October 3, 2024 • 23 mins
If you know us ladies, you know we love to network, both in-person and online, especially through social media. Join us, as we delve into the wonders and the transformations of social media with Susan Wilson from Inductive Automation.
Sparked by her husband's career as a toolmaker machinist, hear how Susan discovered a passion for digital strategy, taking on a unique role that focuses exclusively on social media in a traditionally broad marketing field.
We also take a nostalgic trip back with Susan to the early days of social media, revisiting platforms like MySpace, and explore how social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube are assisting to drive successful business results in the industrial automation industry!
Huge thank you to Inductive Automation for sponsoring this episode!
__________________________________________________________________
Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.
Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!
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Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to another episode of Automation Ladies.
Today our guest is Susan Wilson.
We are pre-recording thisepisode.
I'm actually at a co-workingspace in San Francisco taking a
little break from my week-longquote beam offsite meeting with
the whole team here.
We do that about once a yearand I coincidentally forgot that
I'm in Pacific time and showedup late to my own recording.
(00:25):
So thank you Susan, thank youAllie, for your patience with me
and we'll make this a short andsweet episode today.
But we've been wanting to, youknow, catch up with Susan since
we met her in person at ICC inFolsom last year and I again,
you know, just with my kind ofquick thinking, was thinking
that she's also here on the WestCoast.
But inductive automation, likemany companies nowadays, have
(00:46):
the opportunity for remote work.
So Susan is back on the EastCoast and we get to get here
together, have a littleconversation, catch up, see
what's new and hear Susan'sstory.
She does not come from thisindustry originally, if I
remember correctly, and I wasreally interested in hearing her
backstory and how she came tobe in.
You know, remember correctly,and I was really interested in
hearing her backstory and howshe came to be in, you know,
(01:09):
marketing and social media andindustrial automation, and
that's why we invited her on theshow.
And you know we have a backlog.
We're booked out a couple ofmonths, which is a wonderful
problem to have, but it alsomakes some of these
conversations like I feel likeI've been waiting forever to
have them.
So thank you so much forjoining us, susan.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'm good, how are you ?
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Susan, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Apparently, my internet islagging a lot, so other than
that, I'm fabulous.
I'm actually having a reallygreat time here with my team
that I hardly ever get to workwith in person, so Allie's with
us as well.
Allie, do you want to say hi,what's up?
What's going on with you thisweek?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hi everybody, it's raining in Seattle, which is to
be expected.
Hi everybody, it's raining inSeattle, which is to be expected
.
But yeah, we're all in the sametime zone, which is strange.
Well, you said, you and I are,but Susan's not.
Well, courtney is.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I don't know where Courtney went, but yeah, oh yeah
, automation ladies are all inthe same time zone, which is not
common at all, so Susan, you'renot in Sacramento, no.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I'm actually fully remote from the Buffalo, new
York area actually, oh cool,yeah, like the furthest time
zone possible in the US Awayfrom this one.
Okay, actually, no, hawaii'sfar, maybe just as far right,
like Pacific.
It's like three hoursdifference for Hawaii and then
(02:24):
another three hours for EastCoast.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So let's get into this.
Susan, since we don't have alot of time, I will try not to
spend your episode on ourhousekeeping stuff.
Can you tell us?
I guess our standard firstquestion is tell us your story.
How the heck did you get to bedoing what you're doing and how
did you get to be the one to youknow?
Bring us to ICC last year?
I really want to hear this.
How did you find out?
Did you even know aboutindustrial automation before you
(02:49):
came?
And with that I'll let you talkand tell us who you are, where
you came from.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Sure.
So I actually have a degree ingraphic design.
That's what I actually went toschool for, because back in the
yesteryear, when I went tocollege, social media wasn't a
job at that point.
Like it just straight up didn'texist.
It wasn't until after Igraduated that you could even
make a Facebook business pageLike that's how long ago that
(03:14):
was.
So I did do graphic design forseveral years and then pretty
much everywhere that I workedkind of youngest person at the
company ends up doing the socialmedia everywhere you go.
So almost every job they wouldask me to usually take over
their Facebook.
But then I actually worked fornonprofits for a little while
(03:36):
and they had occasionally anInstagram or a YouTube.
So I got to kind of branch out,try a little bit of everything
some LinkedIn stuff like that.
So it just sort of became moreand more of my job as time went
on and then I finally decidedthat I wanted to try something
really different and my husbandis a toolmaker machinist so he
(04:00):
doesn't do any automation work,but it's still kind of in that
same sort of realm and so I wasthinking you know, maybe that's
where I want to look forsomething.
So I actually was just browsingLinkedIn jobs and inductive
automation was one of the onesthat came up and they gave me a
chance and it seems like it'sworking out.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So were they hiring specifically for a social media
manager, or what was theposition?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, social media communication specialist
specifically, but yeah,basically a social media manager
.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Because our industry has a tendency oftentimes to
lump marketing roles togetherthat maybe in other industries
would be separate domains, likemultiple people.
