Social media is changing how we use the Web. It’s changing  the way we consume, search and share information, so much, that consumers are now turning to social media before company sites when researching information on a product. If you’re like many small businesses who have read all the hype around social media and registered for accounts, but now wondering, “what’s next?”…this post is for you.

Often times, small businesses turn to expensive software services and applications to help maintain their social networks. This can be very beneficial if social media is an integral part of your marketing mix; however, we’ve learned that most small businesses don’t need all the features many of these services offer. You’ll end up spending more time trying to set up the accounts, remembering passwords, and figuring out how to use it, versus the end goal, which is to connect with your audiences and share key messages.

To help simplify social media, here are few tools that we recommend you use to manage social media and balance it with the rest of your daily responsibilities.

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a social media management tool with an easy-to-scan dashboard of all your social media accounts. Instead of logging into each account separately, Hootsuite allows you to see them at once. At TREW, we use this service to schedule tweets and Facebook updates, and easily interact with our and our clients’ followers.

TREW uses this tool because: it allows you to schedule updates at your convenience. You can schedule tweets over the weekend, or while the key personnel are on vacation. In addition, it allows you to see new @mentions and direct messages in one interface, as well as, it has it’s own link shortening service, so the analytic reports are housed here too.

Case in point: At NIWeek 2011, TREW used Hootsuite to schedule social media updates for client, Wineman Technology. At the conference, Wineman and  Tecnalia Research launched Dynacar, a fully validated, real-time vehicle model simulator for developing and testing passenger and light commercial vehicles. Intermixed with PR efforts, trade show planning, and web preparation, social media tweets and Facebook updates were released throughout the day to NIWeek attendees and show followers online. While tweets were released, TREW was helping clients on the show floor, and Wineman was occupied giving demos, meeting with press, and attending client appointments.

The result: Wineman had a strong show floor as well as off show-floor presence with over 200% web visitor growth. The graphic below shows how strategic social media can help amplify your message, which in this case was a result of the Dynacar launch at NIWeek, with the help of HootSuite for organizing and planning our social media updates. 

Klout: Klout measures the influence based on a person’s/company’s ability to drive online action. With engineered algorithms, Klout analyzes your tweets, posts, Google+ updates and other activity to determine your “Klout score” from 1-100, based on the number of people you influence. The score fluctuates in real-time, so if you’re active one week and silent the next, your score will reflect that.

TREW uses this tool because: It helps to understand our return on investment with social media. At TREW, we don’t fixate on the numerical score, but rather the other analytics that surround it. It’s a useful tool for improving the focus of your social media strategy, by gaining valuable insights on whom to target, and how to spark conversation among influential people. Then we look at the results from Klout, which measures “influence,” meaning how many users engaged with your message. It can take many forms, such as a re-tweet, @mention, or a click – ie, actions of influence to measure. By monitoring your Klout score, you can better understand the percentage of effort each channel deserves based on your results and audience influence.

TwitterSearch: A hidden gem, TwitterSearch is much more powerful than most people know. Finding things in the Twitterverse can be overwhelming, which is why this search tool is invaluable, allowing you to cut through the clutter and focus on topics you’re interested in.

For instance you can find out what people are saying about your competitors by typing in “to:handlename” or “from:handlename”. It will give results of tweets that people are posting about the competitor or if you used the “from:”, it will provide tweets from the competitor.

If you want to see conversations about your business that may not be sent directly to you with an @mention, there’s a search query for that. For example, if TREW wants to run this search query, we could type in “Trewmarketing -to:Trewmarketing -from:Trewmarketing -@Trewmarketing.” This tells the search engine to only give results of tweets that talk about Trewmarketing, and not any tweets from TREW or directly to TREW. Many times, you’ll discover a few tweets that would otherwise not be found by your analytics.

