Sunday March 25, 2012PITTSFIELD -- It's a cold morning in late February, and more than 50 professionals have gathered at the Beacon Cinema to attend a workshop on how to use Twitter.
One of the early risers for the 8:30 a.m. session is Pittsfield resident Phil O'Rourke, a retired high school woodshop teacher who builds and carves horses for the Berkshire Carousel project. He refers to himself as a Twitter novice.
"I went to see if it could be useful," O'Rourke said.
Twitter, Facebook, QR Codes, LinkedIn -- these are just a few examples of newer technological tools that Berkshire County businesses are using more frequently.
From real estate to banking, manufacturing to education, and health care to freelance consulting, the use of social media and other digital devices is changing the way businesses do business in the Berkshires.
Social networking is just one more way that technology continues to alter the landscape for local businesses and schools. It started with the fax machine, the personal computer and the first cell phones. How far technology will go, no one knows.
For now, though, social media is the next frontier. It has become so popular that professionals in the county are turning out in droves to learn how it works.
On the same day the workshop on Twitter took place, the Berkshire Visitors Bureau held a four-hour marketing conference on ways for businesses to maximize their Internet usage.
The Berkshire Chamber of Commerce has held 10 to 12 workshops in the past year on how to utilize various social media techniques, according to President and CEO Michael Supranowicz.
"We run them over and over because of demand," he said. "First we did a lot of Facebook. Then we did some Twitter and LinkedIn, and then we did QR codes. People are really beginning to see the benefits of that technology."
The local emphasis on the use of newer technology in the business realm is following national trends.
The
U.S. Small Business Administration is urging business owners to utilize mobile Internet access, email management, and planning, accounting and time-tracking software in order to stay competitive."Technology can help increase business efficiency and even expand operations," according to information the SBA has posted on the Internet.
A 2010 Microsoft Corp. study on small and mid-sized businesses and their technology priorities found that 63 percent of respondents predicted their customers would spend more on information technology than in the previous year. That number was up from 25 percent in 2009.
Technology also is becoming an effective recruiting tool.
According to a poll released by North Carolina-based Workplace
Options, a leading global provider of work-life programs and employee benefits, 92 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that offering access to the latest technology makes employers more attractive than their competition.Among other age groups, the figures were 64 percent for ages 30 to 45, and 71 percent for ages 46 to 65.
Keith Girouard, director of the Berkshire Regional office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center in Pittsfield, said he sees companies responding to consumer-driven technology by adapting, leveraging and integrating social media.
"One thing that we see happening is social media technology being reframed and reissued in a business context for social marketing," Girouard said. "Before, it was something that you needed to pay attention to. Now, it's a given."
The use of social networking, particularly Facebook, has changed the way consumers view a product.
"You need to be part of that conversation," Girouard said. "If you're a restaurant, you need to know what they're saying about you. People are more likely to go to a restaurant or buy a product if someone has talked about it in a certain way."
"We get a lot of good feedback from the Internet," said Patti Simonetta, who owns Pateez Boutique on North Street, which sells women's clothing and accessories.
Larger Berkshire businesses use social media, but many also have invested in cutting-edge technologies, such as computer-assisted
robots that can help with surgeries at Berkshire Medical Center, or the $7 million laser engraving technology that Interprint Inc. installed three years ago.Interprint, which produces decor paper used in the products of several residential and commercial applications, was the first North American company in its field to adopt laser engraving.
This reliance on newer technology has changed the way companies train their workers.
Bill Mulholland, vice president of community education and workforce development at Berkshire Community College, who has headed BCC's workforce training efforts for 16 years, said the rapid changes in technology mean workers in manufacturing facilities now need to learn basic math and science skills to effectively run machinery.
Roland Morin, Interprint's co-managing director, said the majority of his company's employees need technical abilities because positions that don't involve some form of technology are becoming scarce.
"We have some of those positions, don't get me wrong," Morin said. "People don't need a college education, but they do need to learn and expand their skills. If you just want to have a job here, it won't work."
Williams College economics professor Steven C. Sheppard, who studies the local economy, said social media allows smaller groups and nonprofits "to get in on the action," while technological advances enable manufacturers to reach different markets in different ways.
In Berkshire County, especially in the plastics industry, production has changed from the mass manufacturing of a single item -- say, power transformers -- to a focus on producing a specific product for a specialized or "niche" market.
"I think what's interesting is that a number of these bits and pieces of technology have been around for a decade or more," Sheppard said. "What seems to be happening is that things are coming together to make them easier for businesses to use, and these bases of uses make it more economic."
Sheppard said an acquaintance recently processed the payments from an auction of items sold during a fundraiser for a local history museum directly on his mobile phone.
"He had some attachments on his smartphone, so he was able to scan credit cards during the auction," Sheppard said. "At the end, they raised $5,000 and he could say: ‘Here's the exact amount.' "
Sheppard said the fundraiser organizers were "blown away."
To reach Tony Dobrowolski:
TDobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com
(413) 496-6224.
On Twitter: @tonydobrow
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Survival of fittest for companies in connected world - Berkshire Eagle Online #SoulcialMe
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