Last year, in preparation for MTT-S IMS, I wrote about Twitter (and related apps) starting to be used by RF/microwave companies. At that time, social media had not really caught on in our industry. What a difference a year makes as many companies and individuals are now using social media as one of their conduits for marketing efforts. Numerous companies and individuals now have hundreds or even thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook fans. While the use of social media in our industry is still not widespread, more and more companies are getting involved on a daily basis.
Twitter continues to be a powerful and popular social media tool. As you plan and execute your marketing programs for IMS 2012, don’t forget to use the hashtag #IMS2012 in your Tweets. Spread the word about activities that you are planning, events you are attending, talks you are giving and keep everyone abreast of the best places to visit while in Montréal. Microwave Journal will be displaying a Twitter feed on our Online Show Daily microsite that is the official landing page of the Cyber Café at IMS 2012. Follow us and others involved in the show so you can keep up to date in real-time about what is going on at the conference and exhibition.
A couple of creative social media supporters are teaming up this year to run the Passport to IMS 2012 Montréal program. Every participant will receive a passport with 12 exhibitors listed on it and will visit the booths to get their passport stamped. After the passport is completed, participants can turn them in to the
Microwave Journal booth #2018 to be entered into several prize drawings. The unique part of the program is that it integrates the use of social media by having participants post photos on Facebook and Tweet about products and giveaways at the booths (visit www.landingportal.com/IMSpassport for more details).
Turning to new trends on the social media scene, Pinterest has been growing rapidly in popularity even though it has been around for a few years. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board site where people can put together boards of their favorite photos that link back to the web pages where they appear. Businesses are just starting to find uses for Pinterest, kind of in the state where Twitter was a few years ago. Consumers first jump in and as the user base grows, businesses start to find ways in which they can generate traffic to their content.
Microwave Journal is one of the first in this industry to use Pinterest and will be creating boards using products from our IMS 2012 Product Showcase (existing boards can be viewed at www.pinterest.com/pathindle). For IMS 2012, we will develop Pinterest boards by product category (Software/EDA, Test/Measurements, Components, etc.) using pictures of products that will be featured at the exhibition. The pictures will link to descriptions of what the company is featuring at the show including the specific product “pinned” on the board. These will be available on our Online Show Daily microsite.
Over the past year, the biggest rise in popularity for a social media site that we have seen has been on LinkedIn. As an example, Microwave Journal started the RF and Microwave Community group a few years ago with some limited success over the first couple of years. Now the group has close to 12,000 members and is still growing. There are daily posts for various discussion topics, technical questions, promotional items and of course, an active job opportunity section. Microwave Journal strives to be at the forefront of social media marketing and will continue to innovate in this area as we do in print, online and at events as a full service media partner.
When creating or growing your social media presence, remember that social media is just one component of an integrated marketing plan that should utilize many channels in order to promote a brand or product.