TREW uses this tool because: it’s quick, efficient, and it provides results in real-time. With TwitterSearch, there’s no need to sign up for a new account on a third-party site, it’s already accessible on the Twitter account. It gives accurate feedback about most everything you can think of, and it’s a quick way to check if you’re social media analytics are accurate for Twitter. For niche industries, this search tool can be very useful to find subjects being discussed, influencers engaged in the discussion, and opinions surrounding these conversations.

All in all, there’s many tools and services available to help you manage social media. These are three that have worked for TREW and our clients, by helping us manage accounts on a daily basis, and analyze data in an efficient and effective way.

You can read more about the benefits of social media, and how to use it with these related blog posts:

Social Media: Real-World Examples that Dispel the Myths

Social Media: Define, Act, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Repeat

Social Ad Showdown: 5 Ways LinkedIn Takes Care of Business

Last weekend, The Austin American-Statesman featured TREW Marketing in the “Statesman Startup Spotlight.” In a Q&A-style, the article highlights TREW’s startup roots, planted by co-founders and long time friends and colleagues, Wendy Covey and Rebecca Geier. The two shared many discussions over lunchtime workouts and combined their individual passions to form the agency uniquely focused in B2B science, engineering, and IT industries.

The Statesman Startup Spotlight shows that in a crowded marketplace of marketing and advertising agencies, TREW distinguishes itself from competitors by staying true to our niche and using smart, collaborative business tactics. For instance, TREW organizes into small teams to meet clients’ marketing needs, where one team may be executing an entire Web redesign for a customer in Germany, another is leading a product press tour in New England, and a third in Silicon Valley for a trade show – leading event PR, social media, and developing new business for the company. In these ways, TREW has been able to grow in our industry and maintain close relationships with our customers, many of whom have been with TREW since our founding.

TREW has also been named a BtoB Top Agency in 2012 in the small agency category. To compile the list of Top Agencies, BtoB Magazine surveyed agencies in its database through an online form in four categories (small, midsize, large, and interactive). The finalists in each category were selected based on percentage of total business that is B2B, revenue growth, client wins, and innovative work. We were included in the Top Agency Special Report for achievements in the following marketing programs:

• Product launch success with 125% more media coverage than any launch in the client’s history
• Search advertising program with an 82% increase in AdWord click-through-rates and a 60% decrease in pay-per-click spending
• Product launch with media coverage in top trade magazines Test & Measurement World, Design News, ECN Magazine, Design World, and Engineering TV of Dynacar, the world’s first fully validated vehicle model simulator by Wineman Technology and Tecnalia Research
• Web Redesign for DISTek Integration which received a 37% YOY Web traffic increase, 68% increase of time spent on site by visitors, and 92% increase of organic search traffic
• Consistent visual and textual branding for communications and 12-month marketing plan for DISTek Integration

• 34% YOY revenue growth from 2010 to 2011
• 179% increase in site web traffic to trewmarketing.com
• Launched an award-winning e-book, Smart Marketing for Engineers, that resulted in a 600% increase in web traffic for TREW
• Online and print coverage in the Wall Street Journal for being a finalist in the publication’s “Small Business, Big Innovation” national competition

Completing Q1 of 2012, TREW is off to an impressive start to the year. In addition to these features, TREW has increased first quarter revenue earnings by 145% from 2011, and also was recently covered by The Austin Business Journal for a marketing partnership with Kline Technical Consulting.

To read the full article on TREW’s Startup Spotlight from Austin American-Statesman, click here.

Today, TREW Marketing launched an online survey asking technical engineers questions on their media choices for news on the latest technologies and industry trends. The survey addresses marketing media topics ranging from web search habits, to industry publication and social media usage, as well as planned media investments for B2B science and engineering companies.

“Engineers and scientists use a variety of media sources to seek technical information, which are constantly evolving. This can be challenging for companies who target this audience,” says Wendy Covey, Co-Founder & Principal, TREW Marketing. “With this survey, we aim to better understand the changing media habits of engineers, then use this data to help guide custom marketing plan development for our growing list of B2B technology clients.”

