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Rick Short of Indium Corp. gets socialJanuary 8th, 2010 by rmiller |
This past week I had the chance to sit down with Rick Short, director of Marketing / Communications at Indium Corp. Rick has been blogging and using social media to help Indium build contacts and grow its business well before social was on the map. The conversation was so good, we had to break it up into parts. You can also connect with Rick by visiting his blog or following him on Twitter.
This will be the first in a series of interviews we’ll be conducting this year with folks who are leveraging the power of social networks as a part of their overall marketing strategy. Enjoy the videos.
Part I – Connections to Contact
Part II – Social Media as a Sales Tool
How is your business implementing social as part of its overall marketing or communications strategy? Leave us a comment.
January 9th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Short is certainly right about the dirty words/phrases of marketing. Sales is certainly one of those indignations. However, allot of discretion, by the marketer, is necessary when choosing to describe their actions as sales tactics, especially around scientist. I’ve made the mistake of using the cliche-terms-of-marketing with my scientist friends (I periodically edit per-reviewed articles for post-doctorates in biology). It can cause an uproar. These responses, I theorize, are because biologist, specifically, want genuine, normal relationships with people they do business with. Ask most scientist why they are in science. You will usually a similar response to this, “for the science.”
January 9th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Great video interview, Ryan! I’ve also blogged about Rick Short’s pioneering social media work at Indium. He really is an inspiration — especially to other B2B companies that may still be reluctant to engage in social media. Love how Rick simplifies the point of social media tools — “I take content and turn it into contact.” Amen.
http://sarahsturtevant.com/wordpress/search-engine-optimization/indium-corp-proves-the-value-of-birthing-a-corporate-blog/
Twitter: @sarahsturtevant
January 9th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Sarah,
Thanks for you comment and for checking out the videos. I’ll certainly check out your post as well. Do you know him from the industry or through the online space? I agree with your point about Rick being able to simplify things and make them digestible when it comes to Social Media and its role at Indium. He really is a great asset to have in our area. Thanks for stopping by the blog!
January 9th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Kevin,
Great comment and I agree with your point about the biologists. I think that really applies to all different types of customers and businesses. We’re constantly in search of and strive for genuine interactions with people. We don’t always want to be marketed to. And that’s one of the big advantages of social media I think – it’s a medium that is still very much about personal interactions and hasn’t been flooded by traditional marketing. But, companies that allow their employees, scientists, and staff to interact online with customers & others in the industry WILL have an impact on the bottom line over time.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
January 9th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
@Kevin: I agree with you regarding technologist’s feelings toward their work. In fact several groups feel this way. I’ve experienced it many times myself. Ars gratia artis! Right?
Interestingly, when I ask these people about the source of the funding for their passions (in the B2B arena) it all comes back to SALES. As they say in the Chinese laundry, “No tickee, no shirtee”. No money, no R&D funding. Don’t forget, even government funding IS corporate sales, after taxes.
When technologists get adamant about working, “for the science”, watch the “uproar” that occurs when sales stop and the funding dries up. You know, the uproar that occurs on the unemployment line.
This whole discussion proves my point. People don’t like saying that a (the) prime enabler (not necessarily the prime motivator … and THAT just might be the key to this whole discussion) is SALES … money. But it is.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
One of my favorite points of view: “Meaningless statistics went up 2% last month.” Meaning: there are barrels full of talk about what our marketing and communications should produce. Leads, visits, clicks, calls, awards, conversions, dollars, euros, etc. All nice…but not always the point.
Rick’s statistics are meaningful because he has identified the metric that matters most…contact. Not single, individual contacts, but contact. I interpret this as a connection…a dialog…a conversation that endures for some period of time. And, ultimately yields a business opportunity. Fundamentally, it’s conversations that I think are important. The conversations that can be had over a website, email, blog, print ad, tweet (short as that is). A few years ago, in a board meeting, I said that we were all in the business of delivering conversations. To paraphrase Ralphie in Christmas Story, they looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. I can say now that they’re believers. Good things take time.
Rick is doing good things and they took time to set in. I applaud Rick. And, to paraphrase again, it took Rick years of doing good things to become an overnight success.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:25 am
John,
Great comments. Rick is someone whom I think has been on the cutting edge of integrating new tech into business – whether it was blogging before that was popular, or recognizing that businesses need to put a premium on contact and relationships. And like both you and Rick have pointed out, it’s about the conversation, not necessarily the tool, and having a presence across platformhttp://romanelli.com/1stdraft/wp-admin/#comments-forms/networks allows you to connect with your user on their terms.
Thanks again for leaving a comment.