NAM Socializes
Column
By Brian Salgado   
Sunday, 14 January 2007
smc National Association of Manufacturers
The National Association of Manufacturers hopes to recruit young people through social networking sites.
If the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has its way, social networking Web sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube will be more than just a way for young people to keep in touch, show off pictures and videos, and express their personal flair through cyberspace.

NAM has had its own pages on these sites since September in an attempt to show high school- and college-aged students how interesting and lucrative a career in the manufacturing industry can be, according to Nathan Koble, director of Internet strategies for NAM.

“We wanted to let young people know that manufacturing is not a dead industry, and there are a lot of exciting opportunities out there if you get into manufacturing,” Koble says. “We know young people are on sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, and if they are interested in what they see, hopefully they will tell their friends and explore it further.”

Attracting Gen X and Y
According to comScore Media Metrix, MySpace’s composition of unique visitors aged 18 to 24 is 18.1 percent, and 16.7 percent for ages 25 to 34. Facebook, which initially was only accessible with a collegiate-e-mail login handle, boasts 34 percent of users in the 18-to-24 demographic.

According to the Skills Gap Report – A Survey of the American Manufacturing Workforce, conducted in 2005 by NAM’s Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success and Deloitte Consulting LLP, generations X and Y desperately need to be recruited to manufacturing. Eighty percent of respondents anticipated shortages of skilled production workers in the next three years, according to the report. And young people are the answer.

“Today’s younger generations bring a different and more challenging set of expectations to the work world,” according to the report. “Attracting members of the younger generations, while retaining the valuable knowledge and experience of older workers, will be increasingly important to manufacturers over the next five years.

“Young people bring technology savvy skills, a global and diverse orientation, and an ability to think in innovative ways that are critical to competitive advantage.”

Gaining momentum
Although NAM’s Facebook group has only 10 members, including a faculty member from Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wis., NAM’s latest recruitment strategy has been most successful on YouTube.

The organization’s page features 18 “Cool Stuff Being Made” videos, including two videos – “How Glass is Made” and “How Duct Tape is made” – that solicited 30,000 views in one weekend, according to Koble.

For a site whose largest demographic of viewers by age is 12 to 17, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, that could lead to a number of future manufacturers entering the industry. “A lot of times, social networking sites are the domain of popular culture,” Koble says. “So whenever we have success like that, we are very pleased.”
 
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