The survey will be conducted both online and offline at Design West. Located in San Jose, Ca., this conference brings together diverse groups of high-tech professionals, including embedded hardware and software design, total systems integration, power management, open source software, android, embedded security, LED’s, and MultiCore, Sensors. TREW Marketing will be in attendance on the show floor from March 27th – 29th, conducting the survey and meeting with select companies to discuss their marketing strategies.

For those not attending Design West the survey is also available off the show floor through this blog, and we’d appreciate your participation. Click here to take the survey. It will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. After completing the survey you will be entered into a drawing for one of four $25 Starbucks gift cards. You will also have the opportunity to be notified by email when the results and findings become available.

TREW plans to announce the survey findings on our blog. Check back for the link to download our full report. In the meantime, download our free e-book, Smart Marketing for Engineers, a practical guide that includes positioning and planning, website development, content creation, search marketing, turning leads into sales, and social media.

Agency Chosen for B2B Technical Focus; Breadth of Marketing Strategy, Planning, SEM and PR Expertise

AUSTIN, Texas – March 19, 2012 – Kline Technical Consulting (KTC) announced today its selection of Austin-based TREW Marketing to lead development of the company’s multi-campaign marketing program, with initial focus in brand positioning and messaging, web design, and content development. KTC chose TREW Marketing because of the agency’s ability to understand the specific needs of engineers and its experience with highly technical products and solutions.

KTC is a global consulting firm specializing in the delivery of integrated national defense and security solutions. For more than 45 years, global organizations have trusted KTC to develop fielded systems and concept of operations – from tracking enemy forces and leading anti-piracy efforts to implementing large cyber warfare networks.

“Working in mission-critical security, electronic warfare, and advanced technology applications for demanding clients, KTC’s marketing must be planned and executed accurately and thoughtfully,” said Rebecca Geier, Principal & Co-Founder of TREW Marketing. “With TREW’s broad-based marketing services, we can build the most efficient and effective marketing plan to help KTC grow its awareness as a warrior-minded provider of engineered security solutions.”

The new partnership entails marketing projects including:

• Corporate-level branding brain and messaging
• Marketing communications strategy and campaign-based activity plans
• Marketing collateral and content development – white papers, case studies, flyers
• Whiteboard presentation development
• Website redesign
• Web content development including corporate blog

“TREW’s match of strength in marketing and market-related involvement drove us to choose the agency as our marketing partner,” said Dr. Robert Kline, Founder and President, Kline Technical Consulting. “Working with TREW Marketing has made us think about our brand, goals, and marketing plans differently.”

KTC expects to introduce its new website, blog, and marketing materials later this year.

Click to Tweet: New from @TrewMarketing: National Defense Solutions Provider Selects TREW Marketing http://ow.ly/9FYGK

About Kline Technical Consulting

Kline Technical Consulting was founded in 1966 and provides security, electronic warfare, and advanced technology solutions for government agencies and defense-critical industries in the USA and Allied States. With a combination of warrior, academic, and technology expertise, KTC transitions innovative security and response tools and knowledge into unique fielded systems. Recent work includes contracts for the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security, as well as Government of India and other organizations that defend against electronic warfare.

About TREW Marketing

TREW Marketing, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a full-service B2B marketing firm uniquely serving leading engineering and scientific companies that target technical markets. TREW uses decades of specialized experience to create custom marketing programs that help customers efficiently and effectively achieve their business and sales. TREW takes an integrated approach using a wide array of marketing services, including market research, brand identity, positioning and messaging, product launch planning, website strategy and design, search marketing and public relations.

For more coverage on TREW Marketing and Kline Technical Consulting’s marketing partnership, see  the article by Austin Business Journal, here.

Photo by: Nick Simonite

On Friday, February 24, 2012, the Austin Business Journal featured TREW Marketing Co-Founder and Principal, Rebecca Geier. The profile highlights Rebecca’s startup success with Wendy Covey in forming TREW Marketing, her volunteer work with the education program, FIRST Robotics, and her personal music passions, family, and inspirations.

