Daniel Nenni

For my Grandfather, refrigeration was the most profound technological advancement of his time.  From buying ice blocks, to putting a glass in your refrigerator door for cube, crushed, or shaved ice was an amazing thing for him. For us baby boomers it has to be the internet, a transparent window into the world. For my children it will be, thumbs down, electronic messaging. The common denominator being: instant gratification and the increased transparency of modern life.

As I mentioned in Social Media….. I get it!, I started with LinkedIn, moved to the blogosphere (Beware of Bloggers), and now I’m working on monetizing Twitter.

Twitter has a nice Wikipedia page, you may want to start there. Most everybody has heard of Twitter, some may even Tweet, but few understand the business potential of instant information gratification and increased business transparency. The Venture Capital Community does of course, they have invested an estimated $60M in exchange for a promised $1.5B in revenue the Twitter business plan projected for 2013.  For the more advanced tweeters check out Mashable and the 140+ Twitter Apps.

Applications in our industry? Lets start with TSMC, the first foundry to embrace Social Media. Initial push with LinkedIn and their TSMC Connect Group, TSMC has made a great first step. Unfortunately the TSMC Twitter channel is managed by a PR firm so no instant gratification or transparency there. TSMC is also experimenting with corporate bloggers but nothing sustainable yet. Still, TSMC is the Social Media leader in their market just the same.

Synopsys, on the other hand, is blazing the social media trail for the semiconductor design enablement market. Starting with corporate blogging, inside and out, Synopsys then jumped directly to Twitter, completely ignoring LinkedIn (MISTAKE!).

Lunch last week with Rich Goldman, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Synopsys, resulted in a spirited Social Media discussion. If you really get Social Media it is very hard to contain your enthusiasm. After a follow-up phone call with Rich here is what you need to know:

It began 1+ year ago when Rich accepted a new title and responsibilities which included Social Media. The starting point was the Synopsys corporate website, the foundation of any social media program, which was completely re engineered focusing on B2B, B2C, and G2G (Geek 2 Geek) communications. Using web analytics and working with one of the top design firms, Synopsys launched a new Corporate website in December 2008. One thing you will notice is that there is a 3 click rule for navigation, 3 minute rule for videos, etc… very customer clever indeed.

Last month Synopsys literally Social Media’d the 46^th Design Automation Conference with a Twitter Tower and 27 sessions hosted by journalists and Social Media enthusiasts, with a focus on the changing media landscape. The Twitter value proposition was clear and present with an estimated: tweet reach of 189,000 people, 125 people tweeted using the #46DAC hashtag, 2,500 actual DAC tweets.

So the next time your CEO whines “We need to get closer to our customers!” or “Why is our old school marketing and PR budget out of control?” you can answer with a clear conscience,  “TWEET TWEET SOCIAL MEDIA YOU IDIOT!!!”