J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 | W W W. W I R E N E T. O R G
MARKETING:
social media
Report to Members n 2020 Officers O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E W I R E A S S O C I AT I O N I N T E R N AT I O N A L
F E AT U R E
Marketing:
does it pay to be social? Following up on last year’s feature on marketing, WJI returns to the topic, this time focusing on social media. Is it more than puffery? Is it worth the effort? This story presents thoughts from five companies, and a brief look at some key SM vehicles and WAI’s approach.
Is social media worth the cost/effort, and if so, why? The cost associated with social media can be minimal or significant. It depends on the type of business you are. A big factor relates to how your company produces content. Is your SM content a result of regularly occurring events (baseball team, NASA, Ford) or do you have to produce content specifically for SM? Also, are you using SM to directly drive sales or to generate/maintain top-of-mind awareness. Steven Kenney, Hitachi Cable America, Inc. For us, social media is an indirect initiative that is worth our time and investment. With a small amount of effort, we receive a boost in both brand affinity and brand awareness from the connections and conversations that we have on our social channels. Ted Jolly, Distributor Wire & Tray Cable. Yes, I think social media is definitely worth the cost and effort – assuming that both are kept in check, which is why we take a strategic approach to both our content and the frequency with which we post. Our social media allows us to connect with our customers, our community, and our employees. It gives us the opportunity to showcase our capabilities, our amazingly talented and passionate people, and our dedication to innovation. This allows us to extend our brand image beyond what’s possible in more traditional marketing channels. For Fort Wayne Metals, social media isn’t so much about generating sales – it’s about relationships. It allows our audience to get to know us on a much
40
W I R E J O U R N A L I N T E R N AT I O N A L J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0
more fundamental level. It’s hard to put a price tag on that. Helge Hinniger, Fort Wayne Metal. I do think social media is worth the time and effort; we certainly wouldn’t waste resources on it if we didn’t see the value. It’s tough to measure its direct impact, but we certainly get enough positive feedback to justify continuing to use it as another tool to promote Encore Wire and our services and products. Kevin Kieffer, Encore Wire. Social media has grown into a direct initiative, almost playing stakes, the same way eCommerce has grown from being a value-add to a standard barrier to entry. When determining whether something is worth cost and effort, traditionally leaders would evaluate Return-On-Investment metrics. Now, social media is more than a platform to market, it is a communication vehicle to share insights with customers, receive feedback and provide customer service in a more personalized, intimate form of interaction. While there is an intangibility to social media presence, I believe that there is an added pressure for Business-to-Consumer brands to not only have presence, but to stand out and exercise creativity in the virtual marketplace. Overall, social media far exceeds the balance of being worth the cost and effort, especially as generations growing up in a digital landscape become representative of the majority of our consumer base. Jason Kline, Consolidated Electronic Wire & Cable.
W W W. W I R E N E T. O R G
F E AT U R E
Is social media a subset of your marketing, or is it unto itself? Is it a tool, an influencer or both? At Fort Wayne Metals, social media is handled as part of marketing communications. We’re fortunate enough to have a talented in-house creative team, and they develop the strategy and content for social media along with all of our other marketing materials. In terms of the role of social media, I’d see it mostly as an influencing tool. In my experience in B2B, it’s pretty difficult to drive business with organic social media, and even boosted posts show limited success. One exception to this would have been our hiring campaign, which drove significant clicks to our website
and employment portal. Helge Hinniger, corporate communications manager, Fort Wayne Metal. In my opinion, marketing as a discipline is still divided into two major classifications: traditional and digital, with social media being one of several components that makes up digital. At Consolidated Electronic Wire & Cable, we leverage social media as a branding tool within our overarching digital strategy. We promote new content offers, share photos of company events, and post company news
MORE TO PONDER
Social media: it’s worth doing ... but avoid those !@# pitfalls! WAI, like many other companies, has been trying to do more with digital marketing, and that led to finding John Markowski, a Marketing Management major at Albertus Magnus College. He observes that the biggest challenge to doing social media successfully is not the mechanics, as plenty of information exists, but simply avoiding some of the pitfalls. Below is his “don’t do” list. • Don’t “mail in” the first key step: strategy. Social media requires a clear message and a target audience. Sound obvious? Maybe, but if more than one person is involved, there may be different “understandings.” List goals for both what you want do, and where to do it. That blueprint can change as do your goals, but it should exist. • Don’t miss out on platforms There’s a slew of sites you can post at for free, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Thomas (see p. 47). It makes sense to start off where your target audience is most active as you can always expand site use later. John Markowski at work on a WAI campaign. • Don’t try to start out by doing everything! Get a company consensus. Pick a goal (generate new sales, increase brand awareness or drive new traffic to your website) and stick to it. Keep messages short and pepper them with eye-catching images and video, but use hashtags sparingly. Include one link per post either to your website or to another platform to increase traffic all around. • Don’t make a bad first impression A viewer is not likely to give you more than five seconds, so key information should be front and center. Make sure there is a reason that visitor would want to see more. • Don’t overhype You may think of your company and/or its products as “the world leader,” but others may see hubris. That also
W W W. W I R E N E T. O R G
goes for new product claims. At the same time, don’t be reluctant to hype what you know is to be true: the value of what you do, good service, follow-up, etc. Just keep it real. • Don’t forget your best resources That would be your existing customers and staffers! They should be willing to share your posts, and pass along word of new products. • Don’t ignore analytics but do avoid “ghost towns” Gauge your results regularly to see what works. What doesn’t work is inconsistency as many postings, followed by staff burnout and an extended posting absence, can lead to a “ghost town,” a tag your company should avoid. J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 W I R E J O U R N A L I N T E R N AT I O N A L
41