The Austin Business Journal shows that Rebecca’s understanding of an engineer’s technical mind spurred from  her work at National Instruments, her 15 years of volunteer robotics coaching, and her science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) advocacy at Davis elementary. Seeing first-hand how STEM education through FIRST Robotics can build a child’s character, Rebecca discusses her passion in the article, saying, “Kids are literally working with Legos, solving the same kinds of problems that design engineers are trying to solve at NASA, at Ford, at Apple. They are using the same software and they don’t know it. It builds teamwork. It builds complete disregard for failure because you keep trying and trying.”

Rebecca’s success and passion are easily recognized by community leaders and education experts. In the article, Susan Dawson, President of E3 Alliance, notes that “Rebecca combines the creative talent, personal rapport and organizational skills of a great marketing and PR person with the enthusiasm of a really passionate community advocate and the drive to get things done.”

Her eye for teamwork translates into her business at TREW Marketing, which is noticed by clients. “I have known Rebecca for 13 years, and during this time, she assembled more than a couple of high-performing and high-character teams. She continually watches for talent and synergy between seemingly different styles,” said Chuck Boecking, Director of Education and Marketing at Adaxa USA.  “Her teams seem driven by passion and more importantly bound by courage.”

In a candid Q&A section, Rebecca reveals her weak spots for chocolate ice cream, most impulsive moment – jumping off the First Street bridge with friends during Aquafest, and Sunday morning routine of reading the paper, watching her favorite TV show, and her husband and son cooking breakfast. A true Austinite, Rebecca talks of her musically talented husband and son, love of live music, and iPod playlist of 70’s musicians – Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles.

To read the full article, visit http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/print-edition/2012/02/24/journal-profile-rebecca-geier.html, or pick up a copy of the Austin Business Journal at local Austin newsstands this week.

Related blog posts:

• Wall Street Journal Names TREW Marketing One of Ten Most Innovative Small Businesses
• 2011 – A Year of Building Trust and Driving Results

Theory x Practice is the motto of the University of Texas AdGrad program. I should know, as I’ve lived it everyday for the last year as a full-time Masters student in Advertising and intern for TREW Marketing. Over the course of 2011, I’ve been a student of all sorts, learning things like Social Cognitive Theory, media calculations – CDI and BDI, social media applications, and the process of developing marketing plans. I’ve been fortunate to have a hands-on education through the AdGrad program and with TREW Marketing.

So what have I learned this past year? Summing it up in 5 lessons, here it is:

1. Master the message. One of the first things Rebecca and Wendy taught me was the importance of being able to write like a marketer. This was a refreshing crash course on how to be brief and be smart with all writing projects – from emails, blogs, presentations, case studies, and everything in between. Concise and compelling writing is important, because you can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t communicate your ideas, it doesn’t matter.

2. Revise…revise….revise. This goes in tote with lesson #1, but it’s so important, I figured it deserves it’s own lesson number. TREW Marketing has taught me patience and to embrace the process of revising and editing. Many times, I’ll submit work that will undergo two to three rounds of revisions. This process is long and tedious, but also smart and collaborative, producing the best messaging results.

3. Go all in. There hasn’t been a dull moment over the past year as an intern. Rebecca, Wendy and all the project managers have consistently come up with new and exciting projects for me to work on. It would be impossible to write out every project on this blog, so I’ve wrapped up a year in review of internship projects with TREW Marketing in the Slideshare presentation below. (Use full screen mode to read)

4. Be resourceful. Being part of a virtual team requires a unique set of skills. Specifically, being resourceful to educate yourself and the team on latest trends, virtual tools, and interesting articles. The virtual aspect of the job requires a balance of independence and collaboration. For me, it was an acquired skill, but it’s been such a blessing to gain more independence and a work-life balance from it.

5. “Listening is 51% of communication.” This motto, borrowed from Rebecca, describes the TREW approach to marketing planning. Careful listening entails precise note-taking, and consideration of the tone of voice, personality, and dialogue. Over the last two months, I’ve been honing in on this skill, listening to clients explain their pain points and marketing goals, then taking this information to develop marketing plans that best fit their goals and needs.

