Assembly professionals are working harder than ever to make themselves indispensable in the workplace. They're also using social media sites to stay connected with colleagues and friends.
It’s hard to pick up a magazine or turn on a TV these days without seeing or hearing something about social media. Computer-based networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have become extremely popular in the past year.
More than one quarter (26 percent) of 2010 State of the Profession survey respondents claim that they’ve used a social media Web site for business or professional purposes. LinkedIn is the most popular, with 77 percent of assemblers having accessed the site vs. 37 percent for Facebook.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site that is primarily used for professional networking. The site has more than 65 million registered users around the world.
Social media sites are more likely to be used by corporate management than by engineers. For instance, 35 percent of presidents, vice presidents and general managers claim that they have used Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or another site during the last 12 months. Design managers (31 percent) have also used social media to stay connected, followed by manufacturing engineers (25 percent), design engineers (24 percent) and manufacturing management (20 percent).
Facebook has been used by 43 percent of manufacturing engineers and 17 percent of design engineers. The next most popular site for engineers is LinkedIn (38 percent and 19 percent, respectively).
Engineers who work for small manufacturers are more likely to use social media. For instance, 30 percent of respondents at small manufacturers (companies with less than 100 employees) have logged on to LinkedIn during the past 12 months vs. only 9 percent of respondents who work for large manufacturers (companies with more than 1,000 employees).
Social media is most popular with people who work in the energy products industry (50 percent), followed by medical device manufacturers (33 percent) and machinery manufacturers (28 percent). Respondents in the plastic and rubber products industry (16 percent) were less likely to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or another site.
Not surprisingly, age makes a big difference is the use of social media. Assemblers who are in their 20s (35 percent) are more likely to Tweet than their peers in their 60s (13 percent). In addition, 20-year-olds (33 percent) are more likely to communicate via social media on a daily basis than 60-year-olds (6 percent).
Overall, 20 percent of assembly professionals claim they access social media sites on a daily basis. Half of the respondents (50 percent) only check out sites on a monthly basis, while 30 percent say they do it weekly.
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