Industrial Social Media Marketing Success Stories: Criterion

What we can learn from Criterion Machine Works

Criterion Machine Works is a small manufacturing company in Costa Mesa, CA. They've been in business for 75 years starting as a job shop serving the movie and then defense industries. They developed a few of their own products during their job shop days and evolved into a product driven manufacturing company.  The past two years have seen the manufacturing sector in America decrease by approximately 50% and they were not exempt from that decline. They slashed their budgets, inventories, and anything else they could to survive the decline.  Of course, one of the first victims of slashing is always advertising.

Criterion's President knew that when you quit advertising you start losing name recognition and "top of mind" positioning.  It also places doubts in your customers' minds about the ability of your company to survive.  He had been watching social media marketing for about a year and was intrigued by the fact that he could put his company name in front of people on a regular basis for little to no cash outlay.

There are plenty of experts to help you get started

Criterion's President didn't feel he had the time or technical savvy to set-up the social media pages and integrate them all, but in June of 2010 he decided he was going to make a commitment to social media marketing.  He hired a consultant to set up all his social media pages and give him some training in how to use the sites most efficiently. The consultant set-up accounts for Criterion on Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, 4Square, Gowalla and DandyID.  He already had a LinkedIn account but was encouraged to use his bio page more creatively and become more active in Groups.

Social media is an efficient sales tool

As he worked through this process, he came to realize that Social Media gave him the ability to make sales "cold calls" on many people at one time. Some of those people heard his message and engaged in conversations with him. Eventually, he was spending 30-60 minutes a day "making calls" on customers and potential customers through his social media pages.

Part of his learning process was coming to the realization that he had to bring value to the conversations he engaged in.  Many industrial companies start their social media journey by continually broadcasting about their products or services.  Most learn quickly that this approach does not build a community of followers.

People do business with people

On Twitter and Facebook, Criterion's President tries to shed some light on what Criterion is doing as a company: new product developments, exhibitions they're attending, community events they support, and enough "personal" posts so that people who read his posts see that there's a real person representing the company.  In doing so, people can actually get to know him a bit and come to like and trust him.  He sees the process as the same one you encounter in a face to face sales relationship.  People don't do business with companies; they do business with people - people they like.  He has quit following Twitter accounts that only tell him what is on sale at their company.  He wants to know who you are, what you do, and why you do it. He rightly assumes he is no different than the people who follow Criterion's pages.

There's real power in video

Criterion has a YouTube channel and has posted 4 videos so far. One of the videos has been viewed close to 200 times in 2 months. When they introduced the product featured in the video 11 years ago, they produced a CD of the product and have distributed less than 100 copies of it in 11 years. They've seen a small increase in sales of the product since it was put on YouTube (appx. 3%.)  The sale of this product was declining prior to the video posting on YouTube.

Trade shows are more successful combined with social media

Criterion recently exhibited at IMTS, the largest Machine Tool Manufacturing show in the United States. There were at least 20 people who came to visit their booth because they wanted to meet the person who was behind the Criterion social media pages. One was a magazine publisher who wants to write an article about some of their products. The article will put the Criterion name in front of 75,000 subscribers to the publication.  Another visitor was the president of a manufacturing association who wants to include some of Criterion's information on their website so their members can use it as reference material.  This places the Criterion name in front of 500 members who will view them as experts and leaders in the industry because they have the endorsement of the association's leadership.  Other contacts made at IMTS as a result of social media are good networking contacts and possible future customers.  The odds of these things happening without the use of social media would be very small.

Blogging gives you worldwide exposure

Criterion's blog has had over 1,000 views in 3 months. The majority of the views have been from the US but they included over 30 from the UK and Canada, 19 from Australia, 14 from the Netherlands and about 10 from Brazil, Japan and Greece.  None of these readers would have seen the Criterion name or heard anything about them if they had not been involved in social media.  Coincidentally, they had visitors from all of these countries except Greece at IMTS inquiring about distribution of Criterion products in their countries.  There's not a definite connection between the international blog readers and the international visitors at IMTS, but Criterion has never seen this kind of international activity at a trade show before.  This certainly leads one to assume that there must be a correlation.

Social media can open up new markets

The Criterion blog was also picked up by another blogger who writes to the Home Hobbyist market. This is a market Criterion never serviced before.  The Home Hobbyist blogger has recommended the Criterion blog to his readers because of the content.  He is helping to establish them as experts with his audience, which he states is 30,000 per month.  Even if it is only one, it is one more than Criterion would have had without this exposure.

When you consider that Criterion just began their social media marketing campaign a little over 7 months ago, I think even those who are most skeptical of social media's significance to industrial companies will have to admit: it has impacted their company in a positive way.  Criterion's President does not recommend that a company give up all other marketing tactics for social media, but feels it definitely deserves a place in an industrial company's overall marketing plan.

• Company Website: http://www.criterionmachineworks.com/
• Company Blog: http://criterionmw.blogspot.com/
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CriterionMW
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Criterion/109105402475775?v=wall
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/1090065?trk=pp_icon
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CriterionMW