As I graduate this early December, and begin a new chapter, I reflect on the last year with TREW and year and half as a Masters student. The decision to go back to school was very tough, but I did it to be prepared for opportunity. Graduate school and TREW have prepared me with the right marketing knowledge for a career in this fast-changing digital industry. Then at the beginning of this semester, TREW also came with a great opportunity, to stay on board as a full-time Marketing Specialist. So at the beginning of next year, I will be returning and re-iterating all five of these lessons I learned during my time as an intern at TREW Marketing.

In part 1 of our social media series, we reviewed the benefits of using social media and dispelled common myths using real-world examples. A key data point to know is that for the first time, internet users are more likely to visit social media sites than corporate sites for information about a company’s products. However, 65% of companies have little-to-no social media strategy. If you are in that 65%, this post will help you create a social media strategy through taking the steps to define, act, measure, analyze, and improve.

1. Define: Choose content that meets your objective

Feature hot industry topics – browse your favorite industry publications and identify what topics are being published and discussed. Do you have interesting views on this? Social media is a great channel to state your opinion and ask for others’ feedback. This is also a good way to collect feedback that will help you develop the content that you’ll use in your traditional channels.

Use existing assets – use content such as white papers, core slides, and customer testimonials. Below are a few examples of taking your current content and using it in social channels, directing people back to your website to learn more.

• Create a series of Tweets sharing insights from a white paper, include the URL to download the entire paper.
• Share your customer success stories on Facebook, and be sure to “like” your customer’s business page, and include them in the post. 
• Post all publicly available slide decks showcasing your industry expertise on Slideshare. Remember to edit your slides before posting, so they capture key verbal comments.
• Include a link in YouTube videos to a specific page on your website to direct people where to find more information.

Company culture – What makes you different from your competitors? Social media is a casual communication space, and being personal helps you connect with your audience. Take photos of employee luncheons or company outings and share with your followers. It will make them feel special with an “insiders look” at your company.

Conferences and events – Are you planning to attend trade shows this year? Use the conference hashtag to target attendees and media covering the event, engage in discussions around the conference, drive traffic to the booth, and launch your product to valuable social contacts. The example below is from AWEA’s Windpower conference, where Wineman Technology inserted hashtag “#Wp11″ to ensure their content was pushed to their target audience of Windpower attendees. 

2. Act: Balance scheduled content with on-the-fly responses

Scheduling your activity – Use a shared company calendar to delegate and schedule content. Start small with a few posts a day and increase once the processes are in place. Map out content for the first month, measure, analyze, and then find ways to improve for the next month.

Monitor conversations and be ready to respond – Know where your content is located so that you can easily answer questions or provide social media users with additional information. For technical companies, it’s always helpful to have an engineer who is involved in the social media team, so they can provide helpful, specific answers when you get specific questions via social media. And remember, people who ask questions through social channels expect immediate answers. Free tools like TweetDeck allow users to monitor tweets, including providing real-time, ongoing search results:

Share more than once – Research from Bit.ly, a link shortening and tracking service, looked at over 1,000 social media links’ lifespan. The results indicate the average life of content shared on social media is 3 hours, with the exception of YouTube, which gets you more than twice the lifespan: averaging 7.4 hours!  Ultimately this shows that the content of a link means more than where you share it, backing up Marketing lessons 101: content is king.

3. Measure: Track progress with key metrics

The metrics below are key measurements of progress. You can track these on a spreadsheet week to week, or monthly, whichever fits your schedule. By recording these metrics in a spreadsheet, it will eliminate time spent later creating trend graphs to present your efforts.

• Activity- Opting into a social network, friend, follow, or fan is a positive sign of interest. These users are eager to learn more about your product/company.
• Clicks- Using link shortening tools, such as bit.ly or Hootsuite allows you to track links, so you know what content is being consumed and what isn’t.
• Re-tweets (RT)- Re-tweets amplify your social media message, think of this as a personal referral for your company.
• Source traffic- Tracks how visitors get to your website. This provides insight into where your users are and where they are not. Track this month to month, and adjust your strategy if necessary. The charts below are from a 3 month report of TREW’s social media.