So I'm curious how much theyrolled into that title versus
understanding that there's avalue in just what you know, not
just, but like in the socialmedia marketing space, to have
(04:51):
that be a standalone competency.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, so funny enough those nonprofit jobs I had.
I was the marketing catch-alllady, like I did literally
everything in marketing that youcould think of, so that was
something else.
When I applied to the job at IA, I was like there's no way that
this job description really istrue, that it's like just social
media.
And it is Surprise it actuallyis.
(05:14):
That is specifically my job isjust social media.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
That's fascinating.
And how did you find?
Or I guess, coming into theindustrial automation industry
I'm sure there was plenty foryou to learn.
Like I know, when I worked withone of my previous companies,
when I was in sales, there wasone of the marketing people in
Germany that handled socialmedia.
But she told me that shestruggled because she didn't
really know the business, shedidn't really know the
(05:41):
applications.
You know she knew what dayssocial media trends were
happening, but how to tie thatto the product, the applications
, that sort of thing was astruggle.
How did you find the process ofkind of learning what the
information is, what theindustry does, what content to
put out there?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, so there was definitely a learning curve
because I didn't know any ofthat.
But thankfully, I actually workreally closely with the
marketing team and with a lot ofour writers, so there's tons of
instances where I will send amessage and say I have no idea
what I'm talking about, but Iknow I want to post this and so
they'll help me write somethingand we can, you know, tailor it
(06:18):
per platform with hashtags orwithout things like that.
But I can even reach out topeople like Travis and ask you
know, can you explain this to mein two or three sentences?
I don't know what this means orwhat this is supposed to entail
, and everybody's really helpful.
So I am definitely learning alot Like I watch a lot of our
videos, I seek things out onYouTube, but we are all really
(06:42):
good at helping each other sothat we're all effectively
communicating, which is anotherblessing that I haven't always
had at every job.
So it's really nice to be ableto just say I need you to tell
me what a PLC is today, becauseI don't know, and then, going
forward, you kind of understandmore of what you're missing.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
IA is notorious for not notorious because that's
like a negative connotation butthey are amazing at training and
Inductive university is worldrenowned and people from
everywhere have used that.
So I can't imagine that theydon't have like a really solid
way of explaining internallywhat's going on when they can so
brilliantly explain in layman'sterms, like how SCADA works and
(07:26):
how to connect all this stufftogether and how to use the
different you know ignition andother platforms that inductive
automation produces.
So I'm sure it's been fun.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, and I actually I did complete
inductive university.
I'm still working.
That's awesome.
To kind of take it a stepfurther, they did actually let
me sign up for the corecertification training and shout
out to our trainer, bobby Iwent through the whole week of
that and I actually passed.
(07:57):
I am actually core certified.
That's amazing.
Yeah, hell, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I will say um, for people you can do moonlighting
like screens and like all kindsof stuff on the side.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
No, no, I'm not quite that good, but I will say that
who used to make their ownMySpace pages where you had your
own HTML and stuff?
Yeah, I thought perspective wasa million here with that little
bit of web background likevision still stumps me, but
perspective, I have a prettygood grasp of that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Awesome me.
But perspective, I have apretty good grasp of that.
Awesome, that's so cool.
What music did you have on yourMySpace page?
Somebody actually reminded meof this.
I didn't remember at all.
I was at my house and they werelike oh, I always think of this
song, I always think of youwhen I hear this song.
Because it was playing on yourMySpace page and I was like that
was so long.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh my gosh, I couldn't tell you exactly what
it was but it's crazy Like whatfirst impressions people
remember about you.
Yeah, I can't remember exactlywhat it was, but I'm sure it was
probably some sort of emo song,my chemical romance, something
like that.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Okay, yeah, what years was that?
That was like 2002 or three, solike when was Facebook?
So like 2005 and then it died.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No, not you're close.
Yeah, myspace died around 2005,right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I had a MySpace until 2007, but it was starting to
trail off at that point.
That was like a year or twointo when you could sign up for
Facebook.
So I had Facebook, I think atthe start of 2007,.
I think that's when they firstopened it to all my colleges.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You had to have a dot edu email to sign up but you
have to be on one of the collegenetworks that was like
officially active on Facebookand I remember that when I got
my college email it was likethat was a rite of passage, Like
you now got to get a Facebookpage and you got to university
like network, and I started myfirst Facebook group.
(10:00):
It was a music fan group for aband called Bell and Sebastian
that I still love, but yeah, Iguess MySpace pivoted to like
pretty much.
It still exists.
I looked it up like not thatlong ago but it seems to be more
of a display or like a thingfor bands right to showcase
their music and yeah.
