internal and external sources.
Snap-on Tools
has launched a Facebook page that boasts more than 15,000 members. The page allows the tools and equipment maker to quickly communicate with Snap-on customers. On the site, users of the company’s products share stories about their experiences with Snap-on. They can post photos, upload videos, and comment on discussion boards and postings. Content, including information on new tools, is constantly being added.
Ford Motor
has launched Fiesta Movement, a marketing initiative that the company says uses a fraction of a typical marketing and advertising budget by relying on social media to drive a buzz about its 2011 Fiesta.
Although the car won’t go on sale in North America for another nine months, because of the online campaign, the Fiesta already has more than 50,000 potential customers, 97 percent of whom would be new to Ford, the company says. "We didn't break the bank. We didn't use traditional media,” says Connie Fontaine, Ford brand and content alliances manager. “We tried something different, and it is working.”
Ford says social networking sites allow the company to meet consumers it might not connect with through traditional advertising.
Fiesta Movement-related content is gaining traction, according to company spokespeople, with more than 4.3 million YouTube views, 540,000 Flickr views, and 3 million Twitter impressions.
Caterpillar operates the Power Generation Online Community, an interactive forum where consulting engineers and other power generation professionals can exchange ideas and best practices.
Past experience purchasing or working with Cat Power Generation equipment isn’t required to participate. The goal of the online community is to provide a place where users can find answers to questions and interact with their peers, according to Dave Lucas, manager of marketing communications at Caterpillar’s Electric Power Division. Users from more than 100 countries access the site.
These are just a few examples. But they show the advantages social networking can bring to manufacturers: better collaboration, improved customer service, and higher sales, to name a few. Senior business executives at manufacturing companies should seriously consider how these online resources can help their companies, if they’re not already.
— Bob Violino is a freelance writer, editor, and project manager who has covered business and technology for more than 20 years.
Yes that's true. Also, I was recently speaking with someone in IT who said their social networking efforts were proving to be important for employee retention. People want to be able to use social networking tools to do their jobs, or to stay in touch with people in other offices, and they want their companies to keep making these tools available.
oneother interesting point that is coming out of the social networking world is a new way for companies to do recruiting without large costs of ads. I see more and more companies using it to recruit new employees and get their name out into the world....this tends to apply more for smaller companies that aren't already household names.
I would think for most companies a broad approach that includes a social networking/online strategy and also the use of more traditional channels for marketing and customer support would make sense. Not all of their customers are going to be accessing social networking sites. In fact, a good number of customers might never access them.
The major problem that arises is because of the fact that these firms do not consider the negative consequences or impact that Web 2.0 can have if things spiral out of control-LIke a marketing campaign gone mad.
No doubt, social networks offer great opportunities for businesses and it is good news that companies could revive via social networks in this challenging economic time.
But my concern is whether such companies should forget the traditional media one for all and cling only to online advertisement or do both to preverve customers who are already used to traditional media?
That provides some interesting cases of where new technology initiatives can be driven largely by business users and the technology/Internet skills they possess, regardless of their job function.
Most of these Companies that are using Social Media as a PR. Marketing even HR tool, is a direct result of having employees that are Web 2.0 savvy and like to exchange information via IM, blog posts, status updates and such -rather than use conventional email for communication.
Its great to hear that companies who are normally Major stodges when it comes to introuction of new ideas/concepts are taking on Social Media so readily.
But the question has to be asked.As long as the company has total control over the content on the network-How free/independent will exchange of information be?remember the web (and particularly social media like Twitter/facebook)has this capability to turn a teacup into a storm.I remember the case of the Daily Mail reporter who after an article he published recently about some Gay artist who passed away,was blasted to smithereens in cyber-space and the real world.
Its not fun when social media gets out of hand,And i dont think these companies PR departments can deal with it.
Because I'm suffering from SNADD (that's with 2 d's, different from the what.the.ferraro coined SNAD) my responses will be in short bursts. (bare with me ;o)
"I think these are all solid examples, by the way, but just wonder when the last time was that we saw social networking either a) indispensable or b) groundbreaking."
Let's deactivate 1/3 of facebook user accounts across the us. Do you think you'd hear the ground breaking tomorrow morning? And was it not indispensable?
Far as paranormal activity, I do not recall where I first saw the trailer...I'm thinking it was YOUTUBE.
I'm wanting to believe that social search is web2.0/square/cubed what have you.
These are all interesting uses of tools we've read about, but just to provoke thought a bit--where are the new ideas? Is there an application of some sort nailing results at some new level and that all companies would want to copy immediately?
I think these are all solid examples, by the way, but just wonder when the last time was that we saw social networking either a) indispensable or b) groundbreaking.
To be fair, I do believe the move Paranormal Activity would consider its success to strongly tied to social networking, although maybe not exclusively Web 2.0 networking.
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