4. Analyze and Improve: What to do next…

Through this data, TREW can adjust our strategy to:

• Maintain a strong Twitter presence, it’s the highest source referrer among the social media channels to trewmarketing.com
• Encourage employees to expand and maintain their social networks. High average time on site shows quality contacts are coming from LinkedIn and Google+, which are likely coming from personal employee profiles, and consuming content on the Spotlight blog.
• Reduce resources or switch up the content strategy for Facebook, it is not generating traffic or time on site

On Monday, November 14, the Wall Street Journal named Rebecca Geier and Wendy Covey, co-founders of  TREW Marketing, one of ten “Most Innovative Entrepreneurs” in the Small Business, Big Innovation competition. TREW is featured in a Wall Street Journal special report that hit newsstands November 14 and is online at wsj.com. Finalists were chosen from a pool of over 100 entries by a panel of WSJ judges, who selected ten small businesses that demonstrated an innovative solution and thrived during the economic downturn by finding a new direction and market – that is for TREW, turning business away and narrowing our focus to uniquely serve B2B science and engineering companies.

WSJ print coverage on November 14, 2011:

The competition began in September 2011 with an online voting period for the “Readers’ Choice” award. Readers were encouraged to vote online for the business with the most creative, imaginative or cutting-edge solution for overcoming a major recession-related headache. Thanks to all the TREW supporters who voted and posted our story on their Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and wrote/forwarded emails, we consistently ranked in the Top 5 Most Read articles during this time.

TREW qualified as a finalist for the competition with our innovative solution – to dominate our niche by turning business down and bravely narrowing our focus to uniquely serve small to medium size, B2B, science and engineering companies. We crafted a new business development approach, enhanced our website optimization and social media plan, and wrote a free downloadable book, Smart Marketing for Engineers. The result: we thrived during the recession and are on track for 194% revenue growth in 2011 over 2009, web and blog traffic up 303% in the same period, and doubling our team of experienced marketing professionals from coast to coast.

In addition to the coverage in Wall Street Journal, the Austin Business Journal recently covered our WSJ recognition and ebook, Smart Marketing for Engineers.

Did you know that for the first time, social media has surpassed company websites for consumers’ research on product information.

If you are one of those business leaders who thinks social media is only for big companies, it’s not relevant to your industry, or you’re thinking about social media but not sure where to start and how to measure its success, this blog series is for you. In Part 1, we’ll outline the five key benefits and 3 myths about social media. We’ll dispel these myths with real-world examples that illustrate why social media not only cannot be ignored, but with a clear strategy and plan, can truly enhance your company and marketing program. In Part 2, we’ll cover social media planning, how-to’s and tools and measurement tips.

So what are the key benefits of social media? Here are our top 5:

1. Gain deeper insights into your target audience and industry trends more affordably
2. Push relevant content around the clock through third-party endorsements and ease of sharing
3. Reach and engage new audiences that your traditional communication channels may not be touching
4. Increase credibility by being a valued member of and contributor to your community
5. Improve your search ranking through deeper links with social integration

Myth #1: “My customers are highly technical scientists and engineers. They don’t post on Facebook or have time to tweet.”

Reality: Don’t make the assumption that because you aren’t on social media, other engineers or prospects aren’t either. You might not be looking in the right channels for your highly technical interests. For instance, LinkedIn is a treasure trove of key decision makers across various industries. The largest population are ages 35-44 years, followed closely by 45-54 year olds.

Below is a screen shot of a LinkedIn group discussion, answering the question “What do you feel is the #1 challenge or threat to IT today?” The topic was posted in the CIO Network Group, which garnered 422 comments, many of which reveal deep insights and thorough analysis of the IT industry and provide on-the-fly market research. For more information about LinkedIn’s demographics and useful business practices, see blog post, “Social Ad Showdown: 5 Ways LinkedIn Takes Care of Business.”

