Semicon/EDA industry needs to figure out how to use the social media!

Cadence's Rahul Arya and John Bruggeman.

At the fag end of day 1 of CDNLive India 2010, I had the opportunity to interact with John Bruggeman, CMO, Cadence Design Systems and Rahul Arya, director, marketing and technology sales, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt Ltd.

A week ago, I’d written a post: Is social media really helping semicon/VLSI firms? Of course, there was a session organized by EDA Consortium (EDAC), titled: Does Social Media Reach the Engineers You Want or Waste Your Time?

Having earlier had a chat with Karen Bartleson, a panelist at the EDAC event, I thought it best to get  John’s views on some of the issues, since the EDAC panel had representation from Cadence (it wasn’t John) as well!

Lot more needs to be done on social sites
First, it is well known that the adoption of social media is at its infancy in the semicon.VLSI industry. In some other industries, the adoption is much faster. Why has it been this way, so far?

Bruggeman said: “We have an ageing population in our design community, more so than the other technology industries. So, we have been slower in adopting. The pickup on Twiter has been slow.

“We need to do whatever we can do to accelerate. We have heavily invested in bloggers and are also into driving social media. Cadence has two bloggers on staff. The blogs are promising. However, in some of the social media sites, a lot more needs to be done.” That’s quite an honest answer!

Are you building communities?
So, how are semicon/VLSI firms using the social media to build communities? Are you building or attempting to build communities? What is that particular community doing?

He added: “We need to figure out how, as an industry, should we use social media. How do you get a community of users to engage in an open dialog? We haven’t got anywhere near at developing a community. We also have to expand beyond blogging.”

Is the social media really helping reach out to design engineers? Are companies hiring via social media sites?

According to Bruggeman, every recruiter of note is now involved in LinkedIn. “Hirings are happening there. Design engineers are also going there to get hired, and not merely for free exchange of information. This is where engineers can talk to engineers,” he noted. “However, it will be interesting to see whether a commuity can be developed. So far, social media has managed to reach out to design engineers only a little bit.”

Is social media really helping semicon/VLSI firms?

Right then. In my earlier post, I had highlighted 15 queries on how semicon/VLSI firms associate with social media. Already, I have a comment from Hillol Sarkar, CEO, AgO Inc., in California. Thanks a lot, sir. Friends, please keep all those comments coming! There’s no right or wrong answer, folks!

Now, as promised, here’s an honest attempt to answer some of the queries. Also, I am thankful to Karen Bartleson, senior director, Community Marketing, Synopsys, for commenting on some of my questions. Thank you for permitting me to use some of those comments.

By the way, Karen is speaking today evening at an EDA Consortium (EDAC) panel discussion at Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, California aptly titled: Does Social Media Reach the Engineers You Want or Waste Your Time? So, if you are somewhere nearby, do listen to what Karen and other panelists have to say. It should be fun! 😉

Let me also indulge in some shameless promotion for a moment! Hey Karen, please don’t forget to mention me and these posts, in case you see this! 😉

Now, to address those queries! Please bear with me everyone, as this is quite a long post!

How are firms using social media?
First, how are semicon/VLSI firms using the social media to build communities? Are such firms adopting social media strategies? What’s the success rate?

Well, some PR folks do chat up with me regarding social media activities. Sometimes, we discuss strategy. There is also some effort on part of certain companies. So, there has to be some strategy. However, am not quite certain of the success rate.

According to Karen Bartleson, Synopsys (an EDA company) is building communities via blogs. (it has thousands of readers globally) forums such as VMM Central (people can ask and answer questions about verification), LinkedIn (the SNUG group – owned by a user – has more than a thousand members), and the Facebook page (which has hundreds of fans and is growing fast – the emphasis is on people and events, not product announcements), and Twitter. Quite interesting.

Next, is the social media really helping reach out to design engineers?

As per an industry friend, social media offers additional channels to engage with engineers beyond the traditional ones. I’m not quite certain whether firms are using Twitter or Facebook to hire, but LinkedIn presents a strong case. I believe, the success ratio there is good.

15 queries on how semicon/VLSI firms associate with social media!

Practically everyone I know, throws this question at me! In fact, I’ve made a list of questions that I am asked by folks from the semiconductor/electronics industry, and of course by friends and well wishers.

When such questions come my way, I have to take a step back and think — am I a social media expert? The answer — of course not!

