Industrial Social Media Marketing Success Stories: Kennametal

What we can learn from Kennametal

Founded in 1938, Kennametal manufactures a broad range of advanced materials and components that deliver superior wear resistance and peak performance in demanding environments.  The industries they sell to are as broad as their product offering, including aerospace, defense, energy, chemical processing, power generation, and mining.

Lead instead of trying to catch up.

They began using social media as a strategic marketing component as recently as early 2010.  At a time when they saw few other companies in their industry involved in social media, they took a leadership role in the hope that it would establish their company as forward thinking and boost their industry's image as well.

Tip: Thought leaders are perceived to be more innovative.  The effective use of social media contributes to that perception.

Get buy-in from internal shareholders early.

Kennametal's first strategy was to raise internal awareness about social media and provide a way for employees to become more comfortable with its use.  This was accomplished through the company wide use of Yammer, an enterprise social network service.  Yammer is similar to Twitter, but while Twitter is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or pre-designated groups (users had to have an @kennametal.com email in order to register).

They implemented the use of Yammer within their Global Marketing Group, then branched out and used it to collaborate with R& D, finance, and all other departments on a global scale.

Yammer was a stepping stone to engaging employees through social media and getting them comfortable enough to communicate with customers, end users, vendors and partners through other social media platforms.  It has proved incredibly successful, and in fact, Kennametal's newest ad campaign is a direct derivative of employee feedback using this tool.

Tip: Educating others in your company about the power of social media creates evangelists for your program.

Study the playing field so you can provide value to your communities.

Kennametal's marketing team began monitoring Twitter over a year ago.  Several months ago they launched "official" Twitter accounts for their Kennametal & WIDIA brands. They currently have over 350 followers on Kennametal and almost 200 on WIDIA. These numbers consist of employees, competitors, interested industry folks, partners, customers, end-users and distributors. They regularly post interesting company and industry-related information, and try to inject some fun and more personal posts as well.

Engagement is building slowly, but they have assisted about five different customers via Twitter. They also located a possible new business opportunity during the IMTS Show by simply posting and using the #IMTS hashtag.

Tip: Social media platforms on mobile Apps are going to be the next big leap.

Even if it seems like you're talking to yourself at times: talk anyway.

Facebook pages for both Kennametal and WIDIA were recently launched. The adoption rate on Facebook has been slower than anticipated. They are experimenting with Facebook advertising to let others know they're out there, but even advertising is providing slow fan base growth.  Their engagement rate on these pages has been slow as well.  There are occasional "likes," but few actual comments.  Kennametal is realistic about the fact that it is going to take time in industry for Facebook to evolve into a consistent, dependable community building tool. The advantage that Facebook offers is the ability to provide more detail in posts, as well as a more contained environment than Twitter.

Tip: Although industrial Facebook pages are slow to take off, remember that by the time your competition gets around to "trying" social media, you'll already have an effective and vibrant community.

Integrate content.

The Kennametal and WIDIA brands have had YouTube channels for almost a year.  They are seeing more traffic and engagement on YouTube than Twitter or Facebook.  The great thing about YouTube video is that it can be easily integrated into Facebook and Twitter accounts.  YouTube is owned by Google, so having content on YouTube is a plus in terms of SEO.

Tip: Video sells and is great for SEO - make friends with the camera.

Use any tool that minimizes your time investment.

Kennametal has streamed all of their social media accounts into an online dashboard called HootSuite.  The dashboard enables you to view all of your accounts from the same screen, send out posts to multiple sites simultaneously, and many other time-saving features.  HootSuite's reporting tools are top notch, and the developers are intimately involved with the large users. They also have great mobile apps, and that helps when you need to respond to a post quickly.

Tip: "Lean" can even be applied to social media marketing.

Listen for ways to help customers and prospects solve problems.

Kennametal  has also designated an employee in their Tech Support Group to monitor different industry forums.  They've debated the idea of starting one of their own, however, there are a number of excellent forums already established, so for now they're content to contribute and let someone else manage.

Through industry forums, they have been able to help customers and/or end-users with challenges that they are having in hopes that they will reach out to Kennametal directly the next time they have an issue.  Kennametal believes that as long as they're "out there" answering questions on forums, the marketplace will see that they are dedicated to customer service and will one day become brand advocates.

Tip: When you provide solutions to the marketplace on a regular basis, you are building brand recognition and awareness that will eventually lead to sales.

Use social media to make your customers' experience with you easier, faster, and more efficient.

Kennametal  just released an iPad App that is an interactive catalog.  It allows their end-users to view  different product-lines and "order" (send an RFQ to our customer service center) directly on-line. The App allows users to chat directly with Kennametal's Customer Application Support Team and view product videos as they browse the catalogs. Future enhancements will include technical calculators and product advisors.

Tip: Younger professionals coming into the industrial workforce want digital solutions in their day-to-day business interactions.  Look for ways to provide them.

Be patient, but establish goals.

Kennametal is realistic about social media and how quickly it will significantly impact their business.  They are in it for the long-haul and committed to its continued use as a way to bring the relationships with their customers and end-users closer than ever before.   Here are some of their goals:

• Their most quantifiable goal is to decrease customer service call center costs.
• They also want to create an image of "approachability" so that customers, end-users, partners, and distributors feel free to come to them with problems, solutions or ideas they'd like to share.
• Building brand recognition and credibility is also a goal. Marketing 101 teaches that if others see you in their space providing value enough times, they will eventually come directly to you when they need something.
• They want to give customers the ability to access them and get the information they need when and where THEY desire.
• They want to improve their organic search rank through the use of integrated keywords across all their social media platforms which will drive more traffic to their website.

Tip: Time and human resources are the highest "cost" but true dollars spent are very minimal. There is no other marketing tactic available today with such a low out of pocket cost and such a potentially high ROI.

Visit Kennametal and WIDIA's website and social media pages:

• Company Website: http://www.kennametal.com
• Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/Kennametal_Inc
• http://www.twitter.com/WIDIAProductGrp
• Social Media Network 2 URL: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KennametalInc
• http://www.facebook.com/WIDIAProductGrp
• Social Media Network 3 URL: http://www.youtube.com/KennametalSolutions
• http://www.youtube.com/WIDIASolutions
• Social Media Network 4 URL: LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1948429