Partners Through People’s CEO Alliance recently created a YouTube page and posted the videos of all the guest speakers over the past year.
Below are the links to view my three video sessions on the topic social media.
I hope these videos will provide you with more information on how to incorporate social media into you businesses to educate, inform and share information.
A year ago this week I posted a Blog announcing our 27th anniversary. I reviewed that post this afternoon just to re-read what I wrote. It was actually quite reflective. Much had happened over those years.
Now I sit here to write a 28th anniversary Blog, and find myself struggling to reflect on this past year. I’ll be perfectly honest with you… I want to forget it and turn the page! 2010 was by far THE most challenge year in the history of owning this company. But I’m confident that most small business owners will admit the same thing. It was down-right grueling.
On the positive side, I AM here… writing about our 28th year, and doing so with a feeling of accomplishment, pride and renewal. Sadly, many owners cannot say the same thing. But, for the ones who did survive the last two-and-a-half years of economic crisis, you are to be congratulated for your vision, leadership, endurance, and passion. It was nothing short of a very steep uphill battle that only a small business owner could truly understand. And, I do not mean to underestimate the pain others felt along the way. Believe me, we were all in this mess together trying to look for a silver lining!
But, there is something inside of us entrepreneurs that is different… some would call it “sick and twisted” while others might call it “commendable”. Yet we continue to look forward with enthusiasm and eternal optimism.
So this Blog is dedicated to us… the survivors who keep small businesses alive and thriving. May you continue to grow and prosper in 2011 and beyond!
I had the pleasure of participating as a mentor at the 5th Annual “Girls Going Places” Entrepreneurship Conference held on Tuesday, March 8th. The Conference was hosted at the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship, Chatham University in partnership with sponsors Hurley Associates, Communities in Schools of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County, NAWBO, and Women’s Independent Press.
Approximately 110 female students from middle school to high school, and 25 women business-owners, who volunteered to be mentors, took part in the event.
The schedule of activities was intense, but a lot of fun. The girls enjoyed teaming up to play a board game, collaborated on creating a product out of misc. materials, interviewed the women business-owners, and learned how to be budget savvy! I wish this program was available when I was in school.
Two things inspired me the most about the days activities: 1.) The girls adapted very well to team-work and collaborating with each other; and 2.) Everyone was fully engaged and enjoyed developing new friendships.
It’s amazing how a program like “Girls Going Places” can inspire a very diverse group of girls and women to share, discover, and celebrate the power of spirit and dreams.
Thank you Carol Hurley, owner and president of Hurley Associates, for inviting me to be a mentor on this special day. It was a wonderful experience!
“Girls Going Places” is a registered trademark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY.
SG&D designed and produced a new 16-page product catalog for Keystone Manufacturing, Inc.
The catalog provides a new customer-friendly layout with updated product photography, features, specifications, and technical information for all the belting, sprockets and shafting product lines Keystone Manufacturing produces at its facility located in Rochester, PA.
1. Establish Objectives. Determine what you want from your marketing piece.
2. Target Your Communication. Customize your message to each audience.
3. Know Your Audience. Find out what motivates your prospects.
4. Showcase what makes you unique. Differentiate yourself from your competition.
5. Highlight Benefits. Show how your product or service will benefit prospects.
6. Take A Risk. Develop an effective message that will make you stand out.
7. Encourage Repeat Business. Develop incentives for repeat customers.
8. Build Your Brand. Maintain a cohesive approach for all your communications.
9. Keep It Simple. Minimize the messages in your advertising.
10. Measure results. Track which media works best and Make Your Mark!
More good news about manufacturing…
Sept. 13, 2010
MAPI predicts 6% growth overall in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
By .IW Staff
While the pace of recovery in the general economy has clearly slowed, the deceleration is less visible in the manufacturing sector, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI.