I am just a writer, who writes about things that I love — on a platform for writing web logs or ‘blogs’. Sometimes, I may post article links on networking sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, in the hope that people with some interest in what I write, would like to read what I have written! Now, does that make me a social media expert? Nope! Far from it!

Well, on the subject of how semicon/VLSI and electronics firms should associate with the social media — especially, sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on, here are some points that I can think aloud. These are 15 ‘tricky’ questions or statements, not necessary in the order I’ve put down here.

1. How are semicon/VLSI firms using the social media to build communities? Are such firms adopting social media strategies? What’s the success rate?

2. Is the social media really helping reach out to design engineers? Are they hiring via the social media sites? If yes, one would like to know the success rate.

3. How much of web traffic to sites of semicon/VLSI firms is generally referred to by the social media sites? This will be interesting, should someone share an answer!

4.Significantly, only leading brands (in semicon/VLSI) rank high on traffic, while the ‘not-so-well known brands’ don’t have high traffic, nor is there any strong presence (or effort) to boost visibility via social media. Why is it so?

5. Does it indicate that social media managers focus more on ‘boosting’ social media activities for only the large, well known firms? Is it easier to popularize large companies? Is the pay better? Or, can’t the others afford to pay for such services?

6. Building a community seems easier said than done with social media. Well, has it impacted sales for such large firms? I have yet to see a quarterly report state — $2 million sales were generated via leads from Twitter!

7. Corporate blogs — they ‘seem’ to be doing well, as long as those are written by someone currently working in those firms. When the person (s) move — either the blogs are ‘lost’ OR the person’s own blog does not seem to attract much attention. Why so? Again — the issue of brand attachment comes into play. Perhaps, yes!

8. How important is the role of a ‘brand’ in social media? What if the brand is not well known? Will it do well? If not, are enough efforts being made with regard to the branding exercise? Or is it a case of: What’s visible, sells (Jo dikhta hai wo bikta hai)!

My old blog address is back! Am so happy!! :)

Pradeep Chakraborty's Blog

My dear friends, this is a great day for me! Rohit Basa, manager – Business Development (North America), ProcSys, who is currently in the USA, just responded to an email I’d sent out inviting him for Durga Puja celebrations in town!

In his mail, Rohit very kindly informed me that my old blog address — http://pradeepchakraborty.blogspot.com — is again available for fresh registration. His message to me was crystal clear: “Book it before anyone else does and direct a link to your new website. I’m a great fan of yours, your blog and articles.”

Indeed! I was overjoyed when I re-registered the same old blog address, and got it back! I even brought back the same old look!! Well, at least, most of it!!!

The sheer pain of losing my original blog and blog address last August is something extremely difficult for me to get over! The effort I’d put in to develop that blog had been immense, and the loss was really shattering, to say the least! In fact, I even used to constantly check Blogger to find out whether the old blog address was still available.

While the pain has eased a bit on getting back my old blog address, I know very well that I simply cannot bring back the original traffic that it used to have. I moved my old blog to WordPress since that day it was taken off Blogger. The blog’s doing very well on WordPress. Still, the loss of my original Blogspot blog last year has haunted me every single day!

Thanks a ton, Rohit! I am so very touched and will remain forever obliged to you!!

I chose Sagar Desai of Symantec, from the US, a very close friend, as the next one to be informed that I’d got back my old blog address. Sagar stood by me in my darkest hour — when my old blog was injected with malware and later removed by Google in the middle of August, last year.

In fact, Sagar had commented just a while ago, on seeing my Durga Puja invite — “Did not know this cultural side of yours. Good to know that your life is just not semiconductors! ;)”

I’d then asked him whether I’d got typecast. His reply was — “That’s probably more to do with the way you brand yourself. Image set ho gaya hai! You need to break the stereotype.” 🙂

It is so very nice and touching to hear such remarks from a close friend! It shows that he cares, a lot! Perhaps, I am getting typecast as a semicon blogger.

Guess what! The other day, I was at a National Instruments event. A journalist friend and an ex-colleague, actually, found some new names for me. One was ‘Semicon Bong’ — since I’m a Bengali, and the other was ‘Semicon Bomb’! Ok, whatever that last one means.

Well, now I simply can’t wait to inform Usha Prasad, my associate and buddy, that I’ve managed to get back my old blogspot address. Usha stood by me during that time and has steadfastly been by my side since that time. I just can’t wait to see her reaction when she hears this news! She’s fast asleep now.. come morning, and this is the first thing I’m going to tell her!

