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)!

SemiconWorld — social networking site for semicon professionals

Friends, I have recently started a small social networking site — SemiconWorld (http://semiconworld.ning.com) — on Ning. SemiconWorld will aim to connect semiconductor and electronics professionals, and facilitate discussions on key business and other industry issues.

Ever since I started this blog, I have made several friends from all over the world! Most of them have gone on to have long discussions with me on semiconductors and electronics. So, when I looked around on the Internet, I found that there weren’t many social networking sites for semiconductor and electronics professionals. Hence, I thought of developing one.

Even as I have been developing this site, some good friends, such as Uma Mahesh Sir, Jo Kuo, Ms Poornima Shenoy of ISA, Sandip Dhawan, Alfred Cheng, Rahul Prabhakar, Ian Shelley, Priyanka Kalia, Kiran Kumar and Tiffany Yeh, have already joined the SemiconWorld network. A very warm thanks to all of you, folks!

It is always good to hear the perspectives and perceptions of others. That’s how I have tried to learn about the various technologies we read about all the time! And, I am still learning! It is my sincere hope and wish that my friends join me and we can have great and very useful discussions on various topics and issues related to these high-tech industries.

Why did I choose Ning for such a site? Well, I happen to be a member of the TelecomYou (www.telecomyou.com) network on Ning — a social networking site for telecom professionals. There, I found members participating in discussions and friendly chats, post blogs about various things, and even look for jobs! I don’t know how to add jobs to this site, but if someone can lead me to a site, which can allow me to post a job widget, I’d be glad to do so.

For those interested in events, Future Horizon’s International Electronics Forum (IEF) 2009, will be held from May 6 to May 8, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. I’ve added a link to event, in case you wish to look that up.

I have also provided several key industry links for those keen on looking up information related to semiconductors, electronics and technologies. I can add a whole lot of stuff on to this page. Maybe, all that will happen over a period of time. Till then, enjoy networking, dear friends! Hope you like SemiconWorld!