“Despite less consumer spending growth in the second quarter, there was nevertheless some employment growth and modest wage increases. Also, the prolonged downturn and sluggish recovery have created pent-up demand for some durable goods, including sales of motor vehicles and appliances,” said Daniel J. Meckstroth, Chief Economist for the MAPI. “The inventory swing is greatest in manufacturing; exports are predominantly manufactured and benefitted from the fast global trade bounce back; and business investment in equipment rebounded much faster than consumer spending, thus making the pace of the industrial recovery stronger than that in the general economy.”
Manufacturing industrial production, measured on a quarter-to-quarter basis, grew at an 8% annual rate in the three months ending July 2010, after expanding at a 5% annual rate in the three months ending April 2010.
MAPI predicts the superior growth trend for manufacturing will continue, but decelerate, increasing 6% overall in 2010 and advancing 5% in 2011. At this pace it will be late 2012 before manufacturing production exceeds the December 2007 pre-recession level.
Production in non-high-tech manufacturing expanded at an 8% annual rate during the May-July 2010 period. According to the MAPI report, non-high-tech manufacturing production is expected to increase approximately 5% in 2010 and 4% in 2011. High-tech industrial production rose at a 10% annual rate in the May-July 2010 time frame. The group anticipates that it will post strong 15% growth in 2010 and 13% growth in 2011.
Iron and steel production grew by 68% in the three months ending in July 2010 compared to the previous three months, while industrial machinery production improved by 58% in the same window. MAPI forecasts that iron and steel production will grow 56% and industrial machinery will increase 36%.
This is good news for our manufacturing clients…
9.02.10, Mail Tribune
The Institute for Supply Management said last Wednesday that its manufacturing index rose to 56.3 in August from 55.5 in July. A reading above 50 indicates growth. The trade group’s index has surged since late 2009 and hit a six-year high in April. Read more…
I would like to share this article with many of our small manufacturing companies that ask me about social media and if its something they should consider. This article provides some good information that can help answer some of those questions. I like some of the points this author makes in his article. - DPB
Column From: MMSOnline.com, Peter Zelinski, Senior Editor
Posted on: 5/6/2010
When anyone sets out to talk about social media, the danger is that we end up merely talking about ourselves. People are very different from one another. In particular, they differ in the ways they are “social.” Businesses are very different, too—yet if you own or lead a business today (practically any business), it is hard to avoid the feeling that you ought to be engaged with your prospects through Facebook, Twitter or other so-called social media. How engaged should you be with social media? More than you are! Or, at least, so goes the thinking. In reality, many of the voices championing social media right now begin from a false presumption. They assume their world looks like your world, or your customer’s world.
I also think you ought to be engaged with social media. I just hope to avoid that presumption. Businesses are, again, different—and machining businesses are particularly distinct. If you run a contract manufacturing business using CNC machining, then there is a good chance you differ from the leaders of other businesses in at least a couple ways:
First, you have less control over your time. Short-lead-time metalworking is a field in which the common mode of work is a controlled emergency.
Second, broad marketing strategies likely have little relevance, because you don’t wish to persuade thousands of people or even hundreds. You might do cartwheels if you could get a dozen sources of steady, serious and substantial work. Your view of social media (and marketing in general) thus has to be tempered by these realities.
That is why some of the advice I have to give here might contradict the social media experts. I am no such expert myself. I’m still clumsy with social media, and my opinions are incomplete. However, I have seen what is easy and what seems to work—two requirements that are key. Based on those requirements, here is what I suggest:
Have a great website.
Any online strategy still has to start here—social media haven’t changed that. Your website continues to be the most natural way for people to seek information about you. The site should be attractive, interesting, focused and clear. It should make plain what is different and important about your shop. If your site is sub-par in any of these areas, attend to this.
Blog? Probably not
Various blogging websites make blogs easy to launch. However, blogs are also easy to do badly. As a manufacturer, it is unlikely you have the spare time and attention internally to support a blog—and that’s fine. Just don’t succumb to the temptation to launch one and add it to your site. A blog that hasn’t been updated in months implies you have a lack of follow-through. If all you really want to do is showcase an interesting announcement every month or two, then have a “news” section on your website.
Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn.com is a networking site for business. Though it’s very popular, I still think it’s underrated—if only because the success of Facebook is so huge by comparison. LinkedIn accomplishes some of what Facebook can do while avoiding the latter site’s difficulties (see below). For professionals, LinkedIn is a wonderful resource not only for staying current with your own contacts, but also to ensure visibility in ways that have minimal impact on your time.
Once a profile is entered at LinkedIn, maintaining the presence requires little to no effort. Changes or additions to your profile are shared with your contacts in ways that unobtrusively keep them aware of you. Increasing the number of connections within your target industries increases how likely you are to be suggested as a contact to others within those industries. Even if your contacts and prospects use LinkedIn no more than occasionally, they still stand a fair likelihood of seeing a reminder of you when they do pop in.
Another plus: I have made beneficial contacts and appreciated some of the online discussions I’ve found as a result of connecting to industry groups on this site.
Join LinkedIn, and begin connecting to profiles of people there who are familiar to you. Connect to me there. (When you do, just mention in the text field that you saw this article.)
Twitter: Not silly
Twitter.com provides a way to send short messages to those who have chosen to “follow” you within the Twitter site. Many use Twitter just on the Web, not bothering to involve a mobile phone. One of the beauties of Twitter is the way it’s forgiving of occasional use. A blog updated once per month looks anemic, but a Twitter feed given a new message at that low rate still seems OK. After all, it’s only Twitter.
To get started on Twitter, create an account and post a few tweets. Then, find and follow other Twitter accounts in your industry.
(Examples: “MMSOnline” and “Z_Axis_MMS.”) Some accounts will likely choose to follow you in return, so a few initial followers may result. Even with only a few followers, it is still worthwhile to tweet occasionally, because both keyword searches and followers who “retweet” you can permit your tweets to be seen by more people. Plus, connecting LinkedIn to Twitter (easy to do in LinkedIn) makes your tweets visible to all of your network there.
What should you tweet? If nothing else, use Twitter to periodically describe interesting work being done in your shop—work that offers yet another reminder of your distinctive capabilities and how they are being put to use.
Facebook? Maybe
Facebook is a marvel of engineering. It solves a problem we never saw as a problem before—how to maintain group interaction across a group that is spread out in space and time. Yet Facebook’s usefulness for marketing actual engineering-related services is questionable. At least, I’ve been asking that question.
To put Facebook here at the end of an article about social media might seem like mild heresy, but Facebook presents a couple of challenges. One is that it demands attention. For your Facebook presence to be meaningful, you need to remain involved within the ongoing interaction that Facebook was created to carry out. That can be time-consuming. A more subtle challenge comes back to the simple point made above: People are different. Among Facebook users, they differ in the extent to which they are open to letting their business life into this space. In fact, among manufacturing decision-makers I’ve spoken to who use Facebook, I have yet to hear one express an active desire to use it for work-related information. Its users value it for personal reasons instead—keeping up with family or staying connected with college friends. At best, only some of these people are open to mixing the space with work. Others are not.
My own Facebook use is slight. Thus, my view might be slanted (see the first sentence of this article). That said, I don’t see Facebook as a good starting point for your business’s use of social media. Maybe Facebook will follow, but start instead with the recommendations above.
Thank you, David Radin!
Mr. Radin’s article appeared in the Business section of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past Sunday, April 25th. Here is the link to read the full article.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10115/1052912-467.stm
Wow! In April, 1983 Sewickley Graphics & Design was established and I signed my first office lease. Where did those years go?
During the last 27 years, SG&D occupied and outgrew 5 office locations, employed over 26 people, weathered 3 major economic recessions, and most recently, repositioned the company - changing its name to SG&D Communications & Design. It is very humbling to reflect back on it all.
No one could have possibly prepared me for all the challenges that I experienced as a small business owner. But with the love and support of my family, our dedicated and talented SG&D employees (both present and past), our extended family of subcontractors (you know who you are), and the many wonderful clients we have had the privilege to serve through the years, I can post this Blog with great pride.
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SG&D! May you continue to grow and prosper.
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