Finally, many, many thanks to all of those friends who’ve stood by me all this time!

And, a very special thanks again from the bottom of my heart to Rohit! You really made my day, sorry, my year, buddy! 🙂

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Durga Puja and Dusshera!

Pretty ordinary bloggers survey leaves several unanswered questions!

The Bangalore, India, arm of Text 100, a well known PR firm, sent me a presentation this Friday, which is about a global bloggers survey! This survey received inputs from 449 technology, news and lifestyle bloggers across 21 countries.

On receiving it, I wondered why I was never part of this list? This puzzled me a lot since the Text 100 India team is always speaking with me at least once a week for something or the other! Perhaps, I am a blogger from India and not so important! 🙂 Never mind! The folks at Text 100 India will always remain my good friends!

The survey results however, are quite predictable and hardly surprising! There’s nothing new in it and that’s disappointing! For those interested, the results are:

1. Growing influence of bloggers — Corporations are increasingly recognising the influence of bloggers.

As though this point needed any acknowledgement or a survey! TechCrunch, Engadget, etc., don’t need any introduction! There are several other bloggers of repute and their words definitely count!

2. Social media releases — Corporate news releases are out: Social Media Releases will experience far greater usage!

I wonder if the second point is true! Given the mountain of releases I receive, I don’t really know what to make it! To accommodate those, I spun off several other blogs. Bear in mind that PR companies think nothing of this effort! If you talk about charging for hosting releases, they shy away! In fact, I was most amused when a PR firm recently called me up to inquire about my blog’s traffic, saying it needed that figure for ‘internal usage.’ Wonder what that means!!

3. RSS is key — If your company is not making their information available via RSS feeds, you are missing opportunities.

Again, this one seems a bit like — too much, too late! RSS has been around for quite a while now! If people don’t bother to use them suitably, who is to blame? Whether PR folks use RSS at all is something I won’t know.

4. Part-time bloggers: The majority of bloggers are still part-timers — adjust your strategies accordingly!

Quite accurate and already known! Only the very brave give up full-time jobs to blog, with or without any financial or other support!!

5. Cultural differences — Despite being global, there are still cultural differences to be respected.

Even the rest of the findings are ordinary. For instance, computers, technology and the Internet are the subjects most blogged by surveyed bloggers. The preferred content is news and reviews of new products, opinionated comments on their blogs, and interviews with key people. Corporate news announcements are of least interest.

What the survey doesn’t mention!
What the survey hasn’t mentioned or spoken about is how can PR firms help bloggers make some financial gains out of blogging! Nor is there any mention of any such methods that could be adopted by bloggers and PR firms.

The absence of this critical piece of information renders this survey ordinary! If it were a part of the survey, bloggers would have really appreciated the effort. Sadly, it completely misses or overlooks this extremely critical point!

Several bloggers, including yours truly, offer a variety of services, to make some financial gains. Even this aspect is completely missing from the survey!

It would have been good to cover this aspect as it would educate everyone about the kind of services offered by bloggers. In fact, it would inspire more people to take up blogging as a career — another aspect given a complete miss by the survey!

Need to answer basic questions
There are basic questions that need to be answered, such as:
1. Why should anyone choose blogging as a career?
2. How can he or she make money by blogging?
3. What are the services he or she can offer via the blog?
4. What kinds of services are being made available by bloggers?
5. Should bloggers get advertising? What types? To what extent and duration?
6. What would be the advertising charges? Would it be different from print media or the Web portals?
7. How can PR firms work better with bloggers?
8. How can PR firms develop a win-win situation and help bloggers gain financially?
9. Should bloggers charge a fee for queries received from elsewhere?
10. How good or popular are sponsored posts? Are PR firms doing anything to boost this and help bloggers?
11. There are so many blogs (including mine) on Blogger and WordPress. Is it still a blog or a web site — especially when PR firms look for online coverage?
12. Which blogging platform is more preferable?

Am sure there are several bloggers out there with a whole lot of other questions I may have missed!

One other point carried in the survey is a comment from a blogger in Ireland, which says: “Press releases don’t work for bloggers, we are not journalists, we don’t need to copy and paste nonsense we get sent. Plus, the big issue with coverage on a blog is being first. If you are sending the same release to the press, why would I want to blog about it? I am not unique then and am the same as a paper.”

The headline — Don’t bombard bloggers with press releases — could actually work very well in favour of the PR companies IF the PR folks worked out various strategies and ways of helping bloggers. They seriously need strategies, where currently, none seem to exist!

On the other hand, this survey also tells me — perhaps, I should close down all of my other blogs — which I recently started to host all of those press releases that I get bombarded with — a point mentioned by some other well wishers as well!

What do you think friends? Should I? 🙂

My blog's been nominated by Electronics Weekly!

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to receive an email from Electronics Weekly, yesterday evening, informing me that my blog was recently shortlisted/nominated in the 2008 ElectronicsWeekly.com Blog Awards by a reader of ElectronicsWeekly.com!

All of the nominated blogs have apparently been considered by the panel of judges at ElectronicsWeekly.com. The email said, “I am delighted to inform you that you have made the shortlist in the Best Electronics Hardware Blog category.”

The list can be seen on Electronics Weekly’s (www.electronicsweekly.com) website!

Wow! I must add that here that there are such great blogs and bloggers in that list that I went dizzy for a few minutes!

I never expected my blog to reach this kind of appeal or level! Nor do I think I have that kind of traffic, as this blog has more to do with serious stuff, rather than talk about gadgets, etc. In fact, somebody once told me last year that no one would bother about a blog on semicon and electronics, nor would I get any traffic!

Well, all of this has never bothered me. I’m here to blog about what I feel is close to my heart! If folks happen to stop by, I am extremely grateful to all of them!

Irrespective of whether I win this award, it is just the right time to thank all of you, dear readers of my blog! Thanks to all of you for choosing to stop by my blog occasionally! I sincerely hope you find the content interesting and appealing enough.

There’s lots happening in the semiconductor, electronics and telecom industries, and hope that I am able to add my views on all of those in the coming months.

Thanks again, my dear readers. Please keep those suggestions coming. I will try to live up to your expectations. Have a great Halloween, everyone!

Fellow bloggers, add traffic using Widgetbox Blog Network!

I’ve been a user of Widgetbox for quite some time now, and two of my widgets there are doing alright! So, when I came across this story on PR Newswire about the Widgetbox Blog Network, it presented me with yet another opportunity to try and reach out to a wider audience.

Of course, I am well aware that I mostly blog about semiconductors, and that this topic does not have a very large audience, nor does it rank high on popularity! Well, no problem!

Widgetbox, by the way, is said to be the world’s first and largest widget community. It does offer a wide range of excellent widgets, which are essentially, floating pieces of the Internet. You embed the code of the widget (or gadget) on to your site or blog, and that’s it!

Coming back to Widgetbox’s Blog Network, it is said to be a federation of bloggers and online content publishers that fosters connections across the Widgetbox network through 29 vertical channels. The new channels instantly extend reach, drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and expose blogs to new readers.

Since I’ve been a Widgetbox member for some time, all I had to do is sign in, and click on the link adding me to the Blog Network. Users or members can browse the channels in the Widgetbox network and see the latest content from its community of leading bloggers and publishers.

The range of channels is quite extensive. It covers things like Art, Education, Food, Home & Design, Music, Politics, Television, Women, Autos, Family, GLBT, Humor, Parenting, Sports, Travel, Business, Fashion & Style, Green, Men, Pets, Tech Gadgets, Video, Celebrity, Finance & Investing, Health, Movies, Photos, Tech News and Video Games.

My blidget is registered under Tech News, and it also shows up a network blidget on my blog — linking to other blogs displaying tech news — which is good! Being a writer, widgets make my life much more easier. All of these widgets allow me to access all the tech news from all over the world, which I want to see, based on my own preferences.

I cannot really comment whether this new blog network will generate traffic, so I’d like to wait and watch. However, as a writer, it has always been my endeavor to write quality content, largely on semiconductors and telecom — two of my most favorite subjects! I am also aware that semiconductors is not so popular as a traffic, and will only have a limited audience. Writing about semicon and maintaining a semicon blog is not easy, and won’t be easy at any point of time!

However, all of that does not bother me! Even if a handful of friends from the global semiconductor, and telecom, industries like what I write or blog about, the effort is worth it!

To all fellow bloggers, there’s absolutely no harm in trying out the Widgetbox Blog Network, folks. Best of luck, and happy blogging everyone!