I guess it was also fairly liketied into the music scene.
(10:23):
That's how I met my husband.
Actually, I'm gonna tell alittle story.
This is not about me, but wemet at a show and then we
connected on MySpace, and thenwe connected on myspace and then
we met on another show and likeat another show and that's I
literally have to credit part ofmy marriage to myspace very
much a product, oh my god we areusing it, though, now as like a
(10:44):
way to almost self-segregatethe generations, because, like
what the hell is snapchat?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
like what I'm not ever going to get that?
And then I think, as we keepgoing, there's going to be more
apps and just some different waythat just like, right now,
minecraft.
Like what minecraft is now away that kids communicate with
each other, and so everygeneration just keeps getting
another way, because they don'twant to talk on the same
(11:11):
channels as us.
They're like, oh, and we knowyou're listening on those
channels, yeah, so we wantaccounts where you don't have
accounts, and so we just keepseparating ourselves, and now
only millennials and older haveFacebook.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, facebook is where I communicate with my
grandma and like.
See kid pictures of my littlelike and Gen Z's like ew, susan,
so you live in this world.
What social media channels arerelevant for the industrial
automation industry and whattypes of you know audiences are
you talking to on thesedifferent channels?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So obviously, like for IA, linkedin, so for us
LinkedIn is obviously ourbiggest platform.
Like that's where the majorityof our audience is, that's where
most of our interactions areand a lot of the people that
follow us there.
I only have so much demographicinfo that the platform provides
, but I think a healthy guess isprobably that it's mostly
(12:06):
integrators and a decent amountof our end users.
But then we have, you know,facebook and Instagram as well,
and it's kind of a mixedaudience on Facebook, but
Instagram is a lot of ouremployees, like there's still
integrators and other folks onthere too, but that's more of a
recruitment type tool for us andjust sort of externalizing what
(12:27):
we do, kind of thing.
And then YouTube for us is justlike really educational.
That's where we put basicallyall the videos that we make, but
a lot of them are educationalin nature.
And then I will always call itTwitter.
I cannot call it X, but we havethat and that's also a lot of
integrators and a lot of peoplewho are just sort of in the
(12:50):
automation space in general.
That I can't quite gaugeexactly what their role is in
relation to us, but you candefinitely tell from their
profiles that it's somethingautomation related or they're
trying to get into it.
Yeah yeah, we actually have afair number of college students
across everything too.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
It's interesting that you mentioned, you know, a
recruitment tool, right?
So not all social media isgoing to target the same
audiences, but it's also notgoing to be targeted with the
same side of your business.
Let's say, and recruitingreally is, recruiting is selling
your company to talent.
So recruit your internal orexternal recruiters, or however
(13:28):
HR you you know, grow your teamand attract talent needs
marketing resources as welluh-oh and she's gone.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Um, at least we're still here and it's still
recording.
Kind of to the point where yousaid that, like you use
instagram more for recruiting,is there like other pockets left
where you see benefit in justusing it for just one
application?
Um, because, like, yeah, we'renot using social media for the
same thing across the board,right, so you're doing some
(14:00):
recruiting in some spaces,you're just connecting your own
people together, doing community, versus like trying to bring in
new people or just attract evennew people to know what your
product even is.
There's just like variousapplications that are being used
or done on social media.
So, I guess, is there anythingyou can share?
(14:22):
Or is that like IP secret sauce?
Cause, like that that couldalso be secret sauce.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It's not secret sauce , it's from my brain, so it's
fine.
Um, so really it was just kindof figuring out who was on each
platform and there's still goingto be a lot of crossover.
There's days that you'lldefinitely see me post the same
thing everywhere, but I mightword it differently or it might
just be suitable for allaudiences.
But then there's also thingsthat we do keep kind of
(14:48):
exclusive to certain platforms.
Like we have weekly employeehighlights, where each week it's
a completely different randomperson in the company and those
are just on Facebook andInstagram.
You don't see those on ourLinkedIn.
We keep that exclusive so that,a you're the reason to follow
us on Instagram and, b it justfits that audience a little bit
(15:09):
better.
But we do still highlightemployees, like promotions and
things like that we put onLinkedIn.
So it's just kind of figuringout what sort of speaks to the
audience the best, and sometimesthat's all the platforms and
sometimes it's not.
What about TikTok work and thealgorithm?
(15:36):
As far as I know and I assumeit's still the same because I do
my homework like once a monthon it it wants you to have such
a regular upload schedule thatyou really almost need a person
who's specifically dedicated toshort form video, and obviously
that's a little hard when I'mnot in the office physically
Sure.
(15:57):
So even in general, it's kind ofwhat is your goal on that
platform.
So if it's TikTok is forcollege kids and that's
educational content, then reallyyou should be making all of
your videos to talk to thataudience.
So then it's even more nichethan you know, for example, what
we put on YouTube.
So it's one of those.
(16:18):
We haven't completely writtenoff TikTok but to really do it
correctly, it's just notsomething we're doing right now
because we don't want toshortchange anybody and, you
know, put out something subparor have a really inconsistent
schedule on it.
So you know, if anyone'slooking for short form content,
(16:38):
stick to our YouTube.
That's a good answer.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hi, nikki, hi again.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I'm going to stay out the conversation from now on.
Allie, if you don't mind, justtry to finish it off, because
I'm afraid that this is going todrop off again.
At least you guys.
I wasn't sure if the studioshut down or not while I wasn't
here, so before industrialautomation.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
You know how did you get to graphic design?
How did you pick that?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So my high school actually had vocational options
and graphic design andtraditional print on a big
printing press was actually oneof those options and I really
loved the graphic design and Ireally hated the printing
presses.
So when I was looking for acollege major, I was like, well,
(17:22):
I know what I don't want to do.
But yeah, graphic design issuch an easy option to find at
so many colleges anduniversities that it was pretty
easy to find a program to getinto.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So that's what I went with.
So I've always not liked doingthe screens because, like I've
done PLC programming and thescreens and the SCADA, and then
SCADA has screens and historianand like to me there's just so
much to be taken for granted bythe engineer types when they
make these graphic interfaces.
Can someone with graphic designand just graphic, you know,
(17:59):
user interface design, the senseof like that something looks
annoying, um, or like you knowthings are out of order or just
don't flow good, like that'staken for granted and do you
think that that helps you inwhat you do now?
Uh, just even basicallyunderstand, like what's going on
, uh, in, in a lot of cases,especially because that's hugely
(18:20):
what I guess I guess it's.
Is it just a coincidence that,like your graphic designer who
ended up doing the social mediafor inductive automation, which
made ignition, which is like oneof the most famous ways to
create graphic interfaces, userinterfaces, long winded question
I think I got it though.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So I guess you could say that the graphic design
actually really helps meextensively with my job, because
obviously not only am I workingwith marketing to make our
social media graphics, but, likeyou said, there's a lot of
screens and people send usscreens, people tag us in their
posts and stuff, and it iseasier for me at a glance
initially to A understand what'sgoing on but B generally
(19:05):
speaking obviously I'm not afull expert on it but generally
speaking, understand if it lookslike a really functional
project and if it's somethingthat we want to reshare to our
other social medias and thingslike that.
Because I think, honestly, oneof the easiest ways that people
can get really good at basicgraphic design is to look up and
(19:26):
I believe it's called the ISA95 standards, but it's the
things like hierarchy,typography, color and making
sure that they're reallyaccessible and universal for
people.
Because maybe you love acertain set of colors pink and
purple, for example but ifsomebody is colorblind and they
struggle with those colors, thenyou need to make sure there's
(19:47):
enough contrast or you need tomake sure there's other aspects
of the display that are going torelay that information, or you
maybe just need to change yourcolors.
So I think that's definitelylike part of my background,
makes that pretty natural for me.
But I think that's somethingthat somebody who's newer to it
or struggling with it that's areally key starting point Like
(20:10):
even starting designingsomething in pure black and
white and shades of gray willtell you if it's a good layout,
if it's a good hierarchy, ifsomebody could at a glance
determine what they're lookingat and what needs to be done or
taken care of.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Great.
I guess some of our closingquestions are like how can
people contact you?
And like, if they want to, youknow, ask you about you know you
, or inductive automation, andor I don't know if you guys are
hiring more people in marketing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, so I'm easy enough to find on LinkedIn and
I'm very participatory on there,so that's honestly a really
good way to find me.
It's just Susan Wilson, nothingcomplicated.
I also post a lot and tag IA,so you'll probably see me pop up
in your feed if you follow IA.
And then I believe right now weare hiring for a couple of
(21:02):
positions.
I don't think we're hiringanybody in marketing right now,
but honestly, follow our careerpage and follow our LinkedIn
because our HR team is on itwhen they are posting jobs.
So there's a lot of times a jobwill go up and fill so fast you
might never know it was thereif you're not keeping track.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And when is the next ICC?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
The next.
Oh my gosh, I should know thisoff the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
So we can, we can, we can post it afterwards and
figure it out.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Sure, I think it's September 17th to 19th.
I might be a day or two off,but it is definitely during that
week, if I am wrong.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And it's always in Sacramento, or does it move
around?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
This year it's going to be in Folsom again, the
Harris Center, same place as itwas.
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yep, cool.
Are they going to have a bandagain?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I actually don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Or is that secret?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I mean, I can tell you it's tradition at this point
for the department of funk torecord a music video, and I
cannot 100 promise because I'mnot part of that planning, but I
would say the odds are very,very good.
That's probably going to be athing again and if it's not,
they're pretty good.
If it's not a thing, then we'lljust uh link to all of their
(22:20):
previous recordings and you'lljust have to forgive me on that
one okay, well, fingers crossed,but okay thank you, susan, and
I'm sorry we had some technicaldifficulties.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
We appreciate your patience not a problem.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Thank you guys.
Bye, have a great day.
Welcome to another episode of Automation Ladies.
Today our guest is Susan Wilson.
We are pre-recording thisepisode.
I'm actually at a co-workingspace in San Francisco taking a
little break from my week-longquote beam offsite meeting with
the whole team here.
We do that about once a yearand I coincidentally forgot that
I'm in Pacific time and showedup late to my own recording.
(00:25):
So thank you Susan, thank youAllie, for your patience with me
and we'll make this a short andsweet episode today.
But we've been wanting to, youknow, catch up with Susan since
we met her in person at ICC inFolsom last year and I again,
you know, just with my kind ofquick thinking, was thinking
that she's also here on the WestCoast.
But inductive automation, likemany companies nowadays, have
(00:46):
the opportunity for remote work.
So Susan is back on the EastCoast and we get to get here
together, have a littleconversation, catch up, see
what's new and hear Susan'sstory.
She does not come from thisindustry originally, if I
remember correctly, and I wasreally interested in hearing her
backstory and how she came tobe in.
You know, remember correctly,and I was really interested in
hearing her backstory and howshe came to be in, you know,
(01:09):
marketing and social media andindustrial automation, and
that's why we invited her on theshow.
And you know we have a backlog.
We're booked out a couple ofmonths, which is a wonderful
problem to have, but it alsomakes some of these
conversations like I feel likeI've been waiting forever to
have them.
So thank you so much forjoining us, susan.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'm good, how are you ?
So thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Susan, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Apparently, my internet islagging a lot, so other than
that, I'm fabulous.
I'm actually having a reallygreat time here with my team
that I hardly ever get to workwith in person, so Allie's with
us as well.
Allie, do you want to say hi,what's up?
What's going on with you thisweek?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Hi everybody, it's raining in Seattle, which is to
be expected.
Hi everybody, it's raining inSeattle, which is to be expected
.
But yeah, we're all in the sametime zone, which is strange.
Well, you said, you and I are,but Susan's not.
Well, courtney is.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I don't know where Courtney went, but yeah, oh yeah
, automation ladies are all inthe same time zone, which is not
common at all, so Susan, you'renot in Sacramento, no.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I'm actually fully remote from the Buffalo, new
York area actually, oh cool,yeah, like the furthest time
zone possible in the US Awayfrom this one.
Okay, actually, no, hawaii'sfar, maybe just as far right,
like Pacific.
It's like three hoursdifference for Hawaii and then
(02:24):
another three hours for EastCoast.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So let's get into this.
Susan, since we don't have alot of time, I will try not to
spend your episode on ourhousekeeping stuff.
Can you tell us?
I guess our standard firstquestion is tell us your story.
How the heck did you get to bedoing what you're doing and how
did you get to be the one to youknow?
Bring us to ICC last year?
I really want to hear this.
How did you find out?
Did you even know aboutindustrial automation before you
(02:49):
came?
And with that I'll let you talkand tell us who you are, where
you came from.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Sure.
So I actually have a degree ingraphic design.
That's what I actually went toschool for, because back in the
yesteryear, when I went tocollege, social media wasn't a
job at that point.
Like it just straight up didn'texist.
It wasn't until after Igraduated that you could even
make a Facebook business pageLike that's how long ago that
(03:14):
was.
So I did do graphic design forseveral years and then pretty
much everywhere that I workedkind of youngest person at the
company ends up doing the socialmedia everywhere you go.
So almost every job they wouldask me to usually take over
their Facebook.
But then I actually worked fornonprofits for a little while
(03:36):
and they had occasionally anInstagram or a YouTube.
So I got to kind of branch out,try a little bit of everything
some LinkedIn stuff like that.
So it just sort of became moreand more of my job as time went
on and then I finally decidedthat I wanted to try something
really different and my husbandis a toolmaker machinist so he
(04:00):
doesn't do any automation work,but it's still kind of in that
same sort of realm and so I wasthinking you know, maybe that's
where I want to look forsomething.
So I actually was just browsingLinkedIn jobs and inductive
automation was one of the onesthat came up and they gave me a
chance and it seems like it'sworking out.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So were they hiring specifically for a social media
manager, or what was theposition?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, social media communication specialist
specifically, but yeah,basically a social media manager
.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Because our industry has a tendency oftentimes to
lump marketing roles togetherthat maybe in other industries
would be separate domains, likemultiple people.
So I'm curious how much theyrolled into that title versus
understanding that there's avalue in just what you know, not
just, but like in the socialmedia marketing space, to have
(04:51):
that be a standalone competency.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, so funny enough those nonprofit jobs I had.
I was the marketing catch-alllady, like I did literally
everything in marketing that youcould think of, so that was
something else.
When I applied to the job at IA, I was like there's no way that
this job description really istrue, that it's like just social
media.
And it is Surprise it actuallyis.
(05:14):
That is specifically my job isjust social media.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
That's fascinating.
And how did you find?
Or I guess, coming into theindustrial automation industry
I'm sure there was plenty foryou to learn.
Like I know, when I worked withone of my previous companies,
when I was in sales, there wasone of the marketing people in
Germany that handled socialmedia.
But she told me that shestruggled because she didn't
really know the business, shedidn't really know the
(05:41):
applications.
You know she knew what dayssocial media trends were
happening, but how to tie thatto the product, the applications
, that sort of thing was astruggle.
How did you find the process ofkind of learning what the
information is, what theindustry does, what content to
put out there?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, so there was definitely a learning curve
because I didn't know any ofthat.
But thankfully, I actually workreally closely with the
marketing team and with a lot ofour writers, so there's tons of
instances where I will send amessage and say I have no idea
what I'm talking about, but Iknow I want to post this and so
they'll help me write somethingand we can, you know, tailor it
(06:18):
per platform with hashtags orwithout things like that.
But I can even reach out topeople like Travis and ask you
know, can you explain this to mein two or three sentences?
I don't know what this means orwhat this is supposed to entail
, and everybody's really helpful.
So I am definitely learning alot Like I watch a lot of our
videos, I seek things out onYouTube, but we are all really
(06:42):
good at helping each other sothat we're all effectively
communicating, which is anotherblessing that I haven't always
had at every job.
So it's really nice to be ableto just say I need you to tell
me what a PLC is today, becauseI don't know, and then, going
forward, you kind of understandmore of what you're missing.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
IA is notorious for not notorious because that's
like a negative connotation butthey are amazing at training and
Inductive university is worldrenowned and people from
everywhere have used that.
So I can't imagine that theydon't have like a really solid
way of explaining internallywhat's going on when they can so
brilliantly explain in layman'sterms, like how SCADA works and
(07:26):
how to connect all this stufftogether and how to use the
different you know ignition andother platforms that inductive
automation produces.
So I'm sure it's been fun.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, and I actually I did complete
inductive university.
I'm still working.
That's awesome.
To kind of take it a stepfurther, they did actually let
me sign up for the corecertification training and shout
out to our trainer, bobby Iwent through the whole week of
that and I actually passed.
(07:57):
I am actually core certified.
That's amazing.
Yeah, hell, yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I will say um, for people you can do moonlighting
like screens and like all kindsof stuff on the side.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
No, no, I'm not quite that good, but I will say that
who used to make their ownMySpace pages where you had your
own HTML and stuff?
Yeah, I thought perspective wasa million here with that little
bit of web background likevision still stumps me, but
perspective, I have a prettygood grasp of that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Awesome me.
But perspective, I have apretty good grasp of that.
Awesome, that's so cool.
What music did you have on yourMySpace page?
Somebody actually reminded meof this.
I didn't remember at all.
I was at my house and they werelike oh, I always think of this
song, I always think of youwhen I hear this song.
Because it was playing on yourMySpace page and I was like that
was so long.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh my gosh, I couldn't tell you exactly what
it was but it's crazy Like whatfirst impressions people
remember about you.
Yeah, I can't remember exactlywhat it was, but I'm sure it was
probably some sort of emo song,my chemical romance, something
like that.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Okay, yeah, what years was that?
That was like 2002 or three, solike when was Facebook?
So like 2005 and then it died.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No, not you're close.
Yeah, myspace died around 2005,right.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I had a MySpace until 2007, but it was starting to
trail off at that point.
That was like a year or twointo when you could sign up for
Facebook.
So I had Facebook, I think atthe start of 2007,.
I think that's when they firstopened it to all my colleges.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You had to have a dot edu email to sign up but you
have to be on one of the collegenetworks that was like
officially active on Facebookand I remember that when I got
my college email it was likethat was a rite of passage, Like
you now got to get a Facebookpage and you got to university
like network, and I started myfirst Facebook group.
(10:00):
It was a music fan group for aband called Bell and Sebastian
that I still love, but yeah, Iguess MySpace pivoted to like
pretty much.
It still exists.
I looked it up like not thatlong ago but it seems to be more
of a display or like a thingfor bands right to showcase
their music and yeah.
I guess it was also fairly liketied into the music scene.
(10:23):
That's how I met my husband.
Actually, I'm gonna tell alittle story.
This is not about me, but wemet at a show and then we
connected on MySpace, and thenwe connected on myspace and then
we met on another show and likeat another show and that's I
literally have to credit part ofmy marriage to myspace very
much a product, oh my god we areusing it, though, now as like a
(10:44):
way to almost self-segregatethe generations, because, like
what the hell is snapchat?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
like what I'm not ever going to get that?
And then I think, as we keepgoing, there's going to be more
apps and just some different waythat just like, right now,
minecraft.
Like what minecraft is now away that kids communicate with
each other, and so everygeneration just keeps getting
another way, because they don'twant to talk on the same
(11:11):
channels as us.
They're like, oh, and we knowyou're listening on those
channels, yeah, so we wantaccounts where you don't have
accounts, and so we just keepseparating ourselves, and now
only millennials and older haveFacebook.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, facebook is where I communicate with my
grandma and like.
See kid pictures of my littlelike and Gen Z's like ew, susan,
so you live in this world.
What social media channels arerelevant for the industrial
automation industry and whattypes of you know audiences are
you talking to on thesedifferent channels?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So obviously, like for IA, linkedin, so for us
LinkedIn is obviously ourbiggest platform.
Like that's where the majorityof our audience is, that's where
most of our interactions areand a lot of the people that
follow us there.
I only have so much demographicinfo that the platform provides
, but I think a healthy guess isprobably that it's mostly
(12:06):
integrators and a decent amountof our end users.
But then we have, you know,facebook and Instagram as well,
and it's kind of a mixedaudience on Facebook, but
Instagram is a lot of ouremployees, like there's still
integrators and other folks onthere too, but that's more of a
recruitment type tool for us andjust sort of externalizing what
(12:27):
we do, kind of thing.
And then YouTube for us is justlike really educational.
That's where we put basicallyall the videos that we make, but
a lot of them are educationalin nature.
And then I will always call itTwitter.
I cannot call it X, but we havethat and that's also a lot of
integrators and a lot of peoplewho are just sort of in the
(12:50):
automation space in general.
That I can't quite gaugeexactly what their role is in
relation to us, but you candefinitely tell from their
profiles that it's somethingautomation related or they're
trying to get into it.
Yeah yeah, we actually have afair number of college students
across everything too.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
It's interesting that you mentioned, you know, a
recruitment tool, right?
So not all social media isgoing to target the same
audiences, but it's also notgoing to be targeted with the
same side of your business.
Let's say, and recruitingreally is, recruiting is selling
your company to talent.
So recruit your internal orexternal recruiters, or however
(13:28):
HR you you know, grow your teamand attract talent needs
marketing resources as welluh-oh and she's gone.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Um, at least we're still here and it's still
recording.
Kind of to the point where yousaid that, like you use
instagram more for recruiting,is there like other pockets left
where you see benefit in justusing it for just one
application?
Um, because, like, yeah, we'renot using social media for the
same thing across the board,right, so you're doing some
(14:00):
recruiting in some spaces,you're just connecting your own
people together, doing community, versus like trying to bring in
new people or just attract evennew people to know what your
product even is.
There's just like variousapplications that are being used
or done on social media.
So, I guess, is there anythingyou can share?
(14:22):
Or is that like IP secret sauce?
Cause, like that that couldalso be secret sauce.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It's not secret sauce , it's from my brain, so it's
fine.
Um, so really it was just kindof figuring out who was on each
platform and there's still goingto be a lot of crossover.
There's days that you'lldefinitely see me post the same
thing everywhere, but I mightword it differently or it might
just be suitable for allaudiences.
But then there's also thingsthat we do keep kind of
(14:48):
exclusive to certain platforms.
Like we have weekly employeehighlights, where each week it's
a completely different randomperson in the company and those
are just on Facebook andInstagram.
You don't see those on ourLinkedIn.
We keep that exclusive so that,a you're the reason to follow
us on Instagram and, b it justfits that audience a little bit
(15:09):
better.
But we do still highlightemployees, like promotions and
things like that we put onLinkedIn.
So it's just kind of figuringout what sort of speaks to the
audience the best, and sometimesthat's all the platforms and
sometimes it's not.
What about TikTok work and thealgorithm?
(15:36):
As far as I know and I assumeit's still the same because I do
my homework like once a monthon it it wants you to have such
a regular upload schedule thatyou really almost need a person
who's specifically dedicated toshort form video, and obviously
that's a little hard when I'mnot in the office physically
Sure.
(15:57):
So even in general, it's kind ofwhat is your goal on that
platform.
So if it's TikTok is forcollege kids and that's
educational content, then reallyyou should be making all of
your videos to talk to thataudience.
So then it's even more nichethan you know, for example, what
we put on YouTube.
So it's one of those.
(16:18):
We haven't completely writtenoff TikTok but to really do it
correctly, it's just notsomething we're doing right now
because we don't want toshortchange anybody and, you
know, put out something subparor have a really inconsistent
schedule on it.
So you know, if anyone'slooking for short form content,
(16:38):
stick to our YouTube.
That's a good answer.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hi, nikki, hi again.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I'm going to stay out the conversation from now on.
Allie, if you don't mind, justtry to finish it off, because
I'm afraid that this is going todrop off again.
At least you guys.
I wasn't sure if the studioshut down or not while I wasn't
here, so before industrialautomation.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
You know how did you get to graphic design?
How did you pick that?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So my high school actually had vocational options
and graphic design andtraditional print on a big
printing press was actually oneof those options and I really
loved the graphic design and Ireally hated the printing
presses.
So when I was looking for acollege major, I was like, well,
(17:22):
I know what I don't want to do.
But yeah, graphic design issuch an easy option to find at
so many colleges anduniversities that it was pretty
easy to find a program to getinto.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
So that's what I went with.
So I've always not liked doingthe screens because, like I've
done PLC programming and thescreens and the SCADA, and then
SCADA has screens and historianand like to me there's just so
much to be taken for granted bythe engineer types when they
make these graphic interfaces.
Can someone with graphic designand just graphic, you know,
(17:59):
user interface design, the senseof like that something looks
annoying, um, or like you knowthings are out of order or just
don't flow good, like that'staken for granted and do you
think that that helps you inwhat you do now?
Uh, just even basicallyunderstand, like what's going on
, uh, in, in a lot of cases,especially because that's hugely
(18:20):
what I guess I guess it's.
Is it just a coincidence that,like your graphic designer who
ended up doing the social mediafor inductive automation, which
made ignition, which is like oneof the most famous ways to
create graphic interfaces, userinterfaces, long winded question
I think I got it though.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So I guess you could say that the graphic design
actually really helps meextensively with my job, because
obviously not only am I workingwith marketing to make our
social media graphics, but, likeyou said, there's a lot of
screens and people send usscreens, people tag us in their
posts and stuff, and it iseasier for me at a glance
initially to A understand what'sgoing on but B generally
(19:05):
speaking obviously I'm not afull expert on it but generally
speaking, understand if it lookslike a really functional
project and if it's somethingthat we want to reshare to our
other social medias and thingslike that.
Because I think, honestly, oneof the easiest ways that people
can get really good at basicgraphic design is to look up and
(19:26):
I believe it's called the ISA95 standards, but it's the
things like hierarchy,typography, color and making
sure that they're reallyaccessible and universal for
people.
Because maybe you love acertain set of colors pink and
purple, for example but ifsomebody is colorblind and they
struggle with those colors, thenyou need to make sure there's
(19:47):
enough contrast or you need tomake sure there's other aspects
of the display that are going torelay that information, or you
maybe just need to change yourcolors.
So I think that's definitelylike part of my background,
makes that pretty natural for me.
But I think that's somethingthat somebody who's newer to it
or struggling with it that's areally key starting point Like
(20:10):
even starting designingsomething in pure black and
white and shades of gray willtell you if it's a good layout,
if it's a good hierarchy, ifsomebody could at a glance
determine what they're lookingat and what needs to be done or
taken care of.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Great.
I guess some of our closingquestions are like how can
people contact you?
And like, if they want to, youknow, ask you about you know you
, or inductive automation, andor I don't know if you guys are
hiring more people in marketing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, so I'm easy enough to find on LinkedIn and
I'm very participatory on there,so that's honestly a really
good way to find me.
It's just Susan Wilson, nothingcomplicated.
I also post a lot and tag IA,so you'll probably see me pop up
in your feed if you follow IA.
And then I believe right now weare hiring for a couple of
(21:02):
positions.
I don't think we're hiringanybody in marketing right now,
but honestly, follow our careerpage and follow our LinkedIn
because our HR team is on itwhen they are posting jobs.
So there's a lot of times a jobwill go up and fill so fast you
might never know it was thereif you're not keeping track.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And when is the next ICC?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
The next.
Oh my gosh, I should know thisoff the top of my head.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
So we can, we can, we can post it afterwards and
figure it out.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Sure, I think it's September 17th to 19th.
I might be a day or two off,but it is definitely during that
week, if I am wrong.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And it's always in Sacramento, or does it move
around?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
This year it's going to be in Folsom again, the
Harris Center, same place as itwas.
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yep, cool.
Are they going to have a bandagain?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I actually don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Or is that secret?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I mean, I can tell you it's tradition at this point
for the department of funk torecord a music video, and I
cannot 100 promise because I'mnot part of that planning, but I
would say the odds are very,very good.
That's probably going to be athing again and if it's not,
they're pretty good.
If it's not a thing, then we'lljust uh link to all of their
(22:20):
previous recordings and you'lljust have to forgive me on that
one okay, well, fingers crossed,but okay thank you, susan, and
I'm sorry we had some technicaldifficulties.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
We appreciate your patience not a problem.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Thank you guys.
Bye, have a great day.
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