Another example is Twitter. This can be an overwhelming channel if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Although Twitter has fewer members compared to other social sites (Pew Research estimates put it at approximately 10% of the global population), the channel’s users are very active spreading messages to new audiences you wouldn’t normally reach. For example, let’s look at trade shows. With tighter travel budgets, people are not attending like they used to, but through online forums, those who stay home can still follow the events of the conference and discuss. The image below shows the Twitter discussion and promotion at IP Expo, a conference serving the IP converged network community. In addition to people talking about the show off site, IP Expo uses Twitter to create a community, so people can continue the conversation after it’s over.

Myth #2: “Only outrageous or edgy products get social media attention”

Reality: While much online buzz is focused on the entertainment and fashion industries, social media also influences less consumer-focused industries such as the agricultural, electronics, and medical fields. In fact, the most unlikely products can generate tremendous online buzz. This doesn’t magically happen for B2B companies; typically it’s a result of careful marketing tactics, integrating online advertising, PR, shareable content, and offline activities to get these results. Here’s an example where one B2B engineering firm reached nearly 44 times more people through social media.

In August of this year, engineering firm Wineman Technologies and European-based applied research lab,  Tecnalia Research, announced their release of Dynacar, a fully validated, real-time vehicle model simulator for developing and testing passenger and light commercial vehicles. TREW Marketing executed the product launch around trade show NIWeek and results included coverage in print, in video, across the web, and in social media.

The graphic below illustrates the relevant impact of social media around Dynarcar’s launch. Wineman made their announcement on their website distributing to their 125 Twitter followers,which was amplified by 8 key influencers in the engineering field, who retweeted the message one or more times, reaching a total of 5,845 people on Twitter.

Myth #3: “I’m a small business and can’t afford the resources necessary to manage social media”

Reality: Social media is not free. Although it doesn’t cost you anything to create a Facebook or LinkedIn site for your company, it does take time to learn the landscape, keep up with the latest tools and trends, and maintain a consistent presence. And as we have said before and outlined in our guidebook, Smart Marketing for Engineers, we strongly encourage you to invest in social media only after you have developed a marketing plan, website, strong content, and an email marketing program.

When you are ready to begin a social media program, keep in mind some powerful statistics that may alter your future marketing allocations:

• 8 out of 10 companies of all sizes are using social media. The relatively inexpensive nature of this channel is the cause for rapid and widespread adoption of it, helping smaller businesses compete with their larger competitors (Omniture, page 3).
• Approximately 50% of companies plan to increase their social media and email marketing budgets for 2012 or in the near future (Omniture, Page 4).
• 70% of consumers reported turning to social media for objective information about a product, and 68% rely on the company website to obtain further specifications of the product. As mentioned above, for the first time, social media has surpassed company sites for consumers’ research on product information. Consumers are increasingly relying on social media for objective information about your product, then going to your website to purchase (Omniture, page 5).

Q4 Technical Trade Shows & Conferences:

• Aero Engineering 2011, Nov. 9-10
• Automotive Testing Expo 2011, Oct. 25-27
• IP Expo 2011, Oct. 19-20
• International Time & Synchronisation in Telecoms (ITSF) 2011, Nov. 1-3
• Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) Minneapolis 2011, Nov. 1-3
• NI Technical Symposium (NITS) 2011, Oct. 18-Dec. 8
• Productronica 2011, Nov. 15-18

Face-to-face marketing such as trade shows and seminars are a powerful way to personify your brand, capture leads, and grow customer excitement and loyalty. With that said, they can be expensive, so it is critical to have a clear strategy and well-defined objectives to measure your return on investment.

Before anything else, set your trade show objectives prior to creating marketing activities. Example objectives to discuss with your team are:

• Number, profile of leads
• Speaking engagements
• Press meetings
• Key prospect/customer meetings
• Competitive analysis
